Document production

Document templates

A user can select a document template in the context of an application, worksheet or other record and use it to produce a document that is particularised to that record. For example, a letter can be addressed to a named recipient, citing details of their particular application.

Each ASSURE product area has its own document templates. Templates are collected together in predefined document groups. For convenience, your authority may find it helpful to define sub-categories of these document groups. The templates within each document group are created by ASSURE system administrators.

Only system administrators, and authority users with the correct security key, can maintain templates.

Document editors

ASSURE supports two ways of editing documents:

• NEC Communications Suite

  The NEC Communications Suite (NCS) enables documents to be edited entirely online. NCS includes a customised version of the ONLYOFFICE Document Editor. The Document Editor provides similar formatting capabilities to MS Word.

• Microsoft Word

  Your authority may prefer to use MS Word for some or all of its documents. In this case way you edit a document depends on whether or not you have the NEC DM Enterprise Desktop Integration (EDI) application installed on your computer. EDI makes things easier for you by automatically opening MS Word and checking the document back into the NEC Document Management repository when you are done. However, EDI is not mandatory; you can download, edit, and check in documents manually if you want to.

Your authority can choose to use either or both methods.

Document properties

Each document has the following main properties, some of which are optional. Some properties are derived from the template, and may or may not be overridden when the document is requested.

Document properties

Document property	Description
Sub-categories	Within a document group, a document can be assigned to one or more sub-categories of that group.
Target response date	Allows the document to include a date, calculated from the day it is produced, by which the recipient is expected is expected to respond. For Building Control, Land Charges and Planning templates, this may exclude non-working days.
Document type	The document type by which the document will be indexed in the NEC Document Management repository.
Decision status	Indicates, for Planning application decision notices only, whether the decision is final or otherwise. This property, which ASSURE determines automatically, affects which merge fields are populated in the document.
Recipient type	Identifies which category of person, associated with the data presented in the document, is to be its recipient. The list of possible recipient types depends on the document group. For some Building Control, Land Charges and Planning templates, the recipient type cannot be changed.
Store produced document	By default, each document is stored in the NEC Document Management repository after production. Exceptionally, a document can be omitted from the repository if a saved copy is not required.
Allow editing of produced document	The document is produced as usual but then held in the document queue with a status of Awaiting Edit so that the requesting user can edit it. This applies only to documents that are stored in the NEC Document Management repository.
Authorise before sending	The document is produced as usual but then held in the document queue with a status of Awaiting Authorisation until it has been previewed, possibly edited, and then either approved or rejected, by any one of up to 50 authorising users identified in the document's template.
Allow preview	The document is produced as usual but is then held in the document queue with a status of Awaiting Preview until it has been previewed (as a PDF).
Delay send	For emailed documents only, the document is produced as usual but is then held in the document queue with a status of Awaiting Send until a predefined delay has expired.
Output method	A document may be emailed, printed, or filed (that is, saved as a PDF). A document may have a default output method, although this can be overruled by the requesting user.
Use PMoWC	The document's recipients may have already indicated their preferred method of written contact (PMoWC): either by email or by post. Optionally, the PMoWC can be used to influence the output method: If a recipient's PMoWC is by email, the document is emailed provided that their email address is known. (If a recipient's email address is unknown, the document cannot be sent.) If a recipient's PMoWC is by post, the document is either printed or filed, depending on whether a printer or a location is specified as the output method. If no recipients are identified, or the PMoWC is either not used or is unspecified for a particular recipient, the output method prevails.
Amalgamate letters into single file	Allows multiple documents to be produced and then amalgamated into a single file. This feature is available only for an NCS template.
Email content	Defines the content and attachments of emails that are used to send emailed documents.
Prioritise	The document is produced at the highest priority.

Document queue

Requested documents are added to the document queue for processing. The queue is held centrally, and documents are processed "in the background" while users work on other tasks.

Documents are produced in the following priority order:

• Documents that have been prioritised by a system administrator.

• Documents that require authorisation and/or may be edited.

• Documents produced from an application summary template.

• Documents to be printed.

• Documents to be emailed.

• Documents to be filed.

• Uneditable documents produced in a single request if the number of documents exceeds the value of the MaxLettersBeforeBecomingABatch system configuration parameter.

• All other documents.

Within these priorities, documents are processed in the order in which they are added to the queue; that is: first come, first served.

Document status

As each document is processed, its status progresses from Requesting to Completed (if successful).

The following table lists the various document statuses.

Document statuses

Status	Meaning
Requesting	The document is being added to the queue.
Requested	The document is in the queue.
Merging Document	The document is being produced.
Awaiting Preview	The document has been produced and is now waiting to be previewed.
Preview Approved	The document has been previewed.
Awaiting Edit	The document has been produced and is now waiting to be edited.
Awaiting Auto Edit	The document has been produced and automatically opened for editing in either the online Document Editor or Microsoft Word.
Checked Out	The document has been checked out of the NEC Document Management repository and downloaded for editing.
Edited	The document has been checked back in to the NEC Document Management repository after editing.
Edit Complete	No further editing is required; the processing of the document can continue.
Awaiting Authorisation	The document has been produced and is now waiting to be authorised.
Authorisation Approved	The document has been approved as authorised.
Authorisation Rejected	The document has been rejected as unauthorised.
Ready For Output	The document is ready to be printed, emailed or filed.
Awaiting Release	The document is ready to be emailed or printed, but is waiting for a user to manually release it.
Awaiting Send	The document is ready to be emailed, but has been purposely delayed.
Print	The document has been sent to a central printer.
Print Local	The document has been produced and is now held in the document queue while waiting for a user to release it to a local printer.
Print Local Auto	The document has been produced and is now held by the NEC DM Enterprise Desktop Integration (EDI) application while waiting for a user to release it to a local printer.
Emailing	The document has been sent to the mail server.
Saving To File	The document is being filed; that is, saved as a PDF.
Checking	The document has been printed, emailed or filed, and the application is being updated accordingly.
Completed	The document has been printed, emailed or filed.
Invalid Output Option	Something has gone wrong during the final stages of printing, emailing or filing.
Error (DP)	A persistent or intractable error is preventing the document being produced or distributed.
Removing	As requested, the document is being removed from the queue.
Removed	The document has been removed from the queue.

Notification pop-ups and emails

ASSURE notifies the requesting user whenever one or more their documents acquires a status of:

• Awaiting Preview

• Completed

• Rejected

• Error (DP)

If the user is currently logged in, ASSURE notifies them by displaying a notification pop-up. Each user's recent document-related notifications are also listed on the Notifications screen.

In addition, ASSURE notifies the authorising users (up to 50 may be specified) whenever a document acquires a status of:

• Awaiting Authorisation

In this case ASSURE not only displays a notification pop-up to the authorising users (if logged in) but also sends each of them a notification email. The subject of the email typically includes the Application Number (or other relevant identifier) and the document type.