Periodic Document Review tasks are on a floating schedule, not a fixed schedule. The system determines when the next document review is needed based on the Last Reviewed Date for the document.
A scheduler runs periodically in the background of the system to check for any documents that require a periodic review based on:
the periodic review policy defined for the document type and
the "Last Reviewed Date" for the specific document
If the system identifies a document that requires a periodic review task, then a task will be created at this time. The next periodic review task is not created when the previous periodic review task is signed off. In the extreme case, a document that is revised often may never reach Periodic Document Review.
📝 How are Periodic Document Review policies Defined?
The Periodic Document Review policies are defined at the Document Type level. All documents of a specific type follow the same policy. The policies can be configured by a Document Control Module Administrator:
Click the Configure Document Control link in the navigation bar
Click the Configure Document Types
Review the settings in the Require Review Every # Months column
Click the Edit button for a Document Type to make change. Any changes made will only apply for future reviews.
Changing/adding a periodic review policy to a document:
As soon as you activate a Periodic Review policy for a Document Type, the system will scan documents of that type to determine if a Periodic Document Review task is required per the new schedule.
Example: if you change a two-year review to an annual review for a document type, the system will assess the Last Reviewed Date of every document of that type and create a Periodic Document Review task for any document where the Last Reviewed Date is more than a year ago.
So, on one hand, it's very easy to add/change a policy and immediately start completing reviews. However, it can also create a backlog of tasks. If you define a policy that hasn't really been followed until now, you may suddenly have hundreds of documents with Periodic Document Review tasks open (and quickly overdue). Prior to changing a periodic review policy it would be ideal to assess the potential impact. To alleviate the amount of initial work you could change one document type at a time (if you are adding/updating the policy for multiple document types).
📅 How is the “Last Reviewed Date” field defined for a document?
This field is set at the following times:
When importing a document for the first time, you can set the initial value for the Last Reviewed Date as part of the import process
When creating or revising a document through the Change Request process, the Last Reviewed Date for the document is set to the date that the Change Request successfully passes Formal Review
When someone signs off a Periodic Document Review task for a document, they manually set the value for the Last Reviewed Date