Software/ Records Request Review & Redaction
Records Request Review & Redaction
Review once. Deliver the right records every time.
Versatile brings paper and electronic records into the same redaction workspace. Paper records are scanned into images; OCR reads each page as it opens and frames words for selection and search. Email and DOCX files are converted to PDF for the same review. The original stays unchanged, and a current redacted copy can be reused for a later request.
Both enter the same redaction workspace ↓
One loop, from the request to the copy
Requesters file a request in the portal. The review starts automatically when your organization enables that option, or a clerk starts it. Reviewers redact in the browser, and clerks approve and deliver the copies. The requester is notified and sees only the records released for that request.
Request
In the Versatile portal, Corporate-Wide Access, a requester asks for a box, a file from the file room, or records declared in Versatile, including their electronic content. One request can hold several records. The request is visible to the requester and the clerk from the moment it is filed, with its status: requested, under review, delivered.
The review starts
A clerk can open the request and start a review. Or, when your organization enables automatic start, filing a request launches the same review right away. Tasks follow the assignments your organization has set, so an assigned reviewer sees the work in My Tasks without waiting for a clerk to check the queue. Either way, the review follows your organization's template and includes the request number and every requested record. If a record already has a current redacted copy for that kind of request, the redaction step is skipped and the audit history says which copy was reused.
Redact
In My Tasks the redaction task is labeled as one and opens straight into the workspace. The task pane lists the documents with their state, not started, marks saved, or redacted copy made, and a single button starts on the first document left. Marks save as they go. Applying the marks produces a redacted copy. The original is never changed. A document that cannot be redacted yet stays in the review with the reason shown, rather than being silently skipped. Completing the step with a document left unredacted asks first.
Approve and deliver
The clerk sees whether each redacted copy is current, stale, or missing. Current copies can be delivered to the request, while a stale record waits for a new review. Delivery updates the request status and notifies the requester.
See
The requester opens the link in the notice, signs in, and sees the redacted copies inline. The originals cannot be reached through that path by anyone.
Redact once. Deliver many.
A redacted copy is a real record in Versatile, linked to its original, its version, and the basis it was redacted on: the general public, or the subject of the record asking for their own information. The next request for the same record, on the same basis, is answered from the existing copy, without an attorney's time.
Stale the moment the original changes
When the original gets a new version, the copy is flagged stale and delivery waits for a new review.
The original is never touched
Redaction always produces a new copy beside the original. Security, retention, audit, and search treat the copy as a record of its own.
Made for safe delivery
Redactions are applied to a new, image-based copy. The original remains available to authorized staff, while the requester receives only the copy released to them.
The redaction workspace
Reviewers work in the browser, on the page itself. Scanned paper and born-digital documents are redacted the same way, and every mark says why it was made.
Every word outlined
As a scanned page opens for review, optical character recognition (OCR) finds its words and frames them for selection. Born-digital PDFs supply their own text. The reviewer works on either page in the same way, and the side list identifies the word's source and, for OCR text, the recognition confidence.
Mark the way you read
Click a word. Drag along a line. Double-click a whole line. Draw a rectangle over a signature, a letterhead, or anything recognition did not catch. Marks show as a red strikethrough while the review is in progress.
Find and mark sensitive details
The pattern library offers 35 ready-to-use searches for details such as Social Security and phone numbers, even when the reviewer does not know the exact value. Built-in checks help rule out invalid numbers, and a tester shows what a pattern will find before it is used. Reviewers can also search for a name or a list of names and mark every match at once. Search handles words broken across lines, accents, and words split by OCR.
Say why
Each mark carries an exemption code from the organization's list, and an optional label that appears over the black box. The codes and labels are recorded with the redacted copy.
Apply, with nothing underneath
The marks are applied to a new, image-based redacted copy, so there is no hidden text under the black boxes to recover. The copy can optionally carry a fresh searchable text layer, so it still works with full-text search.
Several documents in one task
When a task holds more than one document, the workspace steps through them with Previous and Next, so a whole request is reviewed without leaving the page.
Stop, resume, and work from the keyboard
Marks autosave, so a reviewer can stop and come back. Marks are visible to the people assigned to the review and never to the requester. Reviewers can make and remove every mark from the keyboard through the mark list.
Built into the platform, not bolted on
One loop for paper, electronic records, and email
A box fulfilled by Scan on Demand, a file from the file room, an electronic document, and an email all arrive at the same review task and the same delivery page.
Email, redacted properly
An email message is delivered as a PDF: the header block first, with sender, recipients, date, subject, and the attachment names, then the body. Recipient addresses are words on the page and can be redacted like any other. Each attachment is reviewed as its own record with its own redacted copy, so the message can be released while an attachment is held back. The original email remains unchanged.
More formats through converters
Electronic records that are not already PDFs, including DOCX files, are converted to PDF before they enter the same redaction workspace. Administrators can add or update converters without a server release. If a record has no configured converter, the review holds it for follow-up instead of silently skipping it.
Pieces that stand alone
Redaction works on any document without a request or a workflow. Delivery works without a review. The workflow designer has a Redaction option for any step, with the reviewer or team assigned there, so each organization wires the loop its own way.
The requester sees only what was released
Access to delivered copies is by membership in the request, not by folder rights. Strangers, and the original documents, are refused on that path every time.
For the people who answer records requests
Public records, FOIA, and open-records offices in government, and any organization that discloses records under a legal duty. Legal and compliance staff who review and redact. Records clerks and record centers that receive, route, and fulfill requests. And the public and internal requesters who wait for the answer.