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Controlled Documents

Creating and maintaining the procedures and manuals published to the fleet, including the two content types, password protection, and assigning vessels and reading policies.

  • Management

Database → Controlled Documents is where the office writes and maintains the procedures, manuals and other controlled paperwork the crew read on board. A controlled document belongs to the company and can be published to many yachts at once.

This entry appears only with the full ISM module.

Finding your way around

The page has two panels. Pick a category on the left to see its documents on the right (until you do, the page asks you to select one). Above the list are a Documents count, an Add Document button, an archive toggle (Show archived / Show active), and filters for name, status, vessel and content type — the vessel list starts with a Not assigned to any vessel option. Add Document is not offered in the archived view.

The columns

Each row shows the number, the Name, the Content type, Updated At, the published Version, and a Status chip:

  • Draft — nothing published yet, so crew cannot see it on a yacht.
  • In review — a version is waiting for approval.
  • Published — live and up to date.
  • Pending draft — live, with a newer draft in progress on top of it.
  • Archived — withdrawn from use.

Creating a document

With a category selected, click Add Document. New Controlled Document asks for:

  • Name — required, up to 120 characters.
  • Description — optional, up to 500 characters.
  • Password protected — tick it and users must enter their password in order to view the document on a yacht.
  • Content type — one of two ways of holding the content:
    • Built-in editor — author the document directly in a rich-text editor with versioned history.
    • Uploaded file — upload an existing file for each version. The file picker accepts a PDF.

Creating the document also starts version 1.0.0 as a draft and opens the document page.

The content type is fixed once the document exists — afterwards you can change only the name, the description and the password setting. If you need the other kind, create a new document.

The document page

The header shows the document's name, its content type, its description, and an Archived chip if it has been withdrawn. Below that are four tabs:

  • Versions — the version history and the place where content is written, reviewed and published. See Versions, Review and Publishing.
  • Details — Name, Description and Password protected, with Save changes. These describe the document as a whole, so changing them creates no version and needs no approval.
  • Vessels — assign the document to yachts across your fleet and manage each yacht's reading policies from one place (see below).
  • Audit — a timeline of what happened to the document and who did it.

Back to Documents List returns to the list, prompting first if you have unsaved changes.

A draft of a built-in-editor document can also be written by Nauticare AI, which opens in Edit mode when you edit the draft — see The AI Builder.

Duplicate, move, archive, restore, remove

  • Duplicate opens Duplicate Controlled Document, asking for a New document name and a Category. It copies the published version's content, or the open draft's if nothing is published yet; the copy starts as a fresh draft 1.0.0 with no vessel assignments and no history. It is unavailable until the document has a version.
  • Move puts the document in another category. It is disabled while the document is assigned to any vessel — unassign it everywhere first.
  • Archive withdraws the document. Archived documents disappear from every yacht, can no longer be moved or duplicated, and their name, description and password setting can no longer be changed; the list offers View in place of Edit. Archiving is refused while a vessel profile still includes the document; the message names the profiles.
  • Restore brings an archived document back.
  • Remove deletes the document, its versions and its files permanently, along with its vessel assignments. Only an archived document can be removed, and only a Management Admin sees the action.

Assigning vessels and reading policies (Vessels tab)

Two things must be true before crew see a document on board:

  1. The document has a published version and is not archived. Yachts only ever see published, unarchived documents.
  2. The document is assigned to that yacht — on the document's Vessels tab, in Vessel Settings → Controlled Documents, or automatically when the yacht is created from a vessel profile that includes it.

On the Vessels tab:

  • Until a version has been published, the tab notes Publish a version before assigning this item to vessels.
  • Once published, the table lists every active yacht with its Vessel name, Policies count (No policies, the policy count, or No ISM licence), an Assigned? switch, and a Manage policies action (View policies for read-only accounts) on assigned yachts. Yachts without an ISM licence cannot be assigned, and an archived document can be unassigned from yachts but not assigned to more.
  • Clicking Manage policies opens the reading policies for that yacht (Who on <vessel> must confirm they have read the current published revision), where you can add, edit or delete policies just as in Vessel Settings → Controlled Documents.
  • When the document is assigned to more than one yacht, Copy policies to other vessels opens Copy policies from <vessel>. Pick the target yachts in Copy to vessels (or click Select all assigned vessels) and click Preview to see which policies will be removed, added or skipped (when a target yacht lacks a policy's ranks or departments), then click Apply to replace each target yacht's reading policies for this document.

Publishing a new version replaces the document on every assigned yacht at once.

Who can change it

Creating, editing, duplicating, moving, archiving and restoring documents, as well as assigning vessels and managing or copying reading policies, requires a Management Admin or Management User account; removing an archived document requires a Management Admin. A Management Viewer can open, read and download every document and version and view vessel policies, but sees no editing actions.