Acumen User Guides
QC Module Guide
Once the Acumen Smart Document Solution software is installed and you re-open Microsoft Word, the “Acumen” tab will appear in the top ribbon of the Word application.
This is an access point to activate all of the Acumen Smart Document Solution features and the activation of this is detailed in the Getting Started Section of the User Guide. Once the appropriate credentials are entered, new tabs will be visible in the ribbon based on the features in your subscription.
Activation
Use of the features of the “QC” tab is simple. The default setting for this tool is inactive and the icons and functionality are greyed out and unresponsive. To activate the QC Module click the Initiate QC icon.
This will initiate a prompt to select from a drop-down list of available QC checklists. Select the one most applicable to your project and click OK.
A left-side navigation pane will open with the selected checklist and the tool will ask if you want to save a new version of the file. You can opt to do that now or later.
Along with the opening of the “Quality Control” pane on the left portion of the document, the top row icons will now be activated.
The proposed workflow for the QC module is as follows:
1. The drafting author will initiate the QC, select a checklist, and complete the Document information. The author will then Save the QC Version to hand over to the QC specialist or reviewer.
2. The QC reviewer will perform their review, complete all the elements in the selected checklist, and Save the QC Complete Version to hand back to the author or individual responsible for comment integration and resolution.
3. The author or individual responsible for comment integration and resolution will adjudicate and enter changes and reply to comments as needed and save the final QC Integration Complete Version.
Using the QC Module
The first step of the workflow is for the document information to be completed. The user clicks on the “Add Document Info” icon and a pop-up window opens to receive the information.
The QC reviewer performs their standard review of the document using notations, tracked changes, comments, etc. within the Word document as per usual. The checklist is available as a guide to help organize the review and to ensure that the review is comprehensive.
The QC reviewer has certain options to complete in the QC checklist pane. Each main area of focus has at least 1 subsection with required tasks within that subsection.
These can be expanded and compressed using the black arrow icon next to each section.
If a particular task required edits to the document during QC review, then the reviewer should select the pencil icon in the “Need Edits” column.
This will illuminate when selected and will alert the author to look for changes and also be recorded in the QC completion log file. The QC reviewer can also select the icon in the “Red Flag” column. if they need to highlight that a major finding was found. Any “Red Flags” must be resolved by the author prior to the completion of the review process.
Each section and each task must be recorded by the QC reviewer before they can complete their review. To complete a task or section the must select with the check mark for complete or the “N/A” icon.
If an entire section is either complete or not applicable to their review, the reviewer can select the icon at the Section level and have that setting apply to all sub tasks.
As a result of selecting the single action for the whole section, you will have all the tasks under that section noted as complete (or N/A).
The QC reviewer has the ability to customize the checklist beyond the core version selected at the beginning of the process. The user can select Add Task, Add Subsection, or Add Section to include new elements that help their review be as thorough and accurate as possible.
The user is also able to add comments to any task. To do so they click on the comment bubble icon and insert their comment and hit Save. Note: in subsequent versions the adjudicating author can respond to the QC reviewer comments with a separate field.
At any point in the process, a user can create an audit trail log of the actions performed and recorded. They need only to click the Generate Log icon and a Save to prompt will be launched and PDF of the log will be generated and available for saving.
The time-stamped output log displays all the selections (edits needed, red flags, done or N/A, comments) made by the QC reviewer in the process. Any new sections or subsections added to the master checklist will appear in the log output.
Once the entire checklist has been completed, the QC reviewer can up-version the document by clicking the “Save QC Complete Version”. This will save the document with a new name and will also automatically create and save a QC log form reflecting the actions performed.
The document is now ready for comment integration. Once this is completed (changes incorporated, red flags resolved, comments responded to as needed, etc.), the user can save to the final step of the process by clicking the “Save QC Integration Complete Version”).
At each step of process, the document will be saved to the specified location and renamed according to the step of the process (QC Version, QC Complete Version, and QC Integration Complete Version) and a log will be automatically generated at each save point to capture the progress of the QC review workflow.
Once installed, the “QC” tab will always appear in the Microsoft Word ribbon. You will not need to “reattach” the plug-in or re-enter your activation credentials.
For documents that you choose to use the QC Module features on, you just need to initiate QC and select a checklist and you are ready to go.
Update Tool
Under the Acumen tab found in the top ribbon is a button called Updates, this button can be used to update your Acumen Tool set to the latest version available without needing to go to the acumen site and receive the latest version. You can see if there is a newer version available as well via the update icon found in the top right.
When clicked it will show you what version you’re on, the latest version and if you are not up to date an update button will be available from which you can click to start the update process.
When the button is clicked it will open a installer wizard which you can follow to complete your update. Once done you can click Finish on the bottom of the window and now your tool set should be on the latest version.