Referrals

One of the main reasons for logging documents in CLIFF is to track activities and actions relating to the documents. The actions may be performed by yourself or someone else in another office. In both cases you create a Referral to the office that will be performing the task.
Each Referral tracks:

  • The date the referral was sent
  • Which Office it was sent to
  • The action to be performed
  • The date the action is due (if necessary)
  • The date the Referral was completed

    In addition, there are data fields for:

    You may create as many Referrals as required, including multiple Referrals to a single Office or Referrals to multiple Offices. All Referrals that you create are listed at the bottom of the Log window, showing you at a glance which Offices have open referrals and which referrals are overdue. Each Referral that has a Due Date is assigned a State of “Active” by CLIFF.

    Each Office that receives a Referral may in turn forward the Referral to other Offices, thereby creating a hierarchical chain of Referrals. In the Log window Referrals that have been forwarded are indented in the list. If an Active Referral is forwarded, CLIFF sets the state of the Referral to “Pending” and sets the state of the new Referral to “Active”. The Referral state allows you to quickly see which Office the Referral is active in.

    • Creating Referrals

    To create a new Referral

    1. Open the Log you want to refer. If there are already Referrals for the Log, they will be shown at the bottom of the Log.
    2. Click the Referral button on the Log Toolbar. CLIFF opens a new Referral at the bottom of the Log window.


    3. Complete the data fields in the Referral as follows:
      Sent By
      The name of your current office is automatically entered. You cannot change this.
      Sent To
      Enter the Office to whom you are sending the Referral. This must be a valid table entry. You may select the To Office from the pop-up list.

        • Distribution Lists- Distribution lists that you have access to will appear in the pop-up list with a prefix of "DL:". If you select a Distribution List as the Sent To office, CLIFF will automatically create Referrals to all the offices in the Distribution List. See Distribution Lists for more information.
        • Mail To Referrals- If you want to send a Referral to a person who doesn't have access to CLIFF, you may send the Referral by e-mail. Enter "m:" (without the quotes) followed by the person's e-mail address. For example "m:john@somedomain.com". The Referral plus the Log information will be emailed to the person.
        • Log Exchange- Your configuration of CLIFF may allow you to send Referrals to other CLIFF organizations. External organizations will appear with a prefix of "X:" in the To Office list. If you select an external organization, the Referral and the Log information will be sent to them. See Log Exchange for more information.
        Action:
        Enter the Action to be performed by the To Office. This must be a valid table entry. You may select the Action from the pop-up list. If the action requires a response, CLIFF will automatically calculate the Due Date.
        Sent:
        This is the date the Referral was created. It is automatically set by CLIFF and you cannot change it.
        Date Due:
        The date the Referral Action is due. If this date is automatically set by CLIFF you may change it. Note that the Referral Due Date cannot be later than the Log Due Date. If you enter a date that is after the Log Due Date, CLIFF will reset the Referral Due Date to the Log Due Date when you save the Referral.
        Status:
        When you create a Referral, CLIFF automatically sets the Status to ‘Sent’. Though you may change the Status it is intended to be used by the Receiving office.
        State:
        For Referrals with a Due Date, CLIFF will automatically set the State to ‘Active’ when you save the Referral. You cannot change the State.
        Comments from Sending Office:
        Comments about the Referral you would like to send to the Receiving Office. Comments pertaining to the Log should be entered in the Log Notes. See Adding Notes to a Log.

        The following fields are for the Receiving Office and may only be accessed by them:

        • Received: The date the Referral was received.
        • Completed: The date the Referral Action was completed.
        • File No: File number.
        • Comments from Receiving Office:
          Receiving office comments.

    4. Accept the Referral by clicking the Accept button .

      5. Forwarding Referrals

      Version 5.2

      Each Office that receives a Referral may in turn forward the Referral to other Offices, thereby creating a hierarchical chain of Referrals. In the Log window, Referrals that have been forwarded are indented in the list providing a visual representation of the hierarchy.

      If an Active Referral is forwarded, CLIFF sets the state of the Referral to “Pending” and sets the state of the new Referral to “Active”. The Referral state allows you to quickly see in which Office the Referral is active. Note that Active/Pending are only applied to Referrals with a Due Date.

      Updated in Version 5.2

      CLIFF will track how many days a Referral is Active. This number is displayd in the Referral as shown below, and in the Log Referral list.

      To Forward a Referral

      1. Open the Log for which you wish to forward a Referral.
      2. Click on the New Referral button for the Referral you want to forward.


        If there is no button beside the Referral you want to forward, then you are not authorized to forward the Referral or the Referral is a type that cannot be forwarded.

      3. CLIFF displays a new Referral window. Complete the fields as described in creating Referrals.

      Email Notification

      After you have created a Referral you may want to notify the assigned Office by e-mail. In CLIFF this is as simple as clicking the notify button in the Log's Referral List as shown below.

      Note that the Notify button will not appear if any of the conditions are true:

      After clicking the Notify

      Set your options as follows:

      Include Notes
      Include Notes from the Log
      Include Attachments
      Include Attachments from the Log
      Secure (Link to Log)
      Only send a link to the Log. Depending on the configuration of CLIFF this may be your only option.
      Allow access for [ ] working/calendar days
      How many days the link should remain available.
      Delete after sending or link expired
      Don't keep the e-mail in CLIFF after sending or the link expired
      Include CLIFF link
      Include a link to CLIFF's login screen. Ignored if sending a link to the Log.

      Modifying Referrals

      Referrals may be changed although there are some restrictions depending on your Office access and if the Referral is forwarded to other offices.

      To modify a Referral

      1. Open the Log containing the Referral to be changed.
      2. Click on the Referral to be modified. CLIFF will display the Referral.
      3. Make the required changes. Some data fields will not be available to change for one or more of the following reasons:

      In addition, access to fields may also be restricted if you don't have authority to access the From Office, the To Office, or both.

    5. Click the Accept button to save your changes.

      6. Completing Referrals

      A Referral is open until it is completed. You tell CLIFF, and others, that you are finished with a Referral by entering a Completed date. Logs may not be closed if there are open Referrals.

      To complete a Referral

      1. Open the Referral.
      2. Enter a date in the Completed field.
      3. Accept the Referral.

      NOTE: If the Referral you are completing is an external Referral received through Log Exchange the external organization will not be notified of the completion until you close the Log.

      Automatic Completion of Referrals

      You may complete a selection of Referrals automatically.

       To Complete a Selection of Referrals

      1. Create a selection of Referrals to be completed.
      2. Click on the Automatic Completion button in the Toolbar. The following window will be displayed:


        1. Choose the appropriate selection to complete.
        2. Enter the Completion Date to be applied.
        3. Click Complete.

          4. Deleting Referrals

          Referrals should only be deleted if they are created in error. Even incorrectly assigned Referrals are worth keeping as they show the history of the Log activity. Referrals are deleted from within the Log.

          To Delete a Referral

          1. Open the Log that contains the Referral to be deleted.
          2. Click on the delete button for the Referral to be deleted.


          WARNING: - if the Referral you are deleting contains children, all the children will also be deleted. For example, if the Referral to Office B in the above sample is deleted, the Referral to Office C will also be deleted.

          Listing Referrals Sent

          Referrals Sent are those Referrals created by your Office. You may search for Referrals Sent using the predefined searches or by using one of the standard Search tools. See Searching for Referrals Sent for more information.

          Listing Referrals Received

          Referrals Received are those Referrals received by your Office. You may search for Referrals Received using the predefined searches or by using one of the standard Search tools. See Searching for Referrals Received for more information.

          Show Logs for Referrals

          When you are working with Referrals there are times when you may want to list the Logs for the current selection of Referrals.

          To show the Logs for the current selection of Referrals

          Displaying Referral Notes

          Each Referral provides fields for the sending and receiving offices to enter notes.

          To display all the notes for all the Referrals in a Log

           Choose Open Referral Notes from the Notes drop down menu in the Log.