Policies and Guidelines for Forms in K-12

replied on May 20, 2022

Sue,

How large is your district/school you are in? I am in a K-12 District of about 12k+ students with around 2200 staff. As Chris said, retention is tricky depending on Federal, State, and District rules by record types. As far as helping to keep things moving, we use a couple of strategies depending on the type of process and its priority compared to grading, payroll, etc. We use Laserfiche processes in almost every department. For some of our longer-running processes, we use workflow to monitor form status and send email reminders. On higher priority tasks we use the forms process diagram timing on related tasks to remind users of pending tasks.

We would be happy to have a conversation on related processes if you are interested.

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replied on May 20, 2022 • Show version history

Ian Caesar, (604) 862-7917

Project Manager, Continuous Improvement

Langley School Board, Langley, BC, Canada

Flexible HR Onboarding Solution

Parent Consent Submission

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replied on May 23, 2022

Thanks All!

65K Students

We do have Records Management and I have set up the entire system based on the State and National Retention Requirements :) Not being used yet LOL

1 Laserfiche Administrator (me) to manage all forms, workflow, new and old projects and strategies. The strategies is where I get into trouble. I can do crisis management but would rather think things through first LOL.

I like the idea of the workflow watchdog approach. The newer forms I have built a few catches and they are working as planned. The older forms developed when a newbie will have to stay as is, unless the owner requests new functionality that required me taking the form offline, since the catches would require adding a new step and I don't want to break what is already in motion.

I appreciate you sharing your organizations P/Guidelines and I will start looking at the forms that have the most in progress past a year for starters and write a workflow to ping the person to take action.

Thanks again!! Have a great week and well deserved Memorial Day weekend!

Sue

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replied on May 23, 2022 • Show version history

I would just add that at a certain point having only one Laserfiche Admin/developer is unsustainable. As with all things Laserfiche, once folks see what it can do the pipeline fills up and the backlog spans over 2 years. I would recommend either budgeting for additional Laserfiche developers OR absorb %25 - %50 of an existing employee's weekly hours to assist. Each department needs a champion to advocate for Laserfiche, but really they need their own dedicated person as well.....eventually. Maybe that doesnt fit your organization exactly, but I think you get the message. This is totally normal and usually there is an unbearable squeeze before you actually get help. That is what I would suggest getting ahead of so it doesn't reduce your work/life balance. It is something you should be expecting to come so you can plan for it or at least not let you be taken by surprise.

The alternative is to create a project submittal form and have supervisors/managers submit requests for which projects they want next. Have a steering committee (or some person/group that is not you!) that decides what happens next or moves around on the timeline. This is essential for you if you are a one person shop. It allows you to pass the buck as to what the hold up is and gets that pressure off your shoulders so you can build and maintain existing. The other piece is to consistently communicate the existing timeline and how it has changed to every stakeholder for every project. For example, if there is an emergency covid form that needs to be created, you can communicate out that now projects x, y and z wont be completed until 2024 instead of fall of 2023. That type of thing.

Really it is all about scaling. How do you plan to scale up? It is inevitable, so plan for it :)

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replied on May 23, 2022

Oh I agree completely!! And I do push back on a daily bases. I'm spending MUCH more time creating case tickets to document EVERYTHING! In the long run it will benefit the organization. We currently have 286 full licenses and 25K educational users. HAHAHA! 40 forms and about 70 workflows. And every office uses Laserfiche here too. Only a few have truly designated folks. Laserfiche started as an HR purchase and like most IT products that end up going enterprise ends up in the Technology Department. I pushed back a few years ago when they took my boss LOL. I forced the purchase of a designated vendor support person with PASS. That has been a lifesaver!! Having the same person for each call when needed just add a level of peace of mind and not the only person in the dingy. I will continue to push back and if they still don't understand when that life balance does get off kilter I will just retire :) I do maintain my sanity with life/work balance. Not work leading the pack. Unless of course if there is an emergency :) Then all hands on deck and I think we have been doing a pretty good job with not breaking things.

Thanks again for the conversation. Was an empowering one. Appreciate your time and

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replied on May 23, 2022

Wow yeah. Sounds like you are doing it! Keep it up :)

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replied on May 20, 2022

policies and guidelines for what specifically?

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replied on May 20, 2022

For how long to keep a form on the Forms Server if still in progress. How this all started was today I had 1 suspended form and the initiator has left the organization. Well the form is over a year old and had to do with a 230.00 return... Who is responsible for monitoring these form still in progress and why? Just wondering how people are defining things and the rationale behind.

I'm meeting with some of my team managers in about 10 minutes so was trying to be proactive :)

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replied on May 20, 2022

Got it. Well, depending on what state you are in, starting with the retention periods for the document types of attachments on the form may point you in an initial direction.

What goes into Laserfiche must come out, or should come out. So, I try and pursue best practice first, then if necessary, concede to what the business wants.

Circling the wagons is a ways a strong move as well. Gets things done faster.

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replied on May 20, 2022

Thanks Chris. I'm getting dizzy circling the wagonssss LOL

Educating management can be the bigger challenge. Thanks for responding. After our meeting we have a start.

TGIF!!

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