A required action policy turns an assigned form template or controlled document from something the yacht can use into something it must complete or read. Without a policy, a template or document is only available. With one, Nauticare tracks who has completed or read it and flags anything overdue as missing.
A new yacht can start with policies already in place if it was created from a vessel profile that includes them (see Database → Vessel Profiles).
Form template policies
Go to Vessel Settings → Controlled Documents → Forms and drill down through the categories to a template that is assigned to the yacht. Click its row, or its Manage policies action. Only assigned templates can be opened. Back to templates returns to the list.
The policy table shows Policy, Who?, Ranks / Departments, Frequency and Status, with Add Policy at the top and Edit and Delete on each row. A template can have several policies, for example a monthly one for engineers and a yearly one for everyone.
The settings for a form policy
- Policy Name (required): the name shown in the policy list and missing-form views.
- Who must complete this:
- Each crew member: everyone in scope needs a submission of their own. For SMS and Operations forms, a submission is linked to a person when added from their row in a Missing tab. For templates in the Crew family, Each crew member is always used.
- At least one crew member: one submission by anyone covers the whole yacht. For drill templates, At least one crew member is always used.
- Apply to all ranks or specific ranks and departments:
- Turn on Apply to all ranks to cover the Captain and every crew member who holds a rank on the yacht (including ranks added later). Turning it on clears any selected departments.
- Leave Apply to all ranks off to pick one or more Applicable Ranks and Applicable Departments (labelled Responsible Ranks and Responsible Departments when At least one crew member is selected). A department stands for every rank in it, and the two lists add together. Captain can be picked as a rank.
- Frequency:
- Once: required until it has been submitted once, then never again.
- Recurring: set Every N and a unit of Day(s), Week(s), Month(s) or Year(s). The form is missing whenever nothing has been submitted within that period, counting back from today.
- Yearly in specific month: choose a Month. Before that month comes round each year, the form is not due. From that month to the end of the year, it is missing unless a submission was made during that month this year.
- Every N calendar months (used by drill form templates): set Every (months) N and choose the First due month and year.
- Enabled: a switch. A disabled policy stays in the list with its settings and can still be edited, but it no longer marks anything as missing. The Status column shows Disabled instead of Active.
Controlled document reading policies
A controlled document can have policies too. They make it required reading: each person in scope must confirm they have read the current published revision (see Reading Controlled Documents on the Vessel under SMS).
Go to Vessel Settings → Controlled Documents → Documents, pick a category on the left, and click Manage policies on an assigned document. Back to documents returns to the list.
The policy table shows Policy, Who must read it and Status. The Add Policy / Edit Policy window is the same as for forms, without Who must complete this and Frequency: a reading policy always applies to each person in scope, once per published revision. Policy Name, Apply to all ranks, Applicable Ranks, Applicable Departments and Enabled work in the same way.
Who can change policies
- Form policies: Management Admins, Management Users and the Captain with Vessel Settings → Edit can add, edit and delete form policies (though only Management Admins and Management Users can browse all company templates on the Forms sub-tab).
- Controlled document reading policies: Management Admins and Management Users with Vessel Settings → Edit can add, edit and delete reading policies.
- Management Viewers can view policies read-only.
What a policy produces
A policy sends nothing and schedules nothing on its own; Nauticare evaluates it whenever missing forms, drill matrices or reading obligations are checked. Only published, unarchived templates and controlled documents assigned to the yacht are counted.
- For forms with Each crew member, the missing list names each current crew member still outstanding whose rank the policy covers.
- For forms with At least one crew member, the missing entry is for the yacht as a whole and clears for everyone as soon as anyone submits the form.
- For controlled documents, each current crew member in the covered ranks or departments must confirm the current published version; publishing a new version requires a fresh confirmation.
For the missing-forms views, drill schedules and reading confirmations themselves, see the Operations, SMS and Crew sections.
Good to know
- A department's ranks are read dynamically, so editing a department under Crew → Departments immediately changes who every policy using it covers.
- A department used in a policy cannot be deleted under Crew → Departments until you remove it from every policy that uses it.
- A rank can be deleted even while a policy names it. The policy keeps showing the old rank name until you edit the policy and remove it.
- Unassigning a form template or controlled document from the yacht keeps its policies. They stop counting while unassigned and apply again if you assign it back.