| Role | Executor |
|---|---|
| Proposed by | Kristopher Dunstan, Temora Shire Council |
| Designed and Developed by | Anomaly Software Pty Ltd |
All councils in New South Wales are required to digitise all documents related to a property. These are currently held in large shelving at each council. Rather than force a traditional document management system to handle the use case, Temora Shire Council proposes to purpose built a system to properly handle the use case.
These documents are filed against a sub-division, this changes as land parcels and divided or combined.
Documents are generally filed against:
- A function, such as a general correspondence, sewer diagram
- An application such as a development application for an extension
This is completely a back office function with no customer facing interfaces proposed at this stage.
| Dependency | Required |
|---|---|
| Has a customer facing interface | ❌ No |
| Provides a backoffice workflow | ✅ Yes |
| Payments | ❌ No |
| Send SMS messages | ❌ No |
| Send Email via SMTP | ✅ Yes |
| Large object store | ✅ Yes |
| Geo features | ❌ No |
At it's core the feature aims to provide a purpose built electronic document filing system aimed at addressing the need of maintaining an electronic copy of all property related files.
Property files are stored against the true representation of a property, that Wattle is already aware of, these are identified by an Lot, Section and Deposited Plan which is linked to a street address.
The user will primarily locate a subdivision before accessing the documents. It's proposed that we use a full text search engine to index the property and file related meta data.
The user will enter either Lot/Section/DP (complete or partial) or autocomplete a street address.
The user is presented with the matching properties, the user will select a property to access/manage files and/or use the collaboration features.
When a set of search results are displayed, the following information should be presented:
- Date and User that last interacted with the property file
- Number of objects across the property file, grouped by the folder name?
- Links to pinned items
- Last comment left against a file
The files are categorised using a pre-defined set of folders (i.e General correspondence) or by creating one in particular to development application.
Development application related folders follow the pattern YYYY/NN where YYYY is the year followed by a NN number generated by the NSW Planning Portal.
These two section should be grouped to indicate they are distinct.
Particular folders will be available for integration, see later stage of the RFC.
Administrators of the system will be able to manage the fixed folder structure. The system should guide the user in creating the Development Application related folders by enforcing the naming convention.
Upon identifying a folder or having created one, the user will be presented with a list of documents in the folder.
If the user choose to download the document, a record of this will be made against the document.
Normal users can request deletion of the file, a request will be sent to an Administrator to complete this action.
Users can use the commenting feature (described later in the RFC) to communicate with other users of the system.
A designated area be provided for the user to be able to upload new documents, this can be a drag and drop or click to select style action, the user will be required to provide:
- A required title for the upload, this can be auto populated from the title
- An optional description
The system will automatically record:
- Who uploaded the document
- When was the document uploaded
A document can be pinned, this is highlighted in the user interface so every user can get access to the document at a quick glance.
Pinned items appear for all users in the system.
Any user may ping or unpin a document.
Each pin or unpin is recorded on the history logs.
Each activity against a folder or a file eg:
- Creation of a folder
- Upload of a document
is required to be logged and displayed as a chronological set of events.
This provides a clarity on how the matter has been dealt with between various staff members.
Each section of the system should feature an open commenting feature, where all staff members can leave notes either at the property level or folder or document.
This is analogous to how notes are left in the physical folders.
Comments will not feature threads.
The interface should distinguish between comments left by the logged in user and other users.
The system should allow the user to select documents and send it to the owner of the property (subject to this information being available).
The user is able to attach a textual message which is included in the email payload.
The system logs a record of having sent that particular file by the logged in user.
The council is required to follow up on various correspondence, the proposed feature allows the user to set a reminder against a particular file to follow up with the owner of the property
Dear User,
You requested us to remind you to follow up with Kris Dunstan about:
- Building a property certificates
for Lot 2, Section 2, DP 2288
105 Loftus St, Temora NSW 2666
on 2nd September 2020
This sub feature is still seeking clarification.
iAuditor is an application made by SafetyCulture, it's a rather popular platform for creating and executing forms for inspections.
Temora Shire Council proposes to use their platform to conduct building and property inspections (also reference RFC-005), it's intended that a copy of the result is filed against a particular folder.
SafetyCulture provide an API for their platform and could be used to achieve this integration.
Document can only be removed by Administrators.
Upon deletion of a document, the document is shelves in an isolated state for 90 days before permanent deletion, during this period a document may be recovered by an Administrator.
These events should be logged.
A general user may request a document to be removed (this is to cater for errors made during the process). If a request is placed, all Administrators must be notified and one of them must approve the deletion.
A file deleted by demand must follow the same isolation lifecycle as files deleted directly by an Administrator.
Cross reference with RFC-002
RFC-002 provides a workflow solution for building property certificates, this has been a cornerstone feature of Wattle.
RFC-006 requests RFC-002 to consider automatically filing the uploaded certificates to the RFC-006 managed document library.
The following are conversations from Temora Shire Council, these will be used as guidelines but may not be the process followed by the general community.
- View Only – All admin, engineering staff etc
- Env Services Dept Staff – Can create a DA Sub-folder and add any information to any part of the property file
- Super User – Can archive a folder/create new property folder – as per subdivision example previously given
Development Application Sub Folder titles could be:
- Administrative – Application forms, HOW Insurance, OB permits, Notification letters, Fee Schedules
- Plans – Site Plan, Architectural, Structural Engineers
- Supporting information – Soil Tests, Statement of Environmental Effects, Wind Terrain etc
- Notes – Planning Reports, determination considerations etc
- Consents – DA Consent, CC Consent, CDC Consents, Section 68 Approvals