Revising a document already in force

Open: Documents > Document Control. Typical leads: Quality Manager and Document Controller; engineers and department managers can perform permitted document work. Purpose: keep an identifiable, approved revision in force and retain its history.

Prepare and approve a revision

1. Choose Create revision. Enter a unique revision label, up to eight characters using letters, digits, dots, or dashes and beginning with a letter or digit. Labels are normalized to uppercase.
2. For a later revision, enter the required change summary. Explain what changed in language an approver can assess.
3. Attach the revision file using Attach file, up to 25 MB. Confirm its filename and hash after upload.
4. If the revision supports in-app text authoring, open Edit, revise the Markdown text, inspect the preview, and save. Use Markdown headings, lists, and tables for structure. The editor is a document-content editor, not a replacement for Word's layout tools.
5. Add the required approvers by email and, optionally, the role or capacity in which they approve. At least one approver is required, and it cannot be you: as the form says, an author cannot approve their own revision, and the signature is refused if they try. The role is free text that appears on the signature exactly as typed, so agree the wording once.
6. Choose Send for review. The ordinary UI requires both a file and at least one approver.
7. Each named approver reviews the exact file and change summary, then signs their own line with password verification and an approval or rejection meaning.
8. When all required approvals are positive, choose Mark approved. Approval and effectivity are separate steps.
9. An authorized quality manager or administrator chooses Make effective, enters the effective date, chooses Retraining required — everyone re-reads this revision or No retraining required — prior reading stays current, and submits Set effective date. A date of today or earlier makes the revision effective at once. A later date schedules it (chapter 9, Schedule an effective date).

Confirm that the intended revision is Effective and that the former effective revision is Superseded with a named successor. The previous effective file remains the controlled version while a successor is being drafted or reviewed, and while an approved revision waits for its scheduled date.

Schedule an effective date

An approved revision can wait for a later effective date, so that the people who use it are trained before it takes effect. This period is the training window (chapter 11).

1. On the approved revision, choose Make effective and enter a date after today. "Today" is your organization's own calendar date, in its time zone.
2. Choose the training-impact decision as usual and submit Set effective date. The revision stays Approved, and the state reads Approved, effective {date}. The scheduling and the decision are recorded on the record chain.
3. On the date, a daily run (11:05 UTC) makes the revision effective, as system:effectivity, with the decision you recorded. The former revision stays in force on the document until that run. Training status already treats the new revision as in force from the start of the date on the organization's calendar, so between local midnight and the run a person not trained on it can read overdue while the document still shows the former revision.

The release re-checks the approvals and the training checks. If one fails, the revision is not released and stays Approved. Up to and including the date, the state still reads Approved, effective {date}, and the schedule control warns Will not be released on {date} unless this is resolved: … when the release would be refused. From the day after the date, the state reads Not released on {date} and the control gives the reason. Training status never treats a revision that was not released as in force: it reads as still upcoming. To change the date or the decision, open the state control and choose Cancel schedule; the cancellation is recorded, and you can then make the revision effective again. A scheduled revision with no training-impact decision is released as retraining required, and the chain entry says that the decision was the release default.

When the document is a training item (chapter 11), the date field proposes the last approval date plus 14 days, or today when that date has already passed; for any other document no date is proposed. For an item under the full rules, the no-retraining choice is not offered: the form reads Every person trained on this document retrains to the new revision. For an item with a test, the revision cannot take effect, at once or on its date, until someone confirms the test still fits it; the form reads Confirm the test still fits this revision before it takes effect. with an Open the test link to the item page.

Revision states

State	Meaning and next work
Draft	Prepare content, file, change summary, and approvers
In review	Named approvers review and sign; return to draft where permitted
Approved	Required positive approvals exist; authorized user makes effective, now or on a scheduled date (Approved, effective {date})
Effective	Revision currently in force
Superseded	Replaced by the identified successor
Obsolete	Withdrawn without a replacement through the permitted withdrawal action

Record a periodic review

When review is due and no open revision takes priority, an authorized reviewer or the document's owner may see Record periodic review.

1. Open the effective document and compare it with the actual process, current references, and known changes.
2. Choose Still current — no change needed or Needs revision — start the next revision.
3. Write what you checked and found, within the 280-character note limit, and submit.
4. Confirm the review event and updated review due date. Both outcomes restart the review clock. The needs-revision outcome creates the next draft when a next label can be derived.

A periodic review can therefore provide evidence without forcing a no-change revision. If there is an unfinished revision, finish its workflow first. If the app cannot derive your next revision label, create and name the revision manually.

Example: WI-2208 is due for its annual review. The supervisor opens the effective file, walks the operation with it, and records Still current — no change needed with the note "Walked op 020 on job 4581 on 2026-09-14 with the instruction in hand; steps, gages and limits match." That note is the review evidence; the clock restarts without a pointless Rev F.

Reading and training impact

During effectivity, the app shows the affected reading population when requirements exist. Choose Retraining required to make assigned people read the new revision, or No retraining required with a rationale. The latter preserves eligible prior current reading; it does not make an already overdue person trained. Review the Training matrix after release. A document under the full training rules (chapter 11) always retrains: its form offers no no-retraining choice.

On an effective document assigned to you, I've read Rev … records your own reading. Read the file before selecting it. Approval of a document and completion of reading are separate records.

In the user guide

This article is part of chapter 9, "Document Control", of the NormaQMS User Guide (NORMA-UG-001), which is under Help > User guide. Chapter numbers in the text refer to that guide. The same chapter also covers: Create a document identity; File and approval controls; Temporary deviations; Evidence to check.