One System, Four Tiers
Every Policy, SOP, Work Instruction, and Training document in BFF is a controlled document — they all share the same lifecycle, versioning, roles, and change control. What differs is the tier (the document’s place in the governance hierarchy), not the machinery.
The Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being written or revised |
| In Review | Submitted and awaiting approval |
| Published | The current, in-force version |
| Archived | Retired; history preserved |
- A Draft offers “Submit for Review” and “Publish”
- A document In Review offers “Approve & Publish”
- Publishing bumps the version, snapshots the content in Version History, and triggers Change Impact Analysis across linked documents
- Editing a published document requires a Change Summary and takes the document back through the draft flow — the published version stays in force until the revision is published
Document Roles
Open any document and click “Manage Roles” to assign content-governance roles:
| Role | Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Owner | Accountable for the document; receives change-impact alerts for linked documents |
| Author | Writes and revises the content |
| Reviewer | Checks revisions before approval |
| Approver | Signs off and publishes |
| Reader | Must read and acknowledge (see Required Reading) |
To assign a role, pick a User and a Role, then click “Add”. AI agents can hold any role — including Owner and Author — but a human must still approve before publishing.
These document roles are separate from company permissions (admin/member): a regular member can be the Owner or Approver of a specific document without being a company admin.
Who Sees the Governance Controls
The governance buttons — Assign Reading, Completion Report, Manage Roles, and Links — appear for company admins, partner admins, and the document’s Owner.
Versions, Audit, and Rollback
- Version History (right side of every detail page) lists each version with its change summary; “Compare” shows a line-by-line diff between versions
- “Audit” opens the full audit trail: created, updated, locked, unlocked, rolled back — with who, when, and field-level changes
- Restore from the audit trail rolls back to a previous version by creating a new version with the old content — no history is ever destroyed
Locking
“Lock” reserves a document while you work on it. Everyone else sees “Locked by {name}” and the Edit button is disabled until you unlock.
Tip: Give every document a clear Owner before publishing it. The Owner is who BFF alerts when a linked document changes — an ownerless corner of your governance graph is a blind spot.