An expiring document does not warn you

The insurance policy on a truck, the environmental permit, the ISO certificate a tender asks for. Each has an expiry date printed right on it. The trouble is that the document sits in a folder, and nobody looks at the date until someone asks for it: the police at a roadside check, the tender committee, the inspector during an audit. By then it is already too late.

Why expiry dates get lost

1. The date is on paper or in a PDF. To find it, you have to open the document. Nobody opens dozens of documents every day just to check a date.
2. It is not clear whose it is. The policy sits with procurement, the permit with operations, the certificate with quality. Each assumes someone else is on it.
3. Renewal takes time and depends on others. A new permit needs an application and an appointment with the authority. A certificate needs an audit. A supplier's document arrives when they send it. If you find out about the expiry a week before, there is no time left.

What usually expires in a company

• insurance policies: motor and fleet cover, buildings and stock, professional liability;
• vehicle documents: the periodic roadworthiness inspection, road tolls, tachograph calibration, the transport licence;
• permits: environmental, fire safety;
• certificates: ISO, product certificates, the accreditations tenders ask for;
• people's documents: licences and professional certificates, occupational health clearances, periodic training;
• documents from partners: suppliers' and subcontractors' policies and certificates, bank guarantees;
• powers of attorney and electronic signature certificates.

If you look down the list and cannot name a single date off the top of your head, you are not alone. That is what the rest of this article is for.

What you can do tomorrow, without any software

1. A register with five columns: the document, who is responsible for it, the expiry date, how long renewal takes and who has to send the new document.
2. Set the reminder by renewal time, not by the calendar. A policy renews in a day; a permit can take months. Set the alert as far ahead as renewal takes, plus a margin.
3. One person per document. Not a department: a name.
4. A 15-minute monthly check: what expires in the next 90 days and who is handling it.

The register works as long as someone keeps it up to date. It usually breaks at the first holiday or the first person who leaves.

What it looks like when the date works for you

In BP Documents, every document type can have a validity period. When you upload a document, its expiry date stays on it and you no longer have to open it to find out. For each type you choose how many days ahead the warning comes and who gets it: the document's owner, a group, or both. The warning arrives as a task with a person's name on it, not as one more email.

On the dashboard you see in one place what has already expired and what expires in the next 30 days, with the person responsible for each. You no longer go looking for the information: it comes to you.

When the new document has to come from a partner, you send them a request from the system. From there Termi, the colleague who never forgets a deadline, takes over: it reminds the partner, follows up if they do not answer and, if it still is not resolved, tells the person responsible.

The five steps, for documents

1. Find: you find the document and its date with one search, without asking anyone.
2. Understand: you see on the document who owns it, which contract, partner or vehicle it concerns and what was discussed about it.
3. Control: the dashboard shows what has expired and what expires soon.
4. Anticipate: you know early which renewals are coming in the next months and start them in time.
5. Autopilot: the system asks for the new document and keeps at it until it arrives.

You do not have to climb them all at once. See which step you are on and pick the next one.

Three questions for this week

• Which documents expire in the next 90 days?
• Who is responsible for each one, by name?
• For which of them does renewal take longer than the time that is left?