Lifecycle control
GxPControlled Document Lifecycle
From draft to disposed — one governed path.
Every document follows a governed path — draft, in review, approved, effective, superseded, obsolete, archived, disposed. Approval holds a document until it is formally released, and only the effective version is the one your teams read.
What you get
Built to hold up under scrutiny
One effective version, always
Releasing a new version supersedes the old one automatically and advances the pointer everyone reads — no stale SOPs in circulation.
Effective dating & release
Approved documents are held until they’re released to effective, so a document is never in force before its go-live date.
Supersede, retire, obsolete
Retiring or superseding a document tracks the dates and flags any outstanding controlled copies for recall.
Capabilities
Inside this capability
- Draft → in-review → approved → effective → superseded → obsolete → archived → disposed
- Approval-then-release model in controlled mode; single approved state in simple mode
- Automatic supersession of the prior effective version
- Typed document relations — supersedes, format-of, references
- Stable document identity separated from immutable content versions
- Choose controlled (GxP) or simple (review-only) mode per category
How it flows
Step by step
- 1
Draft
Author creates or uploads, working from a template and category defaults.
- 2
Review & approve
Routed through the configured approval chain with e-signatures.
- 3
Release to effective
QA releases; the current-version pointer advances for all readers.
- 4
Supersede / retire
A new effective version supersedes the last; retired docs go obsolete.
FAQ
Lifecycle — questions
No. In controlled mode an approved document is held until it is explicitly released to effective, so nothing is in force ahead of time.
It is automatically superseded — its supersede date is recorded, a supersedes relation is written, and any outstanding controlled copies are flagged for recall.
Ready to put your documents on the record?
See how YourDocVault controls the full lifecycle — with the audit trail, e-signatures and controlled copies your quality system needs.