Overriding a form response
Forms get stuck. Somebody submits a review with the wrong figures, or leaves before finishing one, and the process cannot move. Two administrator overrides exist for exactly these cases, and both are deliberately separate from ordinary editing.
Before you reach for one
Section titled “Before you reach for one”An override is a person stepping into somebody else’s record. Prefer the ordinary route wherever it exists: ask the person to correct their own answer, or let the workflow’s escalation ladder chase them. Use an override when that has failed or cannot happen.
Both actions need the override permission, which is separate from being able to build or view forms.
Unlocking a submitted form for correction
Section titled “Unlocking a submitted form for correction”A submitted form is locked. Unlocking returns it to an editable state so the answer can be put right.
Use it when the content is wrong rather than when the process is stuck — a mistyped score, a section filled in by the wrong person.
Tell whoever submitted it. A form that reopens without explanation looks like the system lost their work, and the second submission is usually identical to the first because nobody told them what to change.
Force-completing a form
Section titled “Force-completing a form”Force-completing closes a form and locks it, whatever state it is in.
This is for the process rather than the content. Somebody has left, or a cycle has to close, and a form nobody will ever finish is holding a workflow open behind it.
What it does not do is make the answers true. A force-completed form is a record that the step was closed administratively, and anybody reading the results later should be able to tell that apart from a form somebody actually filled in.
Which to use
Section titled “Which to use”| Situation | Action |
|---|---|
| The answer is wrong and can be fixed | Unlock and have it corrected |
| Nobody is going to finish it and the process must move | Force-complete |
| The person is simply slow | Neither — let the escalation ladder chase them |
What this does to the workflow
Section titled “What this does to the workflow”Both actions change the state of one form, which is usually what the workflow behind it was waiting on. Expect the process to move as soon as you act, including any notification the next step sends.
That is worth a moment’s thought before force-completing several at once: the messages go out as each one moves.
Leave a trail
Section titled “Leave a trail”Neither action asks for a reason, and neither is obvious afterwards to somebody reading the record.
So say what you did somewhere durable — a note on the review, a message to the person, a line in whatever your team uses. An override that nobody can explain six months later is indistinguishable from a mistake.