CAPA Actions

An action is the corrective, preventive or improvement work itself. Each action is a child of the nonconformity but has its own state machine and its own code, so it can be planned, assigned and tracked independently while the parent record waits.

Action states

State	Meaning
Draft	The action is being planned. No task exists yet.
Active	The action is assigned. The performer has a task.
Completed	The performer has recorded what they did.
Cancelled	The action was abandoned.

When an action transitions to Active, the system creates a task for its performer.

Fields

• Code — auto-generated, read-only after creation.
• Name — what is to be done.
• Description — the detail.
• Root cause — optional link to the root cause this action addresses.
• Performer — who will do it.
• Planned start date / planned end date — the commitment.
• Attachments — planning material: specifications, drawings, references.

Recorded at performance

• Action performed — a description of what was actually done.
• Performed by — resolved from the person who acted, not the assignment.
• Performed at — the date. Cannot be in the future.
• Perform attachments — the evidence: photographs, records, sign-offs.

note

Planning attachments and performance attachments are separate collections deliberately. What you intended and what you did are different evidence, and an auditor will ask for both.

Performing an action

1. Open the action from your task inbox.
2. Do the work.
3. Record what you actually did in action performed — not a restatement of the plan.
4. Set the performed at date and attach the evidence.
5. Submit.

The system stamps you as the performer, completes your task and transitions the action.

Write access

Actions are editable while the parent nonconformity is in the root cause & action plan stage, or while it is waiting on actions. This is deliberately wider than root causes, which lock as soon as the analysis stage ends — you need to be able to adjust an in-flight action without reopening the analysis.

Automatic advance of the parent

This is the behaviour most worth knowing:

When the last open action on a nonconformity closes, the parent record advances itself to the close progress report stage.

Nobody has to notice that the final action landed. The check runs whenever any action transitions into an inactive state, so cancelling the last outstanding action advances the record just as completing it does.

tip

If a record seems to have moved on unexpectedly, look at its actions. An action that was cancelled rather than performed still counts as closed for the purposes of this advance.