How to edit and delete a Client Journal
This article outlines the different privileges required to edit and delete a Client Journal, both prior to and after a Journal has been locked.
Journal Entries are designed to lock within a specified timeframe after their creation, to preserve their integrity. By default, Journal entries are locked five days following creation, however, this period may be customised in System Preferences as required.
Prior to a Journal locking it may be edited by the Author or a Staff Member with the related Site/Service 'Team Leader' privilege, or by Staff with the 'Team Leader for ALL Services' global privilege.
Once a Journal has been locked, only Staff with the 'Edit Locked Journals' privilege are able to edit the Journal. The only exception to this is Staff who have been assigned a Journal Action. They can still select the 'Mark Complete' button to indicate the Action has been completed.
Regardless of whether a Journal has been locked or not, only Staff with the 'Delete Records' privilege can delete a Client Journal. Information on how to complete this is included in the relevant section below.
Detailed information on editing the different sections of a Journal record can be found in the How to create a Client Journal (case note) article, linked below for reference.
Privileges: 'Team Leader', 'Edit Locked Journals', 'Delete Records'
Audience: All
Summary
The following list summarises the content of this article. Click on the links below to take you to the relevant sections:
- What is a Locked Journal?
- Editing a Client Journal prior to the Journal locking
- Editing a Client Journal after it has been locked
- Deleting a Client Journal
What is a Locked Journal?
Journal Entries are designed to lock within a specified timeframe after their creation, to preserve their integrity.
By default, a Journal is set to lock five days following its Created Date, as configured on the Journals tab in System Preferences:
N.B. This setting can be amended as required. For more information regarding this configuration please review the Configuring Journals article linked below for reference.
Once a Journal has been locked, the ability to edit it is significantly restricted. Information on the different privileges required to edit and delete a Client Journal, both prior to and after a Journal has been locked is outlined in the related sections below.
Journal Date and Created Date
It is important to note that a Journal automatically locks within the configured time frame relative to the date the Journal was created i.e. the 'Created Date'.
When the 'Journal Date' i.e. the date displayed in a Journal record e.g. 23/03/2022 is different and later than the 'Created Date' e.g. 17/03/2022, this has the potential to cause confusion as to why the Journal has locked.
In these instances, the Created/Modified information accessed via the 'i' icon at the top of the record may be helpful for clarifying the 'Created Date' and therefore explaining why the Journal record has locked:
Editing a Client Journal prior to the Journal locking
Once a Client Journal has been created, only the following Staff are able to edit the Journal record prior to it locking:
- the Journal Author e.g. Abel
- a Staff Member with the 'Team Leader' privilege for the Site/Service the Journal has been created for e.g. Community Participation @ Melbourne (HQ)
- a Staff Member with the 'Team Leader for ALL Services' global privilege
All fields, other than the Client, Activity, Service, and Author will display as editable:
Staff with access to the Journal who do not have the relevant editing privileges
Staff who have access to a Journal e.g. Amanda who works in the Site/Service the Journal is related to, or Dave who works in another Site/Service in common with the Client, but these Staff do not have the relevant editing privileges, will have read-only access.
All fields will display as uneditable, and a blue notification message will display at the top; ' Journal Editing Restricted: to the Journal Author and Team Leaders for the nominated Site/Service':
Editing a Client Journal after it has been locked
Once the timeframe set for a Journal to lock has passed the Journal will be locked thereby significantly restricting the ability to edit it.
The privileges required to edit a locked Journal and the available fields for editing once the Journal has been locked are outlined below.
Staff with the 'Edit Locked Journals' privilege
Only Staff with the 'Edit Locked Journals' privilege are able to edit all fields in a Client Journal once it has been locked, other than Client, Activity, Service, and Author which remain fixed:
It is important to note, however, that many organisations do not grant any Staff Members this privilege due to the potentially far-reaching implications of editing Journals.
For more information please review the ' Delete Records and Edit Locked Journals Staff Account privileges' article, linked below for reference.
Journal Author and Staff with the related 'Team Leader' privilege
Once a Journal has locked, the Journal Author and a Staff Member with the related 'Team Leader privilege will have limited ability to edit the Journal.
A blue notification message will display at the top advising; ' Journal is Locked - only Tags, Actions, a Client Assessment or a Client Incident can be added':
If a Client Assessment or Client Incident have already been added to the Journal it will not be possible to add another:
Staff who are not the Author and do not have the related 'Team Leader' privilege
Once a Journal has been locked, the same editing rules apply as prior to the Journal locking for Staff who can access the Journal but who are not the Journal Author and do not have the related 'Team Leader' privilege. These Staff cannot edit any of the fields and will have read-only access.
A blue notification message will display at the top; ' Journal Editing Restricted: to the Journal Author and Team Leaders for the nominated Site/Service':
Staff who have been assigned an Action to complete but have no additional privileges
Once a Journal has been locked, Staff who have been assigned an 'Action' to complete but do not have any additional privileges are still able to utilise the 'Mark Complete' button to confirm the task has been completed, as long as they have access to the Journal:
All other fields are unavailable to them for editing.
A blue Notification message displays at the top advising; ' Journal Editing Restricted: to the Journal Author and Team Leaders for the nominated Site/Service':
Deleting a Client Journal
Regardless of whether a Journal has been locked or not, staff require the 'Delete Records' privilege in order to be able to delete the Journal record.
They do not need any additional privileges such as being the Journal Author, having the relevant 'Team Leader' privilege, nor do they require the 'Edit Locked Journals' privilege once the Journal has been locked, to delete the Journal record.
To delete a Client Journal select 'Delete Journal' from the Actions menu:
Once selected, a notification message displays asking ' Are you sure you want to delete this Journal? This change cannot be undone':
Selecting the 'Delete' button will delete the Journal, and regardless of where the Journal was accessed from e.g. an Activity or the Client record, the Staff Member will automatically be navigated back to the 'Journal' tab of the related Client record:
Staff who do not have the 'Delete Records' privilege
Staff who do not have the 'Delete Records' privilege will still see the 'Delete Journal' option displayed in the Actions menu, however, if they select this a notification message will display advising; ' Unable to delete Journal. The 'Delete Records' privilege is required to delete Journals':
For more information please review the ' Delete Records and Edit Locked Journals Staff Account privileges' article, linked below for reference.