Empowering Efficient
Service Delivery Across
Zimbabwe

Setting Up Your Council's MSDS Approval Process

• Create Users: Go to the System Users menu to create at least one user and assign the necessary roles. You can also create custom roles that suit your council's specific needs.
• Define Main Approval Stages: When you create an approval stage, the Submission Focus Area Approvals stage is automatically created and set as Stage 1. The stage you create will become Stage 2, and any additional stages will follow in sequence. Assign users to these main stages who will be responsible for approving the completed submissions to ensure final council-level approval.
• Configure Submission Focus Area Approvals: This first stage can be set up by assigning data collectors and approvers for each focus area. You can also assign overseers to this stage to oversee the submission process and monitor approval progress.

Once these settings are in place, your council will be ready to efficiently collect and approve data through the structured approval workflow.

Collecting Data

• Access: Users assigned to data collector stages can access the Data Collector menu to view submission periods that are pending their input.
• Submission Periods: The dropdown shows only periods for which data is needed and not yet submitted.
• Focus Area Cards: When a submission period is selected, the system displays the focus area cards assigned to the user for data collection.
• Data Entry and Submission: Users can enter data for one or more focus areas. The progress bar indicates completeness. The Submit button activates when at least one focus area is fully completed.
• Auto-Save: Data is saved automatically as users enter it. Input fields turn green once values are successfully saved, protecting work from power or internet interruptions.
• My Submissions: After submitting, entries appear under the My Submission submenu in the Submission menu. Users can track approval progress and edit their submissions if no one else in the approval flow has acted on them yet.

Submission & Approval

• Submission: When a data collector clicks Submit, the submission becomes ready for approval by the assigned approvers of that focus area.
• Focus Area Approval: Submission focus areas can be approved or reversed back to the initiator for corrections. These focus area approvals are managed under the Approval Submission submenu within the Submission menu.
• Full Submission Completion: Once all focus areas in the submission have been fully approved at their respective stages, they collectively make up the complete submission. This can be tracked in the Oversee Submissions submenu under the Submission menu.
• Next Main Stage: Only when all focus areas are approved does the full submission move automatically to the next main approval stage. The whole submission at this stage can be approved or reversed as a single unit, or individual focus areas can be sent back for corrections if needed. The submission will remain in the current stage until all corrections are made and focus areas are approved.
• Final Approval and Ministry Submission: Upon reaching the last approval stage, the final approver will be notified that their approval action will automatically submit the submission to the Ministry. Once accepted, the submission is marked as fully submitted and appears under the Submissions submenu within the Submission menu.
• Corrections: At any approval stage, if corrections are required, the submission or individual focus areas can be reversed with comments to the initiator for editing. The approval process restarts once the corrections are made and resubmitted.
• Real-Time Updates: Throughout the approval stages, users can see real-time updates, including the remaining time before deadlines.