Status of questions

• The System status of a question e.g. Allocated or Referred to client, is automatically updated as the question progresses through the answering process.
• The Progress status e.g. 50% complete, is selected by the librarian as they work on the question from values set by the System administrator in the Progress code table.
• Clients can see the status of a question, but they cannot see the draft answer. Only after a question is closed can clients see the answer.  The status the client sees can be different to the status that the staff member sees, e.g. staff might see “Not approved” and clients might see “Progressing” giving staff the opportunity to communcate issues like “Not approved”, more appropriately.

Every question is allocated a System status, as it enters the system. This status is then automatically updated by the system as various actions are performed on the question.

Librarians are asked to select an appropriate Progress status each time they use the Answer screen for a question, as a Progress status cannot be automatically determined.

A status is therefore expressed as: <System status> (<Progress>) for example “Allocated (10% complete)”

System statuses are defined by RefTracker system administrators who can determine what is seen by the client, by amending the client description in the System status code table. Some example system statuses are: Allocated, Referred to client, Part answer sent, Client responded, Closed successfully, etc.

When a staff member works on a question with a status indicating an action by another party, e.g. “Updated by client” or “Reopened by third party”, the status will be reset to “Updated”, or “Allocated”, if the question is also being reallocated to the staff member.

Progress statuses are defined by your library using the Progress statuses code table. Usually the table contains percentage complete values, e.g. “25% complete”, “50% complete”, “75% complete”, but your organisation’s system may be set up to use words like “Progressing well”.

The Progress status of a question is automatically set to “Completed” when a question is closed.