A robust document control process is the foundation of any well-run and compliant business procedure. It guarantees essential documents are created, audited, approved, disseminated, and preserved in good condition from first draft to last disposition. In this step-by-step guide, we’ll take you through the journey to building a streamlined document control process that increases productivity, minimizes mistakes, and keeps your process on track—whether you’re working with internal records, regulatory filings, or customer deliverables.
What is the Document Control Process?
The document control process is the formal path that documents travel through your company based on clearly defined rules and regulations. It maintains each document one, approved master copy and a reproducible history to ensure consistency, accuracy, and accountability.
That is, a document control procedure defines the precise steps involved in handling documents from preparation to disposal. This includes identification of types of documents utilized, proper identification assignment, tracking of changes to versions, and control of controlled and uncontrolled copies.
The procedure also includes document review, approval routines, secure storage, access, and long-term retention policies. It also includes change control procedures, document security practices, and submission and approval guidelines. All these phases collect to provide a sound, compliant, and efficient document handling system.
The document control process is the formal path that documents travel through your company
Benefits of an Efficient Document Control Process
Having an efficient document control system is advantageous to both small and big businesses.
- Simplified and quicker documents: An efficient document control system ensures that employees can quickly find and obtain the documents they need, thereby saving time and enhancing responsiveness within teams.
- Less error and more accuracy: Automating the document control process enables organizations to bypass human mistakes resulting from handling outdated or unapproved documents, which are most commonly responsible for compliance failure.
- Less operational costs: Automation of a portion of the document control system saves organizations labor dollars, printing dollars, and storage dollars—ultimately saving them money.
- More operations and saved time: Organized workflows save time spent searching through files or redoing things due to outdated content. An effective document control process guarantees that operations go efficiently.
- Greater protection of data and access: The system guarantees that only approved individuals can open or modify confidential files, keeping company secrets safe and less likely to leak or be unauthorizedly edited.
- Improved compliance and audit readiness: An effective document control system enables organizations to achieve compliance and clear audits by version control, valid approvals, and traceability.
- Improved quality assurance and client satisfaction: With compliant documents, teams produce the right work consistently, which improves quality and inspires clients’ trust. Document control process ensures that there is a base of reliability and professionalism in place.
=> Explore more: What Is Automated Document Processing? Benefits and Use Cases
Having an efficient document control system is advantageous to both small and large businesses
7 Essential Steps to Implement a Document Control System
To ensure your document control process is both effective and compliant, consider performing the following key steps:
Document Creation
Creation of a new document is a key component of the document control process, especially during the early part of a product’s life cycle. This is the point where general specifications, designs, or procedures are first documented, and it’s thus imperative to establish clear ownership for each document. It’s important to indicate whose duty it is to author the content and employ consistent naming conventions that show the structure, title, and technical details of the document.
But this phase can be highly error-prone. Drafts tend to get copied around systems and from various authors, which makes it more likely to miss out on essential feedback, duplicate effort, or have no record of the latest version of the document. Without a document control system, essential input can become overwritten or lost, leading to miscommunication and even prolonged problems with product quality or compliance. That is why clean structure, traceability, and version control are important from the outset.
Creation of a new document is a key component of the document control process
Review and Approval Process
A good document control system must have a clear cut as to which documents must be reviewed formally and by whom, or by the department tasked with this review. It must be outlined how the process for documenting feedback is performed, approval obtained, and signatures obtained, electronic or paper, depending on your organization’s quality assurance procedure.
Verification that all documents are accurate and compliant is a heavy responsibility at this point in the process. To facilitate a traceable, process-based review cycle, the document control system will need to provide some basic functionality:
- Approval workflows that bind authority to pre-defined users or roles authenticated by the company
- Prescriptive workflows that direct documents into the correct approval paths in a reproducible, systematic order
- Automated email reminders and notifications encourage reviewers and approvers to accelerate reviews
- Co-authoring publishing support, where multiple authors have a document, but it requires final approval before publication
Version Control and Revision
Once a document has cleared initial review and approval, the process of document control needs to accommodate how changes in the future are addressed. This involves outlining the individual who should request, review, approve, and document changes. Once a new one is available, the old one should be labeled as obsolete or stored away so that no one works off out-of-date information.
Files need to be reviewed periodically to incorporate new data, processes, or regulatory changes. There is a clear document control procedure that dictates the request and implementation of such changes. It stores relevant metadata like revision levels, publication dates, file owners, and the next review due date. Similar to the initial approval process, any suggested changes must undergo a similar workflow before becoming active. Besides, the process would require labelling and identification of documents on the basis of their revision status so that the document can be traced entirely throughout its life cycle.
The process of document control needs to accommodate how changes in the future are addressed
Document Replacement
If a document has to be renewed or updated, it might have to be replaced entirely instead of only being revised. The efficient document control process should be capable of recognizing the individual responsible for replacing or updating internal and external documents. This is done by identifying the document owner, assigning to update, and taking care to review and approve the latest version prior to release.
As important is the shelving or disposal of the out-of-date documents. The document management system must have obvious procedures for decommissioning out-of-date documents from active usage in order to preclude ambiguity or nonconformity. By passing on the responsibility and operating a systemised substitute and destruction procedure, organisations are capable of keeping their record systems accurate, consistent, and fully traceable.
Publishing and Distribution
Once a document has been finalized and accepted, the document control procedures outline how and to whom it must be released. These procedures specify whether the document should be released internally within the organization or externally to stakeholders. They also outline where the document must be stored, how it should be made available, and what security levels or permissions are required.
The document control procedures outline how and to whom it must be released
Managing External Documents
External documents brought into the document control system pass through a specified integration process. This will include how the documents become qualified, marked, checked, and updated, and who gets to use them. These processes ensure that external files are treated as much as internal files in terms of control and conformity.
Archiving and Obsoleting
Another critical aspect of the document control process includes obsoleting documents or taking them out of circulation. A document is obsolete when it is replaced by a new document or simply passes a date which has been set in advance. Marking and identifying such documents avoids the use of outdated information in critical processes.
In regulated settings, some documents must be kept for eternity so that there will be a record of the history of product development, for sharing knowledge, and to meet audit requirements. Others must be kept for so many years, and sometimes regulatory statutes spell out exactly how many years that is.
If you’re looking to modernize your document management system, AI-powered document automation brings intelligence to traditional document control processes.
Another critical aspect of the document control process includes obsoleting documents
A proper document control process must be in place to sustain accuracy, compliance, and effectiveness in any company. From the point of initial creation and approval to dispatch, change, and disposal, every step must be properly defined and performed on a regular basis. By adopting a good system backed by thorough procedures, companies can minimize error, sail through audits with ease, and enhance coordination through more effective information control.
If you want to optimize your organization’s document handling through automation, security, and compliance as the cornerstones, DIGI-TEXX is the reliable partner who can assist you in getting it right. With extensive hands-on experience in digital document transformation and smart document processing, DIGI-TEXX provides scalable solutions specific to the requirements of your industry—enabling you to optimize your process without compromising complete control and traceability of your documents.
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