Environmental Main Forms

A main form is the register that environmental records are opened in. It decides three things the records underneath cannot decide for themselves: how they are numbered, who may do what in them, and which processes they may cover.

The third one is what makes an environmental main form more than a label. A register that names its processes can be asked whether it is complete — and "which of our processes have no environmental record" is the question an ISO 14001 audit opens with.

Fields

• Code / Name
  The register's identity.

• Code template
  The pattern that numbers records opened here, for example CAF-{{counter}}. Optional.

• Code template editable
  Whether a person may overwrite the generated code.

• Counter start value / increment / width / padding character
  How the counter behaves. Width and padding turn 7 into 00007.

• Active
  Controls whether the form is offered when opening a new record.

• Authorizations
  The authorization matrix — see below.

• Linked processes
  The processes this register covers — see below.

The code template is optional

A main form can do one of three things:

• Issue codes — a template with {{counter}}, not editable.
• Issue codes that may be overwritten — the same, with code template editable set.
• Leave naming to the person — no template at all.

If a template is given it must carry {{counter}}, and one without it is refused when you save. Without a counter every record under the form would be handed the same code, and the failure would arrive later, on somebody else's save.

The record's code field shows the template, never a preview of the next number. A preview would promise a code somebody else may consume first, and showing the template is also how the system tells "untouched" from "typed by hand".

note

The counter advances per main form. Two forms given the same template both start at 1, independently.

The authorization matrix

Each row grants one identity a set of operations within this register:

Operation	Allows
Create	Opening a new record here.
View	Reading the records in this register.
Update	Editing a record that is open for editing.
Revise	Opening a new round on a record in force.
Delete	Removing a record.
Cancel	Standing a record down, or giving up a revision.
View past revisions	Reading the earlier rounds of a chain.

Rows accept users, roles, user groups, positions and organization units, so authorization follows the organization rather than a list of names. The matrix is held on the main form and never copied onto a record — a change takes effect immediately on everything under the register.

A row that grants no operation at all is refused.

Linked processes

This is what the environmental main form adds over its sibling modules' registers.

Each row links the register to one business process. The record form's process picker is then narrowed to those processes, and the coverage report can ask which of them have no record.

Three things about the link are worth knowing:

• The link is to the process chain, not to one revision. A process being revised does not break the link, and does not orphan the records that name it. The revision that was picked is kept as evidence alongside it.
• The process name is copied as it read when linked, so a rename later still leaves the register readable.
• One row per process chain, enforced — a register cannot name the same process twice.

The picker respects record-level process permissions

Processes are individually authorized, so the picker shows only processes you are allowed to open — not every published process in the system.

The same filter runs on save, so a process id posted directly cannot get past it. This matters more than it looks: without it, building a register would quietly show an administrator the names of processes they have no right to read.

tip

Link processes to a main form only when the register really is responsible for them. The coverage report reads this list as the denominator — over-linking turns a useful gap report into a permanent list of things nobody intended to assess.

Quick aspect entry

Quick entry is the same create screen on a route that names no main form, so the form becomes a field on the screen rather than part of the address.

Forms you may create in	Quick entry	Menu landing
More than one	An ordinary picker, empty	The form list
Exactly one	The field arrives filled and read-only	Straight into that form's records
None	An empty state	An empty state

Quick entry asks about create; the menu shortcut asks about view. Somebody who may read three forms but write in none gets the form list and an empty quick entry — the expected outcome, not an inconsistency.

Creating a main form

1. Open Environmental Management → Definitions → Main Forms and choose New.
2. Enter the code and name.
3. Decide the code template — or leave it empty and name records by hand.
4. Build the authorization matrix.
5. Link the processes this register covers.
6. Save.

tip

One main form per management-system scope, not per department. The register's boundary should match the boundary your ISO 14001 certificate describes, because that is the boundary an auditor will ask you to demonstrate completeness within.