Finalising documents is an important process, as it draws a line between the authoring (drafting) phase and the point where the document is complete. Finalisation establishes a guarantee that the body of the document will no longer change. Additionally, finalising will:
- Record the member who finalised the document, and the date/time on which it was finalised
- Update the page count (useful if building lists of documents)
- Remove previous draft versions that occupy space in the document library
- Sign/initial the document (a manual process)
Finalisation is usually instigated by the need to
send or
distribute the document. The finalisation activity can automatically send or forward the document after the process is completed.