Monitoring
Some nonconformities should not simply be closed on the strength of a report. When the corrective work needs to be verified in the field — the line ran clean for two weeks, the supplier's next three deliveries were correct, the retrained operator is still following the procedure — the close approver sends the record to monitoring instead of closing it.
Monitoring is a round of its own: it has its own responsible, its own deadline, its own result, and its own history on the record. The nonconformity waits while it runs.
Where it sits in the lifecycle
A monitoring round always returns the record to close approval — whether it was answered or called off. The approver then decides again: close it, or send it out for another round. There is no limit on how many rounds a record may go through, and every one of them stays in its history.
Sending a record to monitoring
At the top of the close approval screen there is one checkbox:
Send to monitoring before closing
Tick it and the screen swaps: what closing asks for stands down, and the round's own three fields take its place.
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Monitoring subject | What is to be verified, in the approver's own words |
| Due date | When the answer is expected. Drives the overdue badge |
| Responsibles | Who owes the answer. A user, a role or a team — one of them answering is enough |
There is one button on the screen, and it does what the checkbox says. With the box ticked it does three things in one move: it opens the round, raises a task for each responsible, and moves the record to Monitoring. With it clear, the same button closes the record.
You are only ever asked for the fields your own choice makes due. A record cannot be closed with a half-filled monitoring plan behind it, nor sent out with a half-filled close approval.
If no responsible can be resolved, nothing happens at all — the round is not opened and the record does not move. A round nobody owes an answer to would leave the nonconformity waiting forever.
Answering a round
Each responsible gets a standing task pointing at the monitoring answer screen. That screen shows the nonconformity read-only above the answer, so the round can be answered without opening the record separately.
| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| Report | What was found |
| Performed at | When the verification was actually carried out — which may not be the day it is reported |
| Attachments | Photos, measurements, delivery notes |
Answering the round completes every task on it and sends the nonconformity back to close approval.
Reading a round
Every round the record has been through appears as a card on its view page, newest first: the round number, where it stands, what was asked, the deadline, who owes the answer and when it was performed. Clicking the round number opens the whole round — plan and answer, including any attachments — in a modal over the record, so reading it never costs you the page you were on.
Cancelling a round
A round that no longer makes sense — the line was decommissioned, the supplier was dropped — is cancelled from the record's own monitoring panel, with a reason. The row is kept: a cancelled round stays in the history with its reason and with the name of whoever called it off. The record returns to close approval exactly as it would have after an answer.
Editing an open round
The subject, the due date and the responsibles of an open round can be changed. Changing the responsibles cancels the existing tasks and raises new ones; changing only the subject or the date leaves the tasks alone, so work already started is not thrown away.
While a record is under monitoring
The nonconformity is locked. It cannot be edited, and the close approver's task is gone until the round ends and the record comes back.
Letting the records that were waiting go on
A nonconformity is often opened from somewhere else — a customer complaint, an OHS risk assessment, an information security risk. Those records wait for the nonconformity to close before they can move on.
Monitoring can take weeks, and holding a complaint that long for a field verification that no longer concerns it is usually wrong. The close approval screen therefore offers a second choice alongside monitoring:
Do not hold the linked records during monitoring
Turn it on and the complaint, risk or assessment waiting on this nonconformity is released the moment the record enters monitoring, exactly as if it had closed. Leave it off and they keep waiting until the monitoring round ends and the record actually closes.
The release is one-way. A nonconformity coming back from monitoring to close approval does not pull the linked records back with it — work has started on them by then.
This choice exists on the nonconformity only. A customer complaint has no source record waiting on it, so its monitoring screen does not show it.
Permissions
| Permission | What it allows |
|---|---|
QCPA.NonconformityMonitoring | See monitoring rounds and answer one you hold a task for |
QCPA.NonconformityMonitoring.Update | Edit an open round's plan, and cancel a round |
QCPA.NonconformityMonitoring.Delete | Delete a round |
QCPA.NonconformityMonitoring.Design | Change the monitoring screens in FunctionDesigner |