Managing an Organization Account (admins only)
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      3. Managing an Organization Account (admins only)

      Automatically Assigning Requests

      Note: Only admins can set how requests are automatically assigned

      Requests are assigned to one or more staff members to process. There are two levels of responsibility for a particular request:

      • Point of Contact: Each request is assigned a single Point of Contact who is responsible for ensuring that the request is fulfilled. A Point of Contact for a request will close out a request once it's complete and will coordinate the work of any additional departments or staff Helpers. They will receive email notifications for actions on a request as long as they are assigned as Point of Contact to that request.
      • Support Staff: Support staff help the Point of Contact process a request. Once someone is added as support staff they will receive email updates on the request and can perform actions such as uploading responsive documents.

      A Point of Contact will automatically be assigned to every request that is submitted based on the organization and department defaults. Depending on the default settings, Support Staff may also be automatically assigned. This document covers how to configure automatic assignment of requests based on organization and department settings. For information about how to manually update the Point of Contact and Support Staff for an individual request click here.

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      How to set a default Point of Contact

      A "Default Point of Contact" is the person who will be automatically assigned to all requests by default. If the request is assigned to a department that has its own Point of Contact, then the department Point of Contact will be the one assigned.

      Steps for setting a default Point of Contact

      1. Sign in to your account
      2. Click the ADMIN link in the header
      3. Click the Portal Settings link in the sub-header
      4. Locate the Point of Contact field under Basic Information
      5. In the field for Point of Contact, select which user you want to be Point of Contact for the portal
        • Only Admins can be the point of contact for the portal.
      6. Click SAVE.

      How to set a department Point of Contact

      You can help distribute the responsibility and workload of responding to requests across your organization by automatically assigning a Point of Contact based on the assigned department(s). When you set a Point of Contact for a department any requests assigned to only that department will automatically be assigned to them, overriding the organization-wide Point of Contact. When a request is assigned to multiple departments, you will have the option of selecting which of the departments default Point of Contact is the Point of Contact for the request.

      The Point of Contact can be set when the department is created but this is not required. The steps below are for setting the Point of Contact for a department that has already been created. For information about how to create a department, including setting default Point of Contact click here.

      Steps for setting a department Point of Contact

      1. Sign in to your account
      2. Click the ADMIN link in the header
      3. Click the Departments link in the sub-header
      4. Click the Edit icon () next to the department you’d like to set the Point of Contact for
      5. Select a user from the Point of Contact drop-down menu.
      6. Click the SAVE button

      How to automatically add Support Staff to all requests

      You can set users to be added as support staff (by default) to all requests. This setting is useful if you have staff, such as a lawyer, who wants to be kept update on all requests but is not responsible for fulfilling the request themselves.

      Steps for automatically adding Support Staff to all requests

      1. Sign in to your account
      2. Click the ADMIN link in the header
      3. Click the Users link in the sub-header
      4. Click the Edit icon () next to the user you want to update
      5. Check the box “Add as staff to ALL requests” (right above the Backups section)
      6. Click the SAVE button

      How to automatically add Support Staff to department requests

      You can set any user in a department to automatically be assigned to all requests that are assigned to that department. This is distinct from the Point of Contact who has primary responsibility for a request.

      Support Staff can be auto-assigned to a department when the department is created. The steps below are for auto-assigning Support Staff for a department that has already been created. For information about how to create a department, including auto-assigning Support Staff, click here.

      Steps for automatically adding Support Staff to department requests

      1. Sign in to your account
      2. Click the ADMIN link in the header
      3. Click the Departments link in the sub-header
      4. Click the Edit icon () next to the department that contains the users you want to automatically add as support staff on department requests
      5. Click the Toggle (toggle.png)next to the user(s) you would like to automatically add as support staff on department requests
      6. Click the SAVE button