Response Turnaround

The Response Turnaround report summarizes the turnaround time for preparing a response for a selection of Logs. The selection is based on the reporting period which may be monthly, quarterly or annual. The report is broken down by response type within a specified category or summary field. The following example shows a monthly report for correspondence "addressed to" Minister, broken down by Response Type. Logs that have an Interim response are reported separately. The report lists:

Number of Logs per Response Type
Median Days to Prepare Final Response broken down by number of median days "in office" before response was started, number of median days "preparing response", and total number of median days to respond.
The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value
to highest value and picking the middle one.
Performance in preparing response based on number sent out in 14 or less days, 15 to 28 days, and more than 28 days.

To Implement Response Turnaround Reporting

The Response Turnaround Report is not available by default as it relies on the configuration of User Defined Fields for supporting information as follows:

Summary Field - the pivotal field for which the reports are to be generated. This can be any information gathered in a User Defined field in the Log and is typically "Addressed To", "Topic", or any other category for which you want to report turnaround times on.
Date Response is Signed or Sent - the total response time is calculated using the Log's Received Date and a User Defined Date that records the date the response was signed or sent.
Interim Date - if you send interim responses, you can report response times separately for these Logs. The Interim date is not used in calculations.

To activate the Response Turnaround Report see the Application Preferences.

Calculating Response Times

Response Turnaround times are calculated and stored in the Log record. The response times are based on the date Received and the date Signed. For example the number of days between the date Received and the date Signed is the Total turnaround time. Calculations are only done in terms of whole days with no rounding up. For example June 15,2008 to June 17,2008 is calculated as two days. Response times are only calculated after a Signed date has been entered in the Log.

If a Referral is used for tracking the time to prepare a response, the response time will be reported as "time in office" and "time to prepare". This is calculated as follows:

"time to prepare" = sum of all Referrals marked as "preparing response". The time is the difference between the Completed date and the Referral Received Date. If the Received date is not specified, the Sent date is used.
"in office time" = Total time minus "time to prepare".

Calculated turnaround times are shown in the Log after the Sign By field as "In Office/Preparation" days. The following sample shows an "In office" time of 5 days, and 22 days to "prepare response." Note that if there is no Sign Date then the response times are not calculated or shown.

Using Referrals to Track Response Preparation

Referrals that are used for tracking response preparation can be marked for CLIFF to use in calculating response preparation time. Simply click the PR check box beside the Action field.

Note that only one "PR" Referral may be open at a time, and if there are over-lapping dates between multiple "PR" Referrals, CLIFF will not take the over-lap into consideration when calculating the response time.

Accessing Reports

Updated in Version 5.2.19

When response turnaround times are calculated in the Log, CLIFF checks to see if this is a summary value (i.e. Addressed To) that is being reported on. If a report for the reporting period associated with the Log does not exist, CLIFF will automatically create it. The reporting period is selected based on the Signed date.

To View Reports

Choose Response Turnaround... from the Report Menu. A list similar to the following will be displayed. If the option is not available in the menu, Turnaround Reporting has not been activated, or you do not have access to the report.
Click on a report to view. A report similar to the following will be displayed.

The report is displayed at the top, with update options displayed at the bottom. The update options include:
- Title - The default title may be changed.
- Notes - Any notes you wish to have appended to the report, for example to provide comments about the response times.
- Approved - Enter an Approval Date to lock the report from further updates from Logs.
- Click Update to save changes and redisplay the report, or click Save to save the report and return to the report list.

If your configuration includes automatic uploading of reports to a central Organization, the Sent Date will also be displayed.

Generating Reports

CLIFF automatically creates response turnaround Reports from Logs and the Application Preference settings so normally there is no need to generate the reports. However if you have deleted reports, or changed the settings in the Application Preferences, you may want to generate missing reports.

Click Generate Reports in the Report list window. The following is displayed:
Enter the date range to generate for
Click Replace Approved Reports if Approved reports are to be replaced.
Click Replace Submitted Reports if Reports submitted to central server are to be replaced.
Click Generate to initiate the update.

External Reports

Version 5.2.19

CLIFF provides the ability to have Response Turnaround reports automatically sent to a central organization. If CLIFF is configured as such for your organization, you will see an additional Report Menu of External Turnaround

To View External Response Turnaround Reports

Choose External Turnaround... from the report Menu.
Click on a report to view. The format of the report is the same as the standard Response Turnaround report except the Title and Notes cannot be changed.