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1.
6 tips to speed up document review and approval:
- 1.1. 1- Establish a review schedule to ensure that all documents are reviewed and approved on time.
- 1.2. 2- Organize a meeting to discuss the documents and establish a deadline for their review and approval.
- 1.3. 3- Use collaboration tools to share and discuss documents remotely.
- 1.4. 4- Establish clear lines of communication to ensure that everyone involved is aware of progress.
- 1.5. 5- Control changes made to documents to facilitate review.
- 1.6. 6- Use automation tools to speed up the review and approval process.
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2.
Analysis of the main functions of document review and approval software
- 2.1. The ability to make annotations and comments.
- 2.2. The possibility of defining and modifying the document review and approval process.
- 2.3. The ease of sharing and reviewing documents among multiple users
- 2.4. Tools to make comparisons between previous and current versions
- 2.5. The possibility of defining different levels of access for users and integration with other document processing platforms.
- 3. Conclusion
Today it is no longer disputed that technology is central to maintaining updated project documentation and information.
Among the great tools that exist to facilitate this task, the document review and approval processes in a company stand out, here we share some information.
6 tips to speed up document review and approval:
Every new project comes with different information, opinions, and personal characteristics, all of which lead to major workplace problems, preventing the work and tasks from being carried out satisfactorily.
To reduce this inconvenience and speed up the document review and approval processes in a company, it is necessary to consider six basic tips:
1- Establish a review schedule to ensure that all documents are reviewed and approved on time.
To facilitate the document review and approval process in a company, the following questions should be asked: What is the project or document to be prepared about? and How long can it take? in order to establish deadlines for the review.
In this way, you will have the opportunity to modify or transform the document, according to the criteria established for its approval.
2- Organize a meeting to discuss the documents and establish a deadline for their review and approval.
When a group project is presented, it is essential to take the time to establish deadlines, as when several people are involved in preparing one or several documents, you can experience communication problems among the team members or delays in the presentation of the documents.
In order to obtain a harmonious and fluid workflow, it is necessary to organize a meeting with all team members, explaining in detail what the project is about and what is expected from it. In addition, guidelines and regulations should be established for the elaboration of the project, as well as its review and final delivery date.
3- Use collaboration tools to share and discuss documents remotely.
Every day there are more and more digital tools available in the technological market, designed to share documents and facilitate interaction with the authors, without the need for them to be physically present in an office.
This will allow knowing the opinion that other team members have about the document, favoring the review and approval process.
4- Establish clear lines of communication to ensure that everyone involved is aware of progress.
Define the hierarchy or task to be carried out by each person during their work. The appropriate communication channel and approval role.
5- Control changes made to documents to facilitate review.
During the process of reviewing and approving documents in a company, it is important to focus on the details, since, if major changes are made, the document may lose meaning and be completely altered.
To avoid this problem, it is essential that the team is clear from the beginning about the main objectives of the document.
6- Use automation tools to speed up the review and approval process.
Currently, there are tools that streamline the document review and approval processes, making them more efficient and reducing the spread of errors. It is therefore interesting to have stipulated stages, with defined roles and deadlines. In addition, it is necessary to be able to monitor the process, knowing at all times the status of the process and being able to generate alerts and reminders to avoid and communicate possible delays. One of these tools is qflow bpm.
Analysis of the main functions of document review and approval software
Document approval software allows to management of different tasks digitally streamlining the joint approval of the parties involved, it is a formal and automated process.
The main aspects that a document review and approval software must have are:
The ability to make annotations and comments.
The annotations or comments within the document review and approval tool allow for knowing the opinion and criteria that the parties have about the writing, images, media, or videos that are being elaborated. It is also possible to visualize corrections more quickly.
The possibility of defining and modifying the document review and approval process.
Although there is a set of common tasks that a document approval process must follow, such as Creation and Review, it is valuable to be able to add others, as well as metadata to identify the process, such as the area to which it belongs or the type of document being created.
In addition, being able to define stages, people in charge, and time control in each of them will allow better management of the processes.
Finally, being able to publish the approved document in the organization’s document repository and communicate it to stakeholders is of utmost importance.
The ease of sharing and reviewing documents among multiple users
Many digital projects have an external party for review, therefore, one of the main functions that any software designed to review and approve documents must have is to be able to share files among one or more contacts.
Tools to make comparisons between previous and current versions
During the various document revisions or submissions, the document may experience problems with saving or deletion before approval, completely derailing the project and its deadlines.
This is why, within the software’s functions, the backup of each of the versions, both old and new, must be included.
The possibility of defining different levels of access for users and integration with other document processing platforms.
One of the main functions of the document review and approval software is to be able to delimit the access levels of the program’s users, thus avoiding mishaps with the project and delivery of approved documents.
On the other hand, the association of several platforms for document review facilitates the work of review and final delivery.
Conclusion
The document review and approval process are key to guarantee dynamic and efficient management since it will allow meeting the established schedules for the research, elaboration, checking, and final delivery of one or several projects, considerably reducing errors.
In addition, it will help to share the same document with several users, establishing a series of points of view about it. If you have any doubts on the subject, I invite you to contact us, as we will gladly put at your disposal more than 20 years of experience in the development of tools that allow the automation of document review and approval.