Qudos 3 Help

Action Form

This form is used to record events or issues, and to subsequently plan and record corrective, preventive or improvement action. It has a tabbed section which effectively allows multiple pages, and a common area that is available regardless of the tabbed section is currently active.

For help on activities associated with this form, go to Actions - Activities

Common Area
Tabbed Sections
   1. Event or Subject
   2. Action Required
   3. Action Taken
   4. Follow-up
   Injuries
   Attachments
   Related Actions
Print menu

Common Area

The Common Area has a group of fields used to identify and categorise the record. They are as follows:

Categorisation fields:

Field	Description
Number	An auto-generated number used to individually identify the record
Location	The applicable physical or geographic location e.g. city, area, building or room
Business unit	The applicable department or section of the organisation e.g. customer service, marketing, design etc.
Total cost	An auto-generated sum total of all entries made in cost fields in the tabbed sections
Document	Optional field for use if the record relates to a particular document e.g. a procedure that needs updating due to changed circumstances
Action type	The nature of the record e.g. nonconformance, complaint, suggestion
Topic	What is the main subject matter e.g. environment, quality, safety etc.
How raised	How the matter came to light. Examples include: customer feedback, risk assessment, and internal audit

Assigned to field:

One very important aspect of the Common Area is the 'Assigned to' field. This is a regular 'Person' field - as found throughout the application. When a person is selected (by typing, clicking on the drop-down arrow, or making a selection for the pop-up form next to the field), responsibility is assigned to that person. Because the Action Form is a workflow tool, the 'Assigned to' person may change at any step along the way to dealing with the issue that has been raised. Whenever the 'Assigned to' name is changed and the Action is saved, a new email is triggered (assuming the email feature is switched on).

Buttons:

There is a selection of general buttons. They are:

Button	Description
Procedure	Open the documented procedure used to describe business rules related to the Actions module
Save	Save changes to the current record
Source	Open the source record that generated this action. This button is only active when the action has been generated from an Objective, Audit, Meeting, Risk Assessment, or Benchmark Assessment.
Close	Close the record. Under certain circumstances, an email may be generated

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Tabbed Sections

There are 4 major tabbed sections (numbered below), and 3 optional sections. Entries in each of the 4 major tabbed sections will affect the record's 'status' - how it appears in filtered queries of the Actions List. It is also essential for each of these sections to be completed for the Action Form to eventually be 'Closed out'. For more information on the status of a record, go to Actions Overview / Status.

The 3 optional tabbed sections may be used if required or ignored if not necessary. Please note that on the Action Form layout, the 'Injuries' tab is actually positioned immediately after the 'Event/Subject' tab for practical purposes. The tabbed sections are:

• 1. Event / Subject
• 2. Action Required
• 3. Action Taken
• 4. Follow-up
• Injuries
• Attachments
• Related Actions

Cost Fields

Each of the 4 major tabbed sections (Event or Subject, Action Required, Action Taken, and Follow-up) has a cost field. The values in these are cumulative i.e. they all add up to generate the value in the Total Cost field. The values are not in any specific currency. An organisation that makes use of these cost fields may customise the documented procedures supplied to describe the applicable currency and any business rules relating to cost reporting, authorisation etc.

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1. Event / Subject Tab

The first tab is where the user describes the matter being reported. The fields are as follows:

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Event, issue or subject *	Main text description
Event time	Optional field for use when the matter reported is an incident, accident or other event where a record of the time it occurred may be helpful
Event date	Optional field for use when the matter reported is an incident, accident or other event where a record of the date it occurred may be helpful
Confidential	Check box for marking the action as confidential. Actions so identified are visible only to the 'Assigned to' person and those having either global permission to view confidential actions, or those with permission to view confidential actions within the specified business unit
Recorded by	The person that recorded the Action Form. Use the Lock icon to complete this field
Date recorded	The date the Action Form was first recorded (this may not necessarily be same date that an event or incident actually occurred). Use the Lock icon to complete this field
Assigned to	The person assigned with responsibility to plan / take action
Cost	Simple cost for field for putting a financial value to the event or issue. This may be added to costs logged in the other tabbed sections to auto-generate a sum total (that is displayed in the top section of the form)

* = Mandatory field.

Buttons:

Button	Description
Lock	Click the Lock button and enter your user ID and password to lock this tabbed section. The 'Assigned to' field is not included in the scope of the locking mechanism as it may be changed at another stage of the process
Unlock	Click the Unlock button and enter your user ID and password to unlock this tabbed section

The Lock and Unlock buttons enable the person recording the event or incident to lock or unlock this tabbed section form for editing.

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2. Action Required Tab

This section is used to plan the action required to address the issue raised in the first tabbed section. Fields are as follows:

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Action required	Main text description
Priority	Drop-down list for prioritising the action
Date required	Calendar tool or manual entry: When do you want the action to be taken by? The date selected is used by the application in queries to indicate whether an action is overdue, and also to trigger reminders and escalations via the QS3 Notify programme
Cost	Simple cost for field for putting a financial value to the action to be taken. This may be added to costs logged in the other tabbed sections to auto-generate a sum total (that is displayed in the top section of the form).
Authorised by	The person that authorised the action to be taken. Use the Lock button to complete this field
Date authorised	The date that action was authorised. Use the Lock button to complete this field

Buttons:

Button	Description
Lock	Click the Lock button and enter your user ID and password to lock this tabbed section. The 'Assigned to' field is not included in the scope of the locking mechanism as it may be changed at another stage of the process
Unlock	Click the Unlock button and enter your user ID and password to unlock this tabbed section

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3. Action Taken Tab

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Action taken	Main text description. In many cases, this may simply be used to confirm that the action planned in the previous section has been taken
Follow-up required by	Calendar tool or manual entry: When do you want a follow-up check to be performed by?
Cost	Simple cost for field for putting a financial value to the action taken. This is added to costs logged in the other tabbed sections to auto-generate a sum total (that is displayed in the top section of the form).
Taken by	The person that took the action. Use the Lock button to complete this field
Date taken	The date that action was completed. Use the Lock button to complete this field

Buttons:

Button	Description
Lock	Click the Lock button and enter your user ID and password to lock this tabbed section. The 'Assigned to' field is not included in the scope of the locking mechanism as it may be changed at the follow-up stage
Unlock	Click the Unlock button and enter your user ID and password to unlock this tabbed section

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4. Follow Up Tab

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Follow-up	Main text description. This is a dual-purpose field that may be used to describe: The follow-up action that is required The follow-up action that has been taken Tip: entries for what is required and what has happened may be separated by spaces or line breaks. For line break use Shift + Enter key
Cost	Simple cost for field for putting a financial value to the follow-up action. This is added to costs logged in the other tabbed sections to auto-generate a sum total (that is displayed in the top section of the form).
Follow-up by	The person that did the follow-up. Use the Lock button to complete this field
Follow-up date	The date that the follow-up was completed. Use the Lock button to complete this field

Buttons:

Button	Description
Lock	Click the Lock button and enter your user ID and password to lock this tabbed section
Unlock	Click the Unlock button and enter your user ID and password to unlock this tabbed section

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Injuries Tab

This section is used ONLY if the form refers to an incident where someone was injured. It lists the injured person(s) and each record links to an Injury Form.

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Name	Person that was injured

Buttons:

Button	Description
New	Record a new injury
Edit	Edit the Injury Form for the selected person
Delete	Delete the Injury Form for the selected person

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Attachments Tab

This tab provides the facility to link one or more attachments to the action e.g. a record or a photograph. When the form is saved, the attachment(s) get uploaded to a folder within the Qudos application.

Fields displayed:

Field	Description
Number	An automatically populated number to identify the attachment
Filename	The name of the attached file
Description	Free-text description of the attached file

Buttons:

Button	Function
Browse	Navigate to, and select the file to be attached
View	View the selected attachment
Delete	Delete the selected attachment

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Related Actions Tab

From one Action Form you may generate up to 99 related Actions in a parent-child relationship. For example, No. 256.00 may generate 256.01, 256.02, 256.03, and so on up to 256.99. This tab lists those related actions, and provides the means to generate them, and subsequently to view/edit them.

Fields displayed:

Note: These fields are read-only. They are automatically completed when the related action is generated and completed.

Field	Description
Ref Number	An automatically populated number to identify the attachment
Action details	A summary of the main event text field
Date recorded	Date the related action was recorded

Buttons:

Button	Function
New	To generate a new related Action Form
Edit	view / edit an existing related Action

Print Menu

The Action Form offers 3 print options on the print menu:

• Action
• Action + Injuries
• Action History log - This report displays the history of changes to the 'Assigned to' person and 'Date Required'

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Contents | Actions | For help on activities associated with this form, go to Actions - Activities