Why Distributions
Distributions let you send documents, risk assessments, and forms to specific people or groups and track who has acknowledged them. Instead of emailing a policy and hoping people read it, you get a clear record of who saw what and when—essential for compliance and audits. Use distributions when you need proof that staff have read a policy, signed off on a risk assessment, or completed a form. The system sends notifications, tracks completion, and can send reminders to people who haven't acknowledged yet.
How to Create a Distribution
Go to Documents, Risks, or Forms and open the item you want to distribute
Click Manage in the header, then open the Distributions tab
Click New Distribution
Choose One-time or Recurring:
One-time: Send once to recipients now. Requires the document to have a published version, or the risk assessment/form to be published.
Recurring: Set up automatic distribution with triggers (e.g. when someone joins a group, when a new version is published, or on a schedule). You can create a recurring policy before the item is published.
Select recipients—individual users and/or groups. Recipients must have access to the item (e.g. if the document is in a restricted category, only users in allowed groups can be selected).
Choose the acknowledgment type:
Confirm Reading (documents, risk assessments): Recipients confirm they've read it
eSign (documents, risk assessments): Recipients must digitally sign
Quiz (documents only): Recipients must complete a quiz and get 100% correct
Form Submission (forms only): Recipients must submit the form
Set a due date (optional but recommended)
For recurring distributions, configure triggers:
Group Change: When someone joins a selected group, they receive the distribution
New Version (documents): When a major version is published, redistribute
Published Assessment (risk assessments): When the assessment is published
Published Form (forms): When the form is published
Schedule: Redistribute on an interval (e.g. annually)
Click Create to finish
Recipients see the distribution in their Inbox and receive notifications. Once they acknowledge, the completion is recorded in the audit trail.
Before You Start
You need the Manager role (or higher) for Documents, Risks, or Forms to create distributions. For one-time distributions, the document must have a published version, or the risk assessment/form must be published. For documents with restricted categories, recipients are limited to users who have access to that category.
Common Questions
Why can't I choose One-time? One-time distributions require a published version (documents) or published status (risk assessments, forms). If the item isn't published yet, use Recurring instead—you can trigger on publication.
Can I distribute to everyone in a group? Yes. Select one or more groups as recipients. When you use groups, anyone in those groups receives the distribution. If you enable Group Change, new members who join later will automatically receive it too.
What's the difference between Confirm Reading and eSign? Confirm Reading is a simple "I've read this" button. eSign requires a digital signature—use it when you need a stronger record of acknowledgement (e.g. for high-risk policies).