ANTE User ManualPolicies
Governance → Policies is where your company writes its policies, gets them approved by a vote, publishes them, and collects employee sign-offs. Every change is kept as a numbered version, so you can always see what a policy said, who wrote it, and what changed. You need the Governance policy access permission to open the screens on this page.
Policy Life Cycle
A policy version moves through fixed stages. Only one revision of a policy can be in progress at a time, while the previously published version stays live until the new one replaces it.
| Status | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being written. Content can still change. | Edit, Save Draft, Submit for Review, or Delete the policy. |
| Voting | Submitted. The voters are casting Approve, Reject or Abstain. | Vote, Tally now (once everyone has voted), or Withdraw back to Draft. |
| Passed | The vote succeeded. | Publish Policy. |
| Published | Live. The previous published version, if any, moves to Archived. | Enable sign-off, start a New Version, or Archive. |
| Archived | Retired or replaced. | Read it, or Delete it. |
Under Review appears in the status filter and on the Overview, but submitting a draft goes straight to Voting; the vote is opened for you.
The Policy List
The list groups policies under their category, each group with a coloured dot, the category name, a count and a chevron to collapse it. Each row shows the title, a line of status detail (for example Created … · Not yet submitted for a draft, or Passed … · Ready to publish), the current version label and a status badge. When a published policy also has a newer version in progress, the row carries a second badge such as v1.1 · Voting, so reviewers can see a revision is under way.
- Filters — narrow by category or status; choosing a status also matches policies whose newer in-progress version is in that status. Clear resets both. The search box matches the policy title.
- Views — switch between list, card and compact layouts with the toggle on the right. They show the same policies.
- Open a policy — click its row (or card).
- Delete — a trash icon appears only on policies that are Draft or Archived; you are asked to confirm, and the deletion is permanent.
The buttons in the header are New Policy (opens the creation wizard) and AI Guided (imports policies from documents, see below). The Overview cards link here pre-filtered, for example ?status=published.
Creating a Policy
New Policy opens a four-step wizard: Mode, Basics, Sections and Review. You can click back to an earlier step at any time.
- Mode — how do you want to create this policy?
Choose Draft with AI (upload an existing policy or let AI fill in each section and suggest who it applies to) or Write it manually (you enter every section yourself, no AI). The wizard cannot continue until one is chosen.
- Basics — name, category and versionTitle*The policy name. Required.Category*Pick an existing category, or type a new name to create one on the spot. Required. Categories are managed under Policy Categories.Version labelDefaults to
v1.0. This is the first version of the policy.In AI mode there is also an optional Import from a file box. Upload a PDF, text, Markdown, JSON or image file (up to 10 MB) and AI pre-fills the title, category and sections in about 20–40 seconds; you can still change everything.
- Sections — the body of the policy
The wizard starts you with four sections: Purpose, Scope, Procedures and Compliance & Enforcement. For each section you can edit the title (for custom sections), type the content, tick the groups it applies to (All Employees, Contractors, Finance, HR, IT, Management, Operations, BPO Staff), reorder it with the up and down arrows, or delete it. Use Add section to add another: Purpose, Scope, Policy Statement, Roles & Responsibilities, Procedures, Compliance & Enforcement, or a Custom Section. At least one section is required to continue.
In AI mode each section has a Draft with AI button (you can add an optional instruction such as "make it stricter"), and Draft all empty fills every blank section at once. AI needs the policy title for context, and it asks before replacing text that is already there. Drafting takes roughly 10–30 seconds and needs the company's AI credentials to be configured.
- Review — check and save
A summary of the details, the creation method and every section, each with an Edit link back to its step. Save Policy creates the policy with its first version as a Draft and opens its page. Nothing goes to a vote yet.
A saved policy is only a draft. To start approval, open it and press Submit for Review (see Voting and Sign-offs). A changelog is required first, which you write while editing the draft.
Importing Policies with AI
AI Guided on the Policies list lets you turn existing documents — handbooks, contracts, old policies — into drafts in one go.
- Add filesDrop or choose up to 10 files (PDF, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, JSON or images, up to 10 MB each), then press Start AI analysis. Large documents can take one to three minutes; keep the tab open.
- Review what AI foundAI lists every distinct policy it found, with the file it came from. Expand one to see all of its sections. If nothing was found, try a different file.
- Create the draftsPress Create N policies. Each becomes a new Draft; the result tells you how many were created. If AI credentials are missing the creation fails with a message to check them.
Editing a Draft
A draft is edited on its own full page, opened with Edit Draft from the policy page. The header reads Editing v1.1 (Draft) (with the version label).
The sections card works as in the wizard — edit, reorder, tag applies to, add or delete sections. Three buttons float at the bottom: Cancel (asks before discarding unsaved changes), Save Draft (keeps working) and Submit for Review (saves, then starts the vote). A policy that has no draft cannot be edited here; start a New Version from its page first.
The Policy Page
Opening a policy shows its title, category, version and effective date, a status badge, and action buttons that change with the status: Delete and Edit Draft on a draft, Submit for Review to start the vote, Withdraw while it is in voting, Publish Policy once it has passed, New Version and Archive on a published policy. A gear icon opens the Settings tab. The page has three tabs, plus a Settings view reached from the gear.
Content Tab
Shows the sections in order, each with its type icon and the groups it applies to; a legend lists every group used. A published or passed policy offers Edit / Create New Version below the sections. On the right, the Linked Processes panel lists the workflow templates tied to this policy: use the plus button to pick a process template and link it, the cross to remove the link, and click a linked process to draw its workflow in the panel underneath. Linking ties the written policy to the procedure that carries it out; see Processes.
Versions Tab
Every version of the policy, newest first, with its label, status badge, a Current mark on the live one, the changelog, the author and the date. Under each version a small timeline lists its status changes (who moved it from Draft to Voting, who published it, and so on) — the audit trail of the policy.
Voting and Sign-offs
The Voting tab holds two cards.
Voting Round. Pressing Submit for Review on a draft opens the round automatically (there is no separate start button). The voters are the active users who share the role of the person who submitted it (see Roles), and the rule is a majority. The card shows the rule, how many of the voters have voted, a tile per voter, each voter's decision and comment, and — while the policy is in voting — a comparison of the new text against the published version.
- Cast your voteIf you are on the voter list and have not voted, choose Approve, Reject or Abstain. A comment is required to reject. A vote cannot be changed once cast; to start over the policy must be withdrawn.
- TallyTally now appears once every voter has voted (or the deadline has passed; the app does not set a deadline when you submit). Until then the card reads Waiting on N voters. A majority means more than half of the Approve + Reject votes are Approve; abstentions do not count either way.
- ResultIf it passes, the status becomes Passed (banner: Policy passed — ready to publish) and Publish Policy makes it live, archiving the previously published version. If it does not pass, the policy goes back to Draft and the votes are cleared so you can revise and resubmit.
Withdraw pulls a policy in voting back to draft. Votes already cast are discarded when a vote starts over.
Sign-off Requirement. Once a version is Published, a person managing the policy can press Enable sign-off (all employees). Every active employee then gets a pending sign-off, and the card shows the Signed and Pending counts, a progress bar and a line per person (signed with date and typed name, waived, or pending). An employee with a pending sign-off sees a box to Type your full name and a button I have read and understood — sign; the name must match the name on their account. Sign-off is enabled once per version.
Settings Tab
The gear icon shows the review defaults — voting threshold, eligible voters and vote deadline; sign-off requirement, audience and deadline; and visibility. In this release the tab is a reference: the values are not saved and a vote uses the majority rule and role-mate voters described above.
New Versions
To change a published policy press New Version (or Edit / Create New Version). The app creates the next draft and opens the editor; if a revision is already in progress it simply resumes that one, because a policy can have only one version in progress. The published version stays live and keeps its sign-offs until the new version is published, at which point it is archived.
How It Connects
Set up first
- Policy Categories — every policy needs a category; policies are grouped and filtered by it.
- Roles — the voters of a round are the active users who share the submitter’s role.
Gets its data from
- Processes — workflow templates are what you link to a policy in its Linked Processes panel.
Feeds into
- Governance Overview — the Overview summarises policies by stage and category.
- Policy Categories — a category cannot be deleted while a policy still uses it.