Flow chart displaying the that the Disposition Package gets sent to the Dept. Record Coordinator, then the Dept. Record Authority, then the RM Compliance Analyst, then the RM Director. Then the last step is the Purge Approved Documents.

Steps for Records Authority

Same steps as Records Coordinator. If your office does not have a Records Coordinator, then the initial email will be sent to the Records Authority. The role of the Records Authority is to review and approve disposition and, if needed, work with Records Management Services in identifying any records which should be placed on hold.

Overview:

  1. Receive email (with link to DocFinity) inviting RA to review records eligible for disposition
  2. Once logged into DocFinity, select your role and job queue (screen shots below with more detailed instructions)
  3. Select a specific job under Jobs: RM Review: Record Authority
    1. Review records
      1. If errors in records category, adjust records (visit Reclassifying records). Errors that could be fixed by re-indexing include:
        1. Incorrect Record Type
        2. Incorrect Record Category
        3. Incorrect Record Retention Trigger Date (RRTD)
      2. If a hold needs to be placed on any records, contact Records Management Services at recmgt@uw.edu
      3. If any record is re-indexed, needs to be delayed, or needs to be put on hold, you must select the Request Postponement option. This will interrupt the disposition process.
    2. Approve disposition if no records require re-indexing, delays or holds.

Step by Step Guide to the Disposition Process for the Records Authority

Step 1. You will receive an email, click the link and log into DocFinity with your netID and password.

Step 2. Log into DocFinity and select your job queue: RM Review: Record Authority and push the button “get job queue”. Note: your job queue/choices may look different (shorter)

Step 3. Select job queue by clicking on Record Authority and then click Get Job Queue.

Zoomed in Job Views panel DocFinity displaying jobs available for the Record Authority and the Record Coordinator

All the remaining steps are the same as detailed in the Records Coordinator role:

Step 4. Once in your job queue, each packet will be displayed from oldest pending job to newest and by record series (all the records for a record series will be batched together). Each row is considered a different job. Select a job and double click on the “retention policy name” section of the job:

Zoomed in Job Queue panel DocFinity displaying jobs that need to be checked out by the user. The screenshot features 5 Jobs with the first row highlighted

Step 5. A new pane opens up with three “tasks”

DocFinity view of the Jobs - Tasks screen in DocFinity with the three Tasks needing to be completed circled in red on the left side of the screen

Step 6. By double-clicking on the first task titled Review Disposition Instructions and Notes a new panel will appear:

Zoomed pop-up panel called Review Disposition Instructions and Notes in the top half of the image. This section is circled in red. The bottom half of the image displays the Jobs - Tasks screen from image 5, with the first task titled Review Disposition Instructions and Notes highlighted in blue and circled in red

Step 7. The new panel will display hyperlinks to these instructions. Additionally, it will display any notes or details of what previous department decisions were for this batch. For the Records Authority, you will see the decision made by the Records Coordinator and any notes they left for your reference. This first task is simply a way to locate these detailed instructions and to provide an overview.

Step 8. You can leave that pane open, diminish it by selecting the “-“ in the upper right hand corner or closing out of the pane entirely by selecting the ‘x’ in the upper right hand corner

Zoomed in on the top right hand side of the toolbar where the minimize, expand, popup and exit buttons are circled in red

Step 9. The following two tasks have an asterisk * next to a Task Description item, meaning that it must be double clicked prior to moving to the next task. The second task is to review the records within the record series. After clicking on *Review Documents via Search Result (by Disposition Queue ID), a Results tab will open below, showing the various records in that records series which are eligible for disposition.

The top half of the image is the DocFinity view of the Jobs - Tasks screen, with the three Tasks. The second task titled Review Documents via Search Result (by Disposition Queue ID) has a checkmark next to it. The bottom half of the image is the Results panel with one example document listed.

Step 10. There may be many pages of Results. You can page through and review or increase the pane for ease.

Zoomed in Results panel with the button toolbar circled in black of the page counter and number of items per page dropdown

Step 11. If you find it’s overwhelming to review the Results in the DocFinity panel, you can Export Results to Spreadsheet. DocFinity will prepare a .csv file that will have the metadata across all the records under this Results tab. Please note, this is simply exporting the metadata, not the actual records. Some users may find it useful and more efficient to review all the metadata in one .csv file rather than panning and paging through the Results panel. If you do not wish to export the results to a spreadsheet, you can skip down to Step 15.

Zoomed in Results panel with the top toolbar button titled Export Results to Spreadsheet circled in black

Step 12. Once clicking the Export Results to Spreadsheet button, a popup will appear at the top of your browser

Zoomed in popup screen displaying that These results have been sent to the server for processing; when it is finished, you will receive a user message, listed in the My Desktop panel.

Step 13. You will then receive an automated email where you can download your export results. Alternatively, you can find the spreadsheet in your ‘My Desktop’ panel

Zoomed in drop down menu from Panels button in the very top of the DocFinity webpage. The drop down option titled MY DESKTOP is circled in red

Step 14. From the Export Queue, you can download the .csv file and view the metadata of records eligible for disposition in this .csv file.

My Desktop Panel in DocFinity displaying the view from the Export Queue tab. Export Queue is circled in black and the column titled File(s) to download is circled in black

Step 15. Back in the Results panel on DocFinity, you can also double-click on individual records in the Results panel to review specific items.

Results panel with the one document highlighted and circled in black

Step 16. Once clicking on the record from the Results panel, a new Document Viewer panel will open at the top of the screen. You can use the magnifying glass slider below the image to zoom in or zoom out. When done, you can close the pane by selecting the x at the top right corner of the pane.

Document Viewer panel displaying the contents of a PDF document. The slider with the zoom out and zoom in buttons, at the bottom of the panel, is circled in black

Step 17. If the file size is above 30MB, DocFinity will be unable to display the record in the Document Viewer section. Additionally, certain file formats may not be supported by the viewer. To view the file under these circumstances, select the individual document you wish to view by clicking the checkbox in the Results panel, and then clicking on the Download button in the toolbar above. Once pressing the Download button, follow the instructions from Step 13 and Step 14 to locate your My Desktop Panel and to find your downloaded records in the Export Queue.

Results panel with the Download button in the toolbar circled in black

Step 18. Once your review is complete and if no changes need to be made to any of the documents in the results tab, you can approve the job. Select the third task by double-clicking on the *Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request under the Tasks menu

The Jobs - Tasks panel open with the third task titled Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request highlighted

Step 19. A dialogue box will appear once you click on that task, and you will have three choices.

Zoomed in popup screen from the Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request button. The drop down menu in the popup displays the three options users have to choose either Approve Disposition (of all records), Request Postponement (of some or all records), and Request Legal Hold (of some or all records)

Step 20. For approval, select Approve Disposition (of all records). If you have any notes to add, type them in the notes field. Your approval and any notes can be reviewed by Records Management and we will contact you if we have any questions or need to follow up.

Step 21. If you need to delay, or you only wish to approve some but not all of the records in the batch, you must select Request Postponement (of some or all records). Subsequently, contact Records Management for assistance. This will interrupt the disposition process. The disposition process must be interrupted if any changes are made or need to be made. See more details in the Reclassifying records or changing end dates or the Placing a Record on Legal Hold instructions below

Step 22. If moving forward with approving the disposition of all records in the batch, make select Approve Disposition (of all records), make a note below, and select “Save” at the bottom of the dialogue box.

Zoomed in popup screen from the Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request button. The drop down menu selection is Approve Disposition (of all records). The open text field below it has Approved for disposition typed in it

Step 23. The last step is to select “Complete Job” at the top of the Tasks pane. Then the task will move to the next role in the disposition process.

Zoomed in Jobs - Task panel with the button titled Complete Job with a green checkmark icon next to it, circled in black

Step 24. Looking at your Job Queue, you can see the jobs decreased by one which means you have successfully completed the disposition for one of your jobs. Continue this process until your jobs queue is at zero.

In this example, you can view that there are no more jobs for the Records Authority and that the job was successfully completed.

Job Views displaying 0 jobs next to the Records Coordinator title and the Job Queue panel with No jobs available circled in black

Reclassifying records or changing end date

Sometimes you will identify a record(s) which is placed in the incorrect records series category or the end date (when to begin counting retention) is incorrect. If you find you only need to update a few records, follow the instructions below. If you require a bulk-update to all records in the batch, contact Records Management at recmgt@uw.edu for assistance. To update the fields, follow these steps

  1. Starting from the "Review Documents via Search Result" job task
  2. Click on the row of the document from the results panel that needs to be updated.
    1. Next, either click on the "Re-Index" button in the toolbar or use the context menu to click on Re-Index.
    2. This will bring up the Index panel on the right hand side of the canvas

DocFinity with Search panel, Job Views, Jobs - Tasks, Results, and Index Panels all displayed. The Results panel has the toolbar button Re-Index circled in red, the subsequent popup window option with Re-Index circled and arrows from both circles leading to the Index-Document panel

  1. From the Re-Index panel, update the "Record Retention Trigger Date" field or the "Record Type" field as appropriate.
    1. Once you are done with edits, click "Save" button on the menu bar of the Index panel to save your changes.

DocFinity with Search panel, Job Views, Jobs - Tasks, Results, and Index Panels all displayed. The Index Panel has the Record Retention Trigger Date space circled in red and the Save button in the Index Panel toolbar both also circled in red

  1. Since at least one document in the disposition package has been modified, request that RM Office postpones the documents in this package so that DocFinity can recalculate the appropriate retention the next time it runs.
  2. Click on the "Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement" job task

The Jobs - Tasks panel open with the third task titled Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request highlighted

  1. This will pop up a dialog where you can leave comments for RM Office of the changes made
    1. You must select Request Postponement (of some or all records) from the dropdown.
    2. Write some comments of the changes made.
    3. Click Save.

Popup from the Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request button. The Request Postponement (of some or all records) option selected and the text field below containing Trigger date was changed to 01/02/2024 for some records typed in by a user

  1. At this point both required tasks are marked as complete. The last thing to do is to click on "Complete Job" to send the job to the RM Office. Records Management will delay the disposition packet for one week so the system will update and then you will receive a new, updated packet the next week to review and approve.

Zoomed in Jobs - Task panel with the button titled Complete Job with a green checkmark icon next to it, circled in black

Placing a Record on Hold

Sometimes a record will need to be placed on hold. If so, contact Records Management Services and they will create the hold and assist you on placing the records into the hold. If this need is identified during the disposition process, when completing the third task, you must select “Request Legal Hold (of some or all records)” and add information pertaining to this need in the notes field. Records Management will work with you to ensure these records are removed from the disposition process.

Zoomed in popup screen from the Approve Disposition or Submit RM Office Postponement or Legal Hold Request button. The drop down menu in the popup displays the three options users have to choose either Approve Disposition (of all records), Request Postponement (of some or all records), and Request Legal Hold (of some or all records). The Request Legal Hold (of some or all records) option is circled in black

To place a record on legal hold is a two-step process:

  1. A hold must be created by Records Management
  2. Records can be placed into the identified hold once it has been created.

If the hold has been created, a Records Authority or Coordinator may add records to the hold before or during the disposition process. Here is how:

Example:

In this example, it is determined that all records in the disposition packet should be placed on hold. In this example, the hold was already created by the Records Management Office, but no records are currently affiliated with it. The Records Authority will need to place the records in the batch under the hold.

Step 3. Upon reviewing a packet as part of the second Task, it is determined all records should be placed on hold. In this example, there are nine records in the packet:

The top half of the image is the DocFinity view of the Jobs - Tasks screen, with the three Tasks. The second task, titled Review Documents via Search Result (by Disposition Queue ID). has a checkmark next to it. The bottom half of the image is the Results panel. The Result panel has a black circle over the grey-out and unclickable Place on Legal Hold button in the toolbar

Step 2. In the screenshot above, no records are selected and the Place on Legal Hold button is greyed-out. Once records have been selected, then the hold option becomes available:

Zoomed in Results panel with a checkmark next to each of the 9 documents in the results field. The checkmarks are circled in black. The top toolbar button Place on Legal Hold is now black, clickable and has a black circle around it

Step 3. Select Place on Legal Hold and a dialogue box will pop up. Select the appropriate hold (note: the names of the holds will be standardized by Public Records Request, Audit and Litigation names), in this example, choose “PRR - #12345 - Sample” and “Place on Legal Hold” button at the bottom of the box.

Zoomed in pop-up of the Place Record on Legal Hold displaying a list of legal cases to choose from. The example titled PRR - #12345 - Sample is highlighted and the Place on Legal Hold button in the bottom right corner is circled in black

Note: If the legal case you are looking for is not listed, contact Records Management Services at recmgt@uw.edu. Do not put records under the wrong legal case.

Step 4. DocFinity asks you to confirm how many records you want to place on hold, select Place on Legal Hold if this number is accurate, “Cancel” if you need to make adjustments:

Popup from pressing the Place on Legal Hold button asking Are you sure you want to play 9 records on legal hold? with the ability for users to confirm by pressing Place on Legal Hold button or a Cancel button