Everyone opens the approved version
The operator opens a procedure and gets the approved version, every time. The next revision is drafted, reviewed and approved where only the people working on it see it, then replaces the old one. Every SOP, policy and instruction follows the same route.
- Written in Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Your document numbers come with you
Find documents the way you think about them
A procedure belongs to a process, to the department that runs it and to clauses of the standard you work to. A folder makes you pick one, whether it sits on a shared drive or in SharePoint, so copies appear. In VisualQMS a procedure isn't filed in a folder at all. It carries a few details about what it is, and it shows up in every view it matches, with no copies to keep up to date.
The procedure sits under its activity on the process map
Each activity on the process map lists the procedure, instructions and notes that belong to it, and opens the approved version.
The quality manager goes clause by clause and finds the same procedure
Procedures are tagged with the clauses they relate to, so a walk through the standard lists the documents behind each one.
A view for each role, and your own
Common views are set up for each role, and anyone can make their own, picking the details to filter on, to see documents their own way. Nobody has to agree on one folder layout, which is a big part of why we build VisualQMS on M‑Files.
Every revision approved, every change on record
The version history keeps every version: who changed it, when, and the state it was in, from the first draft to the approved revision. Earlier versions can't be edited, so the history is ready the day an auditor asks what changed.
People keep the current version while you revise
Quality drafts and reviews the next revision in a working copy. Everyone else keeps opening the published version until the new one is approved.
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Draft
Authorised editors
Authorised people click edit and the document opens in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, locked to them until they check it back in. If your rules require it, a change request has to be approved first.
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Review
Reviewers
Each reviewer gets a review record of their own to complete, in parallel or one after the other. Overdue reviews are escalated according to your rules.
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Approve
Approvers
Your rules decide whether one approver is enough or all of them must sign off. The working copy becomes read-only once it is sent for approval.
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Published
The approved revision becomes the version everyone sees, the process map's links open it from then on, and a training rule can ask the people it covers to read and confirm it.
A record for every review and approval
When a document goes for review, VisualQMS creates a record for each reviewer, and at approval one for each approver. Each person completes their own: a comment, then accept or reject. The records stay linked to that version, so an auditor sees who reviewed what, when, and with which remarks.
- The same trail for every kind of case — CAPAs and change requests get the same records, and any object and state can have them.
Write and review the next revision together
Normally a document is locked to the one person editing it. When several people write or review a revision together, one click starts a co-authoring session in OneDrive, and nobody forwards a link round by email. When a document reaches a state, say For Review, VisualQMS can also check it out to the people in that state automatically, with track changes switched on, so reviewers write their remarks straight into the working copy. You can see what was shared and with whom, and the session comes back as one new version.
Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Authorised people click edit and the document opens in the Office application, with no download and upload.
M‑Files
Your M‑Files permissions decide who may share a draft, and people outside the organisation can be invited.
Teams and SharePoint
Open a controlled document from Teams, to edit or to read, and make the ones people need available through SharePoint.
Every document starts from an approved template for its kind
SOPs, policies, instructions and forms each have templates of their own, one or several. Create a document, pick its kind and the template, and it opens in Word, Excel or PowerPoint with the details on the record already in the text.
Details from the record, in the text
Approved by, approved on and the version number are written into the document on their own, and so is any other detail on the record: the customer's name and address, the department, the process area. Nobody types them twice.
Templates for each kind of document
Each kind of document has its own templates, so an SOP looks like an SOP and a policy like a policy, whoever wrote it. Where one kind needs several, say a contract per country, each is a template of that kind.
Templates under the same control
A template is reviewed and approved like any other document. When a document comes up for revision, VisualQMS checks whether a newer template is required.
Housekeeping the system does for you
Reviews that start on their own
Every controlled document carries a next review date, set automatically or by hand. As it approaches, the designated people are alerted and a review starts.
Complete before it moves on
A workflow can make fields mandatory in a given state, so a document cannot go to approval with its details missing.
Bring your documents with you
Keep the document numbering you have, add details in bulk from Excel templates or let the AI read them from the documents, and import large volumes automatically.
An SOP with its forms attached
Link an SOP to its instructions and forms, and people find them together when they search and when they train.