Recurring Obligations¶
Audience: quality managers and the people responsible for recurring QMS duties.
Some QMS duties recur on a schedule and must leave evidence each time — cloud-backup verification, backup-restore rehearsals, environment checks. LQMS models these as recurring obligations: a duty with an interval whose evidence is a released record. Releasing the record of the right type resets the clock — there is no separate "done" button, because the record is the proof it ran.
1. What an obligation is¶
An obligation is configuration, not a controlled document. It names:
- Name and an optional description — what the duty is.
- Completion record type — the record type whose release satisfies it. This is picked from the scope's activated record-category types only (a record is the evidence form; a procedure or template can never complete an obligation).
- Schedule — when it comes due. Either a rolling interval (every N days from the last completion) or a calendar schedule (a day of the month, or a month-and-day of the year). See §2a.
- Due window (days) — how long before the next-due date it starts warning.
- Responsible roles — who is reminded when it comes due.
- Trace item key (optional) — a requirement or control key whose recurring verification this obligation is. When set, the obligation's executions are that item's recurring evidence.
The obligation's executions are the records; the obligation itself is defined once and edited or deactivated later — never deleted, so its past executions keep their meaning.
2. Defining obligations (Scope configuration → Obligations)¶
Open the gear menu → Scope configuration → the Obligations tab (you need the obligations management permission in the scope). There you can:
- Add obligation — fill in the fields above. The completion-type picker lists only the scope's activated record types; if there are none, activate one first.
- Edit an obligation's definition.
- Deactivate an obligation (confirmed) — it stops raising due tasks, but its history stays. You can Reactivate it later.
2a. Choosing a schedule (interval or calendar)¶
The Schedule field decides when the obligation next comes due. Pick one of:
- Every N days — a rolling interval measured from the last completion (the default; e.g. every 30 days). Completing early simply restarts the clock.
- Monthly on a day… — due on a chosen Day of month (1–31), every month.
- End of month — the month-end preset: the last day of every month.
- Yearly on… — due on a chosen Month and Day of month, once a year.
- End of year — the year-end preset: 31 December.
For the calendar schedules the next due date is the next occurrence after the last completion, so completing early still counts for the occurrence it satisfies and moves the obligation on to the next one — a single completion never clears two.
Shorter months never push the deadline out. If you choose a day a given month does not have — the 31st in February, say — the due date falls on that month's last day (28/29 Feb, 30 Apr) rather than slipping into the next month. The dialog says so under the field: "Shorter months use their last day (e.g. Feb 28/29) — the due date is never later than the chosen day." The deadline is always pulled earlier, never later — too soon rather than too late.
3. How completion works¶
You do not mark an obligation complete directly. Instead you release a record of the completion type in the scope — for example, releasing this month's Verification Record. That release is the execution: it becomes the obligation's last execution, and the next-due date moves to the next scheduled occurrence (the interval away, or the next calendar date). Single-person direct release (see the lifecycle chapter §4a) makes these records frictionless where the type allows it.
When an obligation comes due, the responsible role holders get a task in their inbox, shown by the obligation's name and due date. The task clears when the completion record is released — you do not tick it off by hand.
4. The oversight view¶
The obligations oversight page lives in the traceability workspace, beside training compliance (open the workspace and pick the Obligations tile; you need obligations-oversight access). It answers "is the org keeping up?" at a glance:
- A summary line on top: N OK · N due soon · N overdue.
- One row per obligation with a freshness chip — OK (quiet), Due soon (amber, inside the due window), Overdue (red) — its completion type and its schedule in words (Every 30 days, End of month, Monthly on the 25th, …), its last execution (the record's ID, version and release date, linking to the document), its next due date, and the responsible roles.
An obligation that has never run shows Never executed and its first due date.
The oversight page shows the project chosen in the toolbar's Project context switcher; with All projects selected it asks you to pick one first (see The project context).
Governing decisions: ADR-0089 (recurring obligations — periodic tasks with record evidence), ADR-0094 (calendar-anchored schedules — monthly/yearly kinds, the end-of-month/-year presets and the "never later than the chosen day" clamp), ADR-0091 (release modes — single-person record release), ADR-0071 (due-window + compliance roll-up precedent), ADR-0049 (record category — the evidence form). Regulatory frame: ISO 13485 §6.3 (maintenance activities with defined intervals and records of them).