# What Is A Controlled Document

Controlled documents have characteristics that differentiate them from other types of documents.  The management of these types of documents is governed by strict rules, often dictated by regulatory or compliance obligations.  Examples of controlled documents include standards, procedures and policies.

The following are typical key characteristics of controlled documents.

1. **Review and approval.**  All controlled documents are subjected to review and approval.  A document must be formally approved before it can be released and used.
2. **Formal issuance and withdrawal.**  Controlled documents are formally issued for use, and withdrawn from use when no longer valid.
3. **Currency status and distribution control.**  All controlled documents must have a currency status.  That is, a document may have a status of current, superseded, obsolete or cancelled for example.  Controlled documents that are no longer current must be withdrawn from use so that they are not inadvertently used.
4. **Issue history.**  Different issues or releases of a controlled document must be uniquely identified (e.g. with a revision or version number).
5. **Directive authority.**  Controlled documents, such as standard operating procedures for example, typically carry directive authority.  That is, the document gives instructions that must be followed.
6. **Periodic review.**  Directive authority type controlled documents, such as standards, procedures and policies, must be reviewed on a periodic schedule and revised and re-issued as appropriate.  Engineering drawings are a class of controlled document but are generally not subjected to review on a time-based schedule but are revised based on other triggers.
7. **Unique identification.**  Controlled documents must be uniquely identifiable.  Generally this is via a document ID, being a string of characters, a sequence number or a combination thereof.

Elyse is specifically designed to handle these unique characteristics of controlled documents.

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