Document control that can’t skip its own approval gate

Numbered, versioned documents that move Draft → Review → Approved, where the author can never approve their own work. Read acknowledgements tell you who has seen the current version. Obsolete versions stay for the record and leave the shop floor.

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Part of OpSemble Quality (QMS): £7 per user per month on top of the £29/month platform fee. 14 days free, no card required.

OpSemble controlled document register with document numbers, versions and approval status

What you get

Numbering and versions

Every document has a number and a version history. Each version keeps its own file, so you can see exactly what was in force on any date.

Stage-gate approval

Submit for review, submit for approval, approve or reject. Separation of duties is enforced: an author can’t approve their own document.

Read acknowledgements

Distribute a document and each person acknowledges it. The acknowledgement report shows who has read the current version and who hasn’t.

Obsolete, not deleted

Retire a document and it leaves circulation but stays in the record, which is what an auditor expects to find.

Electronic signatures

Approvals and acknowledgements carry an e-signature with name and timestamp, so the audit trail is a filter on real records.

Linked to training and safety

Link a procedure to a training course so a new version can trigger retraining, and to the risk assessments and permits it governs.

How it works

Draft

Upload the file or generate the document. It gets a number and version 0.1.

Review and approve

Route it to a reviewer, then an approver. Rejections go back with comments; the trail records every step.

Distribute and acknowledge

Send it to the people who need it. They acknowledge on their phone; the report shows who hasn’t.

Revise or retire

A new version starts the workflow again. When it’s superseded, the old one goes obsolete and stays on file.

ISO 9001 document control for businesses that run on SharePoint folders

ISO 9001:2015 clause 7.5 is unfussy about the medium and strict about the behaviour: documented information must be identified, reviewed, approved, available where it’s needed, and protected from unintended change. A shared folder fails the last three the moment someone emails a copy to the shop floor. Nobody knows which version is in force, and the approval, if it happened, is in someone’s inbox.

OpSemble makes the behaviour the default. A document can’t be published without passing its gate. The person who wrote it can’t be the person who approves it. The current version is the one people see; superseded versions are kept but marked obsolete. When a procedure changes, the acknowledgement report shows who has read the new one, and a linked training course can require them to prove it.

The same controls extend beyond quality. Site documents in the Health & Safety module can be read and signed by contractors and visitors before they arrive, and company documents in HR can be acknowledged from the employee portal, so the pattern of controlled document plus recorded acknowledgement runs through the whole platform.

Enterprise document control tools price by the module and the implementation. OpSemble Quality is £7 per user per month on top of a £29 platform fee, and includes NCRs and CAPAs, audits, approved suppliers and an ISO 9001 clause register. 14-day free trial, no card required.

Frequently asked questions

What file types can I control?

Any file you upload: Word, PDF, spreadsheets, drawings. Each version keeps its own file, and you can also generate a document from a template inside OpSemble.

Can an author approve their own document?

No. The workflow enforces separation of duties: the person who submits a document for approval cannot be the person who approves it.

Can staff acknowledge documents from their phone?

Yes. Distributed documents are acknowledged in the browser on any device, and the acknowledgement report shows who has and hasn’t read the current version.

Are old versions kept?

Yes. Every version and its file are retained. Superseded documents are marked obsolete and leave circulation without leaving the record.

How does it help with ISO 9001?

The workflow, version history, acknowledgements and e-signatures give you the identification, review, approval and change control that clause 7.5 asks for, and each document can be linked as evidence in the ISO 9001 clause register.

What does it cost?

Quality (QMS) is £7 per user per month, on top of the £29/month platform fee. 14-day free trial, no card required.

Put your first procedure through the gate

Quality (QMS) is one switch in your OpSemble tenant. Upload a procedure in the trial and try the approval workflow with a colleague.

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