Changing an action in detail: fields, checklist, attachments, copies and deleting

This page is a lookup for what can be changed in an Action Manager action, by whom and when, the rules of each field, the checklist and the attachments, and what copying and deleting do. The fields themselves are listed in The action dialog: every field, panel and button.

What you can change, and when

Situation	What you can change	What is read-only
A new action, or an action with status New that you created	Every field: Title:, Add to plan(s):, Findings / Background:, Suggested Actions:, the attachments, Due date, Responsible, the tagging fields and the checklist.	Nothing.
The action has come back to you, its creator, because the person you sent it to rejected it	Every field, as for a new action.	Nothing.
The action was sent or forwarded to you and you have not accepted it	Nothing. You can Accept, Reject or Forward.	Every field, the checklist included.
You have accepted the action, also after your work was rejected	The checklist, the attachments and Action taken/comments. Due date with the pencil next to it, and the plans with the pencil next to Plan(s).	Title:, Findings / Background:, Suggested Actions:, Responsible and the tagging fields.
You created the action with yourself as Responsible	Title:, Findings / Background:, Suggested Actions:, the tagging fields, the plans, the checklist, the attachments and Action taken/comments. Due date with the pencil, saved at once.	Responsible; use Forward to give the action to someone else.
You are the reviewer: the responsible has sent the work back to you as done	The plans, with the pencil. You can Complete or Reject.	Every other field.
You do not hold the action	The plans, with the pencil, if you are its creator or have the Admin level on the Super area row (see The Users page and the rights table).	Everything else. The dialog has only Close.
The action is Closed	The plans, with the pencil, if you closed it, created it, or have the Admin level on the Super area row.	Everything else.

Who holds an action at each step is described in The action workflow in detail: every step, who holds the action, buttons, e-mails and log.

Changes to the fields and the checklist are saved only when you click a button that saves the action or takes a workflow step: Save as draft, Send, Create action, Complete action, Accept, and the second click that confirms Reject, Forward or Complete; the pencil next to Due date also saves them as a draft first. Cancel and the cross close the dialog without saving them. In an action that has been saved before, a file or link you add or remove in the attachments dialog is saved at once, and a change of plans is saved with the tick button next to the plans.

Rules for each field

Field	Rules
Title:	Required. The label is red while it is empty. Save as draft on a new action needs only the title.
Add to plan(s):	Optional; several plans allowed. Lists the existing plans; type to narrow the list, and press Enter or click to choose the highlighted plan. The help icon says “Write the name of an plan. Alternatives will appear if there are any”. See Plans in detail: rules, rights and what changes them.
Findings / Background:, Suggested Actions:	Optional text over several lines.
Attachments:	The paper-clip button shows the number of attachments. On a wide screen, pointing at it lists the attachments as links.
Due date	Required. A date without a time.
Responsible	Required: exactly one person. The list shows the active users who are members of the access group “Action Manager” in your company: membership of that group decides who is listed, not the level on the Action Manager row, and your user administrator manages the group; deactivated users are not listed, and a user from another company shows that company’s name as a tooltip. If more than one person is chosen, the label turns red, a help icon says “At this moment we allow to select only one recipient”, and Send stays disabled. Choosing yourself turns Send into Create action.
Basic information heading	Red while Due date is empty or Responsible does not hold exactly one person.
Tagging fields	Optional; several values allowed. If a value that has been deactivated is chosen, the field’s label turns red and Send stays disabled until you remove that value.
Module name, Connected to	Shown under Tagging information when the action is linked to a document or another module. Read-only. Connected to is a link that opens the item in a new browser tab.
Dialog title	Actions, followed by “ - “ and the names of the plans the action belongs to.

The attachments dialog

The paper clip opens the dialog Attachments / Internal Modules / External URLs. Everyone who can open the action can open and download its attachments; the controls for adding and removing are shown only when you can change the attachments (see the first table).

Control	What it does
Attachment name	An uploaded file downloads when you click it; a link opens in a new browser tab.
Upload	Adds one or more files. Each file can be at most 20 MB. Larger files are not uploaded, and you see “The following files size are bigger than 20MB and were not uploaded:” with their names.
Link to a document	Adds a link to a document in ABMS.
External URLs	Adds a web address with a name. A pencil next to an existing web address lets you change it.
Cross next to an attachment	Removes it, after the confirmation “Please confirm that you wish to delete this file”. Shown only to the person who added the attachment.
Close	Closes the dialog.

Every attachment added, changed or removed gets an entry on the Log tab.

The checklist

Control	What it does
New checklist	Shown when the checklist is empty. Adds the first task.
Text box (placeholder “New”)	The text of the task.
Tick box	Ticks the task. Ticking a task also ticks all its sub-tasks, and unticking it unticks them. When every sub-task of a task is ticked, that task is ticked too. Unticking a sub-task does not untick the task above it.
Plus button	Adds a new task below.
Indent button	Makes the task a sub-task of the task above it.
Outdent button	Moves a sub-task one level up.
Trash button	Deletes the task and its sub-tasks, without a confirmation.
Drag handle (wide screens)	Moves the task.
Arrow (tooltips Expand and Collapse)	Shows or hides the sub-tasks of a task.
Progress, for example 2 / 5	Ticked tasks out of all tasks. Sub-tasks count as tasks, at every level.
Select checklist	Opens a dialog with your company’s checklist templates, a filter box and a preview of the template you click. Import replaces the whole checklist of the action with the template; the dialog warns: “Please note that importing a checklist template will overwrite your existing checklist for the corresponding action.” Templates are managed as described in Create and manage checklist templates.

Keyboard in a task’s text box: Enter adds a new task below, Shift+Enter adds a sub-task, Tab indents the task and Shift+Tab outdents it.

Copying an action

Where	Who sees Copy action	Link to a document or module
The action lists in the Action Manager (All Actions, My Actions, plan pages)	Users with the Create level or higher on the Action Manager row of their rights	The copy is not linked to anything.
The actions list on a document, a risk element, an equipment item, a person in Competency or a data sheet	The action’s creator, and users with the Admin level on the Super area row. On a document, only if they also see the row buttons there (see Actions linked to documents and other modules); on a risk element, only while the risk analysis is in edit mode.	The copy is linked to the same item.

Copy action opens a new action dialog filled in from the original. Nothing is saved until you click Save as draft, Send or Create action.

The copy keeps	The copy does not keep
Title:, Findings / Background:, Suggested Actions:, Due date, the tagging values, the plans, and the checklist with its ticks	The ID, the dates, the status (the copy starts as New), the log, and the comments and messages from the workflow
Responsible, unless that person has been deactivated	The creator: you become the creator of the copy
The attachments; copied files get a time stamp added to their name, and you become the person who added them

Deleting an action

Rule	What it means
Where	Delete action (trash icon) on the action’s row in the Action Manager lists. For an action linked to a document or another module, see Actions linked to documents and other modules.
Who	In the Action Manager lists, the row icons are shown only to users with the Create level or higher on the Action Manager row. Of those, the trash icon is shown to the action’s creator while the action is New or In progress, and to users with the Admin level on the Super area row in every status, Closed included. It is never shown for an action linked to a document or another module.
Confirmation	The dialog Delete action asks “Are you sure you want to delete this action?”.
What is deleted	The action with its checklist, attachments and log. It disappears from every list, plan and dashboard. ABMS has no way to restore a deleted action.