Using New in Post date mode

Your System administrator may make some forms available for use in Post date mode. Post date mode simply allows the details of a question to be entered at some time after the question actually arrived – the date and time of actual receipt (Received date field), and the staff member who received it, as opposed to the staff member entering it, can be selected (“Created by” field), and when in Close now mode, the person who provided the Answer (selected in “Answered by”) and the actual date and time of closing.  Last useful dates in the past are also allowed.

Post date mode is often used when entering a backlog, or when clerical staff are employed to enter the details of questions. It can also be used by organisations with legal requirements for accuracy in the recording the date and time of receipt and answer provision. It is also commonly used when full details of a request need to be recorded (such as for billing purposes) for a request that was handled outside RefTracker – for example, by email or via a social networking product, or even where a response was delivered directly from an online database.

Post date mode can be used by all levels of user, as long as the Request form design allows Post date to be used.  Your system administrator can separately control who can use Post date for their own questions (all users by default), and who can use it on behalf of others using User signon Functions (Supervisors and above only by default).

To use Post date mode tick the Post date tick box in the top right hand corner.  You can then complete the Request form as you normally would but with the additional fields for “Received date” and “Created by”, and “Closed dated” and “Answered by” where appropriate.

The system remembers whether you used this form in Post date mode, last time you used it, and presents the form with Post date ticked or unticked according to that last use.

The first time you use Post date in a session, for a particular form, the system will default the “Received date” and “Date closed” to the current time, and the “Created by” and “Answered by” fields to the signed on user.  If, in the same session, you use Post date mode again, the system will remember that you used it that way and display initially with the “Received date”, “Created by”, “last useful date”,  “Answered by” and “Date closed”, as you last used them (on the presumption that you are most likely entering a backlog of work for a particular user, or day).

As it is important that these fields are entered correctly, and they have been defaulted to a value that might not be correct, they are highlighted with a coloured bar to their left.  The coloured bar is intended to provide a reminder to review, and reset if necessary, these important fields – so be very sure to check ALL the highlighted fields each time you use a form in Post date mode!

The History entry created when Post date is used correctly attributes the original recording of the question to the staff member selected at “Created by”, includes a note about who entered the details of the request into RefTracker, and attributes the closing actions and staff time used, if that is being recorded, to the staff member selected at “Answered by”. In this way, staff time used will be correctly attributed to the right staff member, in the right time period.