# How work documentation works

Why the type carries the approval rule, how documents are numbered, the life of a document from draft to approved or rejected, who sees which documents, and how the bridges link documents to cases and hearings.

**Work Documentation** keeps a written record of the work of the office, and a trace of who approved it. It is not tied to the law: any piece of work can be written up, and the same approval rule serves a memorandum, an internal note or a report.

## The type carries the rule {#the-type}

A document has one **Document Type**, and the type decides what happens when the document is sent: whether it waits for approval, and who approves it. Eight memoranda come with the app, none of them needing approval; the office adds its own types and marks the ones that need a second pair of eyes. Changing a type changes the rule for the documents sent afterwards.

## Numbering {#numbering}

A document receives its number when it is first saved: `WOD`, the year it was saved in, then a five-digit counter that keeps counting from one document to the next, also across years. The number never changes and is never reused. Lists and the search call it **Sequence**.

## The life of a document {#life}

| Status | Meaning | Next |
|---|---|---|
| **Draft** | Written by its author; still editable. | **Send for Approval** |
| **Waiting for Approval** | Sent; each approver of the type has a to-do. | **Approve**, **Reject** |
| **Approved** | Accepted; final. | Print, duplicate |
| **Rejected** | Refused with a **Reject Reason**; final. | Duplicate |

A type that does not need approval goes from **Draft** to **Approved** in one step. There is no way back from the two final statuses: a new version is a duplicate, which starts as a draft with today's date and the user who made it as **Author**. Every status change is kept in the chatter with its date and its user; the body itself is not tracked.

## The to-dos {#to-dos}

Sending creates one to-do per approver, "Review and approve the work documentation", due after the number of days in the settings, 2 by default. Approving or rejecting closes those to-dos for everyone, so nobody reviews a document twice. Nothing else runs by itself: the app sends no e-mail of its own, and no scheduled job touches the documents. Each approver learns of the to-do the way Jaah announces any activity assigned to them: a notification in their inbox, or an e-mail when their notification preference is e-mail. See [Work Documentation automations](work-documentation-automations).

## Who sees what {#access}

| Access right | Can |
|---|---|
| **User: Own Documents** | Create documents and edit them; see their own documents and every document of a type that names them as approver; pick types and templates; print. |
| **Manager: All Documents** | See every document; approve and reject; manage the types, templates and reject reasons. The settings page needs the **Administrator** role as well. |

Approving needs the manager access right even for a user named as approver: the to-do tells them, the decision is the manager's. Only a manager can delete a document. Archiving (**Actions** › **Archive**) is open to anyone who can edit the document, a user on their own documents and a manager on any; it keeps the record and hides it from the lists. Each document belongs to a company, and users see the documents of the companies they work in.

## Bridges to the legal apps {#bridges}

When **Cases**, **Consultations** or **Executions** are installed, each gets a **Work Documentation** tab on its records. A document written there is linked to the record, carries its number as **Source**, and appears in the documents list like any other. The link shows in the **Other Info** tab of the document, where it can be changed.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/work-documentation/how-work-documentation-works
- Updated: 2026-10-22
- Version: Work Documentation 19.0.1.0.7