How ABMS fits together: modules, documents, workflow, actions and rights

ABMS is divided into modules, which you open from the left menu. Most of the work happens in document modules: you create a document, fill in its first section and send it to a receiver, who fills in the next section; when the last step is approved, the document is published. A task that someone must carry out by a date is an action, with one responsible person. What you can see and do in each module depends on the rights your user administrator gives you. Each term below has a short explanation and a link to the page that explains it in full. Which modules, fields, statuses and workflow steps you have is your company’s own setup, so your ABMS can look different from the examples.

Your company

Your company has its own ABMS: its own users, modules, documents and settings, stored in its own database, separate from other customers; see Where your data is stored and how it is backed up. If you are a user in more than one company, you switch between them with the arrow next to your name at the top of the left menu; favourites are kept per company. See Find your way after logging in.

Modules

A module is one part of ABMS, listed in the left menu. You see a module when your company has it and you have at least the Read right on its row in the rights table (see The Users page and the rights table); KPI Scorecard and Diagrams follow their own rules. See The top bar and the left menu. There are two kinds:

Document modules share one structure, set up by Antenor for your company, for example a deviation module, procedures or supplier approval. They all work the same way: you create documents and send them through a workflow. Each module’s name, fields, sections, statuses and receivers are your company’s own. See Create a document and send it for approval.
The other modules each have their own pages. Your company has those it uses:

Module	What it holds	Start here
Actions (the Action Manager)	Tasks with a due date and one responsible person; see “Actions” below.	The Action Manager index: tabs, columns, filters and buttons
KPI Scorecard	Scorecards: tables of measures by month for one year, with values typed in or counted from documents, and a traffic light per row.	KPI Scorecard menu and scorecard list
Risk management	Risk analyses, each with risk elements assessed for original and residual risk.	Find and read a risk analysis
Equipment Management	Equipment items with maintenance intervals, maintenance records and reminders.	Find equipment and check when maintenance is due
Substance register	The safety data sheets in your company’s register.	Find a substance and read its safety data sheet
Competency	People and their competencies, with dates, levels and certificates.	Find a person and read their competencies
Diagrams	Drawings such as flowcharts and process maps. You get access through the access group Diagrams.	Get access to Diagrams
Reports	Lists of documents with the columns and filters your company has chosen.	Find and read a standard report
Job Safety Analysis	Analyses of the steps of a job, their risk factors and risk-reducing activities.	Find and read a job safety analysis
Environmental aspects	Analyses of environmental aspects, with their risk and follow-up actions.	Find and read an environmental aspect analysis

Documents

A document is one record in a document module, for example one deviation report: a form with a title and fields, divided into sections. Each document has an ID; its info panel (i) shows the first eight characters as Id, which you can quote to support. Once the document is published, the search bar on the dashboard finds it by any part of its ID. A document opens in view mode; while it is in the workflow, only the person who holds its current step can change it. See The document page in view mode and Fill in the fields of a document.

Sections and workflow steps

The form of a document module is divided into sections, and each section is one step of the module’s workflow. Only the person who holds the current step, the step owner, can change the document; everyone else sees it in view mode. When the step owner sends the document on, the next section becomes the next step. See Workflow steps, statuses, receivers and notifications.

Receivers and the send dialog

When you have filled in your section, you click the paper-plane button (Send for approval) and choose the receiver in the send dialog. The receiver holds the next step: they get an e-mail, unless you chose yourself, and the document appears in their Documents awaiting your approval on the dashboard, if your company’s dashboard has that box. Who can be chosen is set up for each step: a named user, everyone with a given level on the module, or the members of an access group who have the Approve right. The receiver sends the document on, or rejects it one step back with a message. See Edit mode: buttons, the send dialog, the required-fields dialog and Approve or reject a document you received.

Status

A document’s status, shown in lists and reports, tells where it is in the workflow. The status names are your company’s own, set per section, so they differ between modules. See Workflow steps, statuses, receivers and notifications.

Published

A document is published when its last step is approved with the green check (Approve), or when it is saved as an observation (see “Observation” below). Approving the last step needs the Approve right on the module’s row, and every action linked to the document must be closed first. A published document is not changed through the normal workflow; the search bar on the dashboard can find it, and everyone who follows it gets an e-mail. See Approve or reject a document you received.

Revisions

How a published document is changed depends on the module. In a module with revisions, the big pen in view mode starts a new revision, which goes through the workflow again while the published version stays; earlier revisions are listed in the info panel (i). In a module without revisions, single fields of the published document can be changed with a small pencil; who sees the pencil and who can save the change is in Rights needed for each action on a document. Whether a module uses revisions is set by your user administrator. See Edit a published document and see earlier revisions.

Observation

Where your company has allowed it for a step, the Observation button in edit mode publishes the document at once and skips the remaining steps. In a module with a risk field, it is offered only when the risk value is within the range your company has set for observations; a higher risk hides the button. See Save a document as an observation.

Archived and deleted

Archiving hides a document from users who do not have the Archive right on the module’s row; it needs a description, keeps the document and can be undone. Deleting is permanent and also removes the document’s actions and attachments: you can delete a document only at its first step, before anyone has received it. You cannot delete a published document yourself: archive it instead, and if it must be deleted, contact Antenor support; see Get help from Antenor support. See Delete or archive a document.

Actions

An action is a task with a title, a due date and one responsible person. It passes between the person who created it and the responsible: in the usual sequence, the responsible accepts it, does the work and sends it back, and the creator accepts the work, which closes the action. You create an action in Actions (the Action Manager), or from an item in another module, such as a document, a risk element or an equipment item; it is then connected to that item. A document cannot be published while an action linked to it is not closed. See Create an action and send it to someone and Action statuses, who holds an action, and e-mails.

Read & understood

Where your company has turned it on for a module, a user with the Edit right on the module’s row can ask colleagues to confirm that they have read a published document. Each person asked gets an e-mail, and a reminder once a week, until they confirm in the document with Accept contents. See Ask colleagues to confirm they have read a document and Confirm that you have read a document.

Comments and following a document

Where your company has switched on comments for the module, each document has a comments panel, Comments, where the participants of the current step discuss it. The step owner can bring colleagues in by adding them as participants or by mentioning them with @. Following a document is something else: click the bell in the document’s button bar, and you get an e-mail each time the document is published. See Comment on a document and mention colleagues and Follow a document.

People outside ABMS

On a workflow step your company has set up for it, you can send a document to an e-mail address outside ABMS. The receiver gets a personal link, valid for 14 days, fills in the section without logging in, and returns it to you. See Send a document to someone outside ABMS.

Rights and your user administrator

Your rights are set per row in the rights table: one row per module, and rows for some areas, such as reports. On each row you have one level. From lowest to highest the levels are Read, Edit, Create, Approve, Manage, Archive and Admin, and as a rule a higher level includes the lower ones. Your user administrator is the person in your company who manages users and rights; they have the Admin level on the Super area row, which shows the Super menu. The Super Users list on your User profile shows who they are. See The Users page and the rights table.

Access groups

An access group gives the same rights to everyone in it. You always have the higher of your own rights and the rights you get through your groups. Your user administrator creates the groups and chooses their members. See Create and manage an access group.

Global fields

Where your company uses them, global fields are shared dropdown lists, such as location or department, whose values are kept in one place and used by every module that has the field, for example as tagging fields on actions. Your user administrator maintains the values under Super > Global Fields. See The Global Fields page.

Company menus

A company menu is a page your company builds, with boxes linking to documents, modules, reports, KPI scorecards and other content. When your company has at least one, they are listed under Company Menu in the left menu. See Build or edit a company menu.

The dashboard

After you log in, ABMS opens the dashboard, or the page you were trying to open; a company that uses only one module of certain kinds opens that module instead (see Logging in and passwords: the rules). Its widgets are chosen by your user administrator for the whole company, for example tiles that count the documents and actions waiting for you and a search bar for published documents. What the tiles count is personal. See The dashboard.

Notifications and e-mails

The bell in the top bar collects announcements from Antenor, comments that mention you, new comments on documents where you take part in the current step, and Read & understood requests. Documents and actions waiting for you are not in the bell; they are counted on the dashboard. ABMS also sends e-mails, for example when a document is sent to you or published. See Read notifications, E-mails and reminders about documents and An e-mail from ABMS did not arrive.