Retiring a document. What can be done and what happens?

In SOLABS QM10, it is possible to retire documents.  A document must be at a status of either Approved & Effective or Approved, Not Effective in order to initiate a Retire Cycle.  When a document retire cycle is initiated, a new internal version of this document is created and the status To Retire is set but not all of the attributes and items linked to this document are transferred to this internal version.

֍What happens when a document is sent to be retired?

• A new internal To Retire version is created, which is the version that will be circulated for approval of the retirement.
• The following attributes are NOT passed from the Approved version to the To Retire version:
  • The Document File itself
  • The Change Summary document, if there is one
  • The Current Version and Last Assigned version attributes
  • The Effective Date attribute becomes the Retire Date attribute
  • The Next Review Date and the Periodic Review Cycle attributes
  • The Cosmetic Change­­­­­ attribute
• Any Processes linked as Reason for Change are not passed to the To Retire version.
• Any Documents linked as References are kept and passed to this new version.
• The current Approved version of the document remains linked and available to users with appropriate privileges/trainees until the Retire Cycle is complete.

֍ Once the document is in the To Retire status, what can be changed and what cannot be changed?

• The following attributes CAN be modified:
  • The Name of the document
  • The Description field
  • The Location of the document
  • The Reason for Change field
  • The Document Owner attribute
  • The Document Coordinator attribute
  • The Effective Date attribute becomes the Retire Date
• Other attributes cannot be modified or are NOT present
• A document file cannot be added
• The Date of final approval can be selected
• A specific Retire Date can be selected
• Retire Date can be set to: Set through Document Control Process if the Document Control Process is used for retirement.
• It is possible to Link Documents as References (or remove existing ones) and to Link Processes as a Reason for Change.
•  Set Workflow is available to set the Retire Cycle approvers and to Start Retire Cycle.  When the Retire Cycle is started, the document status is updated to Pending Retire.
• If for any reason, the document does not need to be retired anymore, it is possible to use the Cancel In Process function to cancel this version (the To Retire version).

֍ Once the document is in the Pending Retire status:

• The Retire Cycle can be approved or rejected
• The Retire Cycle can be stopped

NOTE that while in To Retire and Pending Retire statuses, the previously approved version is still the official version. Any related Training Activity, if there is one, and the document itself can still be accessed by users with the appropriate privileges.

֍ When the Retire Cycle is completed, what happens then?

• If the Retire Date is set in the future or set to 'Set through Document Control Process' (when the Document Control Process is used), the document status becomes Awaiting Retire Date. In that case, the previous Approved version is still the official version until the Retire Date set is reached or set through the process. In this status, the Retire Date can be modified through the Modify Metadata Only if the document needs to be retired before that date.
• If the Retire Date was set to the Date of final approval, the document status becomes Retired on when the last approver completes the Retire Cycle.

֍ When the document is at a status of Retired, what happens then?

• Retired documents are no longer available except to those users with permission to see Hidden Documents in the Show All (including hidden, superseded and retired) Navigation view.  For those who can view them, they will be listed in the Treeview, in red, with [Retired] after the listing and will have a Retired watermark across the document view screen.
• Previous versions of the document can no longer be accessed except by users having Modify privileges through the Audit Trail of the Retired document. Editable File Content for those previous versions is also available if ever needed - perhaps to answer a historical question or to recreate the retired document as a new document (under a different number though, since retired documents cannot be brought back as active documents). 
• Modify privileges will be required to access this Retired version. The retired documents will have any headers and watermarks that may have been set as part of the related PDF Rendering Template.
• If the previous version was Approved, Not Effective and there were document(s) set to be superseded by that document, they will not be superseded because the superseding linked between the retired document and document(s) that were to be superseded is removed.
• If the retired document was linked to a training ­Curriculum as the Curriculum Document, the following then happens:
  • The Curriculum will automatically be set to Closed and the Completed training assignments will still be linked to the last version and listed on Training Reports.
  • If there were training activities with none of the completion requirements provided when the Curriculum Document is retired, trainees will be Unassigned.   
  • If there were training activities assigned but not completed yet (not all the completion requirements provided), the trainees will show a status of Untrained on Training Reports.  
  • If the related Training Activities were linked to a Job Title Training Profile (Function Role), that link will be removed.

֍Related Articles:

https://docs.solabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041574034-SOLABS-QM10-Retire-a-Document

https://docs.solabs.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042160454-SOLABS-QM10-Access-a-Retired-Document