Automatically Assign Users to Requests

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

• Point of Contact (POC): 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 the Point of Contact for that request.
• Support Staff: Support staff helps 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 the automatic assignment of requests based on organization and department settings. Review the Update a Request's Point of Contact article for more information.

Important Note

• Only Admins can set how requests are automatically assigned.

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.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Select the Admin drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the portal.
   
3. Click Portal Settings on the Admin drop-down menu.
   
4. Select the Basic Information tab from the Portal Settings menu on the left-hand side, under the Organization Details heading.
   
5. Select a user from the Point of Contact drop-down menu as the portal's Point of Contact.
   
   Note: Only Admin users can be the point of contact for the portal.
6. Click the blue, rectangular Save button in the lower-left corner of the Basic Information section.
   

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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 department's 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. Review the Create and Manage a Department article for more information.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Select the Admin drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the portal.
   
3. Click Departments in the Admin drop-down menu.
   
4. Click the Edit button (pencil) 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 blue, rectangular Save button in the lower-left corner of the Edit Department section.
   

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Automatically Add Support Staff to 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 updated on all requests but are not responsible for fulfilling the request themselves.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Select the Admin drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the portal.
   
3. Click Users on the Admin drop-down menu.
   
4. Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the user you want to edit.
   
5. Check the box “Add as support staff to ALL requests portal-wide”, above the Backups section.
   
6. Click the blue, rectangular Save button below the Backups section.
   

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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. Review the Create and Manage a Department article for more information.

Instructions

1. Sign in to your account.
2. Select the Admin drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the portal.
   
3. Click Departments on the Admin drop-down menu.
   
4. Click the Edit button (pencil) next to the department that contains the users you want to automatically add as support staff on department requests
   
5. In the Department Staff section, toggle on the Auto-Assigned as Support option next to the applicable users.
   
6. The changes will update automatically.

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