Training › Module 01

Module 01 — The Lead

Disclosure leads: official information / privacy officers, coordinators, governance and legal leads accountable for the agency’s disclosure obligations · 90 minutes (60 minutes content, 30 minutes hands-on exercise) · prerequisite: Module 00 — Foundation (roles, the disclosure lifecycle, detections and decisions)

(This module calls the role “the Lead”.)

In a hurry? Jump to the quick-reference card or the knowledge check — or print the all-roles reference.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module you will be able to:

1. Create a request on “Log a new request” and explain which fields Veil assigns automatically.
2. Upload documents on “Document Ingestion” and read the processing indicators correctly.
3. Configure the case workflow on “Review Workflow Setup” and assign documents with “Assign Reviewer”.
4. Use the bulk-actions bar safely, respecting its role gating.
5. Formally extend a statutory deadline with an audit-trailed reason.
6. Create and manage “Custom Rules”, and explain why they are detection rules, not redaction rules.
7. Monitor case health from the dashboard, the workflow strip, the Schedule and Audit Trail tabs, and “Reports”.
8. Release, close, reopen, or early-close a case — and explain why release is terminal.

1. The Lead’s place in the workflow

The Lead owns requests from start to finish: creating cases, assigning work, setting and extending deadlines, and configuring the workflow. The Lead can also do everything the reviewing roles can — review, make disclosure decisions, send work back, and give final sign-off — and is the only role that can delete a document or create a case. Visibility is always organisation-wide.

Permissions are enforced by the server, not the screen. Some buttons you cannot use are hidden (for example “Sign Off Selected”); others are visible but will be rejected by the server — the system re-checks your role on every action.

2. Creating a request — “Log a new request”

Reference: creating a request in the feature reference

On New Case (“Log a new request”), you enter the request and Veil does the rest.

• Fill in “Request summary”, “Requester name”, “Requester type”, “Date received”, “Priority”, and “Department(s)”.
• Veil assigns the “Reference” and the “Statutory deadline” automatically — neither can be edited on this form. (You can formally extend the deadline later — see section 7.)
• Press “Create Case”. Veil takes you to “Review Workflow Setup”; from there, open “Document Ingestion” to upload.

3. Uploading documents — “Document Ingestion”

Reference: ingestion in the feature reference · current limitations

On “Document Ingestion” (the case’s upload screen):

• Use “Drag and drop files or folders here”, or click to browse. The dropzone lists the accepted formats (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, EML/MSG, TXT).
• Watch the “Processing Progress” and “Processing Queue” cards as each file runs through the pipeline.
• Re-uploading the same file shows a non-blocking amber “Duplicate” warning — the file is still added; remove it yourself if it is a duplicate.
• When processing finishes, press “Continue to Review”.

Routing an upload to a department. If your visibility scope is organisation-wide and the case has departments, the upload panel offers an optional “Department” selector — “Optional — route these documents to a specific department, or leave as “No specific department” to keep them visible case-wide.” The default, “No specific department — visible case-wide”, never blocks an upload; choose a department to stamp the batch to it. (Department-scoped uploaders don’t see the selector — their uploads are stamped to their own department automatically.)

Sensitive (New Zealand-only) processing. The same panel carries the “Sensitive — process in New Zealand only (no AI)” checkbox — see Module 00 and the feature reference for what it does and its born-digital-only constraint.

The “Import from SharePoint” tab appears next to the dropzone and is enabled when your instance is connected to Microsoft 365. On the current release the connected tab shows “SharePoint import — coming soon” — in-app library browsing is on the roadmap — so download the files from SharePoint and upload them directly; they join the same “Processing Queue” and run the same pipeline.

Three format warnings worth repeating to your team: .PST email archives and .ZIP folders are not expanded — a ZIP is rejected at upload; export emails as EML or MSG, or unzip first, and upload the files individually. Standalone image files (PNG, JPG and similar) are rejected at upload with “Unsupported file type — supported: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, email (.eml/.msg), text.” — scanned material must arrive as a PDF, which is read through OCR as normal. Audio and video files are not screened — they may upload, but in a standard deployment Veil does not transcribe, detect, or redact them; never treat a media file as reviewed.

Reusing documents from a similar case

If a similar past case already holds documents that are in scope for this request, you can copy them in rather than gathering them again. This works from the case page, not at intake — the case must exist first, because the copies need somewhere to land.

1. Open your case and select “Find Similar”.
2. Find the case you want to reuse from, and select “Attach documents…” on its row.
3. Tick the documents you want — you only see documents you are entitled to open — and select “Attach”.

What to hold onto:

• Copies, not links. Each attached document is a genuinely new document in your case with a blank review state; it carries an “Attached” badge showing its source. The original case is never modified and nobody working on it is notified.
• The original, never the redacted version. Veil copies the original document — inheriting last time’s redactions would destroy content this requester may be entitled to. You get the original plus the previous analysis, and you make this request’s decisions yourself.
• Collection confirmation re-opens. If your department had confirmed collection complete, attaching documents re-opens that confirmation — the picture changed, so someone needs to confirm again.

The analysis that rides along with an attached document is imported, not re-run, and every imported detection still arrives pending — Module 02 covers what that means at the review desk. Full walkthrough: Find & reuse past work.

4. The automated pipeline, at a high level

Each uploaded document is processed automatically:

• Validate and convert the file; extract text (OCR, including for scanned PDFs — a cloud feature your administrator configures).
• Pattern detection — structured NZ personal identifiers (phone, email, IRD, NHI, address, bank account, passport, vehicle/driver) at high confidence. This always runs.
• AI detection (if configured) — names and contextual content such as legal privilege, free-and-frank opinions, and commercial sensitivity, with a suggested ground. If the AI layer is unavailable, the document still completes using pattern detection only — but names and contextual sensitivities are not detected.
• The document moves to “Ready for Review” when done, or “Error” if something failed.

Every detection starts pending — Veil never decides for anyone; nothing is pre-redacted. People make every decision.

5. Configuring the workflow — “Review Workflow Setup”

Reference: workflow setup in the feature reference

The Lead configures who works each stage on “Review Workflow Setup”:

• Stages: “Set-up”, “Collect”, “First-Pass Review”, “Second-Pass Review”, “Final Sign-off”, “Release”, “Close” (plus an internal “AI Processing” stage — not shown on the board). On the board itself, Set-up and AI Processing are hidden; you drag people onto “Collect”, “First-Pass Review”, “Second-Pass Review”, and “Final Sign-off”, while Release and Close appear as automatic markers with no assignments.
• Drag people from the “Reviewers” and “Approvers” palettes, and from the regime-aware Leads palette, onto stages.
• The “Currently with:” / “Awaiting sign-off:” strip shows live progress.
• Press “Save Workflow”.

This screen configures the workflow stages, not who works each document. To assign a document to a person, use “Assign Reviewer” on the case’s Documents tab (next section).

Requiring senior endorsement before final sign-off

For a case that warrants a formal second pair of senior eyes, the Details tab carries a “Senior endorsement” card with the toggle “Require senior endorsement before final sign-off” — “When on, each document needs a senior reviewer’s formal endorsement after review before it can be signed off.” (Lead only.)

• Prerequisite: the case must have a second-pass review stage — otherwise Veil refuses: “Requiring endorsement needs a second-pass review stage on this case — add the stage on the Workflow tab first.” (And while the requirement is on, that stage cannot be removed.)
• It locks in once used: the toggle can no longer be changed once any document is endorsed or signed off — “The endorsement requirement can no longer be changed: {N} document(s) are already endorsed or signed off.” Decide it at case set-up, not mid-flight.
• What it changes: documents gain an “Endorsed” state between “Reviewed (Initial)” and “Signed Off”; a Final Approver cannot sign off until a senior has endorsed, and any detection change voids the endorsement (Module 03 and Module 04 cover the working detail).
• An administrator can make it the default for new cases (“Require senior endorsement by default” in Settings) — it seeds at case creation only.

6. Assigning documents and the bulk-actions bar

On the case Documents tab, tick per-row checkboxes (or the “Select all documents” box) to reveal a bulk-action bar. Filter first with the “Search documents...” box if the list is long.

• “Assign Reviewer” — assign the selected documents to one person by email (Lead only).
• “Sign Off Selected” — give final sign-off to several reviewed documents together (Final Approver / Lead).
• “Mark Excluded” — exclude the selected documents from the release.
• “Bulk Review” — open the cross-document “Bulk review” page for the selected documents (covered in the power-user module). It works in three numbered steps: “Auto-accept high-confidence detections” (Lead / Senior Reviewer), “Auto-clear structured PII (emails, phone numbers, IDs)” (Senior Reviewer and above), and “Review by reach”.
• “Set AI context hint” / “Re-run detection” — re-process the selection with extra context.
• “Delete” — permanently remove the selected documents (Lead only).

“Sign Off Selected” locks every selected document at once — the same lock as a single final approval, and undoing one means a per-document “Send back” from “Finalise & Close” and a reset attestation round. Confirm each one is correct first; a signed-off document’s redactions cannot be changed while it stays signed off.

Each bulk action authorises every selected document independently, so a selection straying into a department you cannot access is rejected as a whole — not silently trimmed. The same reject-whole applies on the assignment axis: if any selected document is assigned to another person, the whole selection is rejected — even for the Lead. Reassign it to yourself (or clear the assignment) first, then bulk-act.

7. Extending the statutory deadline

The statutory deadline is assigned automatically at intake, but the Lead can formally extend it when a request genuinely needs more time.

• Press “Extend deadline” on the case’s Details page (Lead only).
• The panel shows the read-only “Current deadline:” and the ceiling as “Max extension: {N} working days”, then asks for a “New deadline” and a mandatory “Reason for extension”.
• The new date cannot exceed your agency’s maximum extension; the reason is required and written to the audit trail.
• An extension moves the existing deadline to the new date — it does not restart the clock. The reason field’s guidance adapts to your regime, because the extension provisions differ between the two Acts.

The Details page holds three more Lead-only controls worth knowing:

Correcting “Date received”

If the date was entered wrongly at intake, the Details page lets the Lead edit “Date received” and press “Save date received”. This re-derives the statutory deadline from the corrected date — the audit trail records “Changed date received and re-derived the statutory deadline” with the old and new values. There is no reason field, so use it only for what it is: fixing a data-entry error. A genuine need for more time is “Extend deadline”, which requires a reason.

• If the deadline has already been formally extended, the extension is protected: the correction re-derives the original statutory date but leaves the extended deadline in place — and if the corrected date would push the statutory deadline past the current extension, Veil refuses: “The new date received pushes the statutory deadline past the current extended deadline. Clear or update the extension first.”
• Like most Details actions, it is blocked once the case is released or closed.

Case notes

The Details tab has a “Notes” panel — “A single administrative note for this case. Editable even after the case is closed or released.” Write with “Add a note…” and press “Save notes” (Lead only; audited). It is deliberately the one case-detail field that stays editable after close/release — an annotation layer for context like “requester phoned to narrow scope”, never part of the frozen statutory record.

Departments on a case

The Details tab’s “Departments” panel lets the Lead add (“Add a department…” → “Add department”) or remove (the ✕ on a chip) departments while the case is open. The standing rule shown on the panel: “A case must keep at least one department. A department can’t be removed while documents are scoped to it or reviewers are assigned to it.” — reassign or clear those first; removal is refused with a count of what still references it. Adds and removals are audited.

8. Custom detection rules — “Custom Rules”

Reference: custom rules in the feature reference

“Custom Rules” teaches Veil agency-specific things to look for — “Agency-specific detection rules that run alongside the AI — keywords, patterns and entities mapped to withholding grounds.” The screen is shared between the Lead and the Senior Reviewer.

• “New rule” opens the editor: “Rule name”, “Type” (Keyword / Pattern / Entity / Combination), “Match mode” (Exact / Fuzzy / Regex), “Keywords / pattern”, “Withholding ground”, “Priority”, “Description”.
• Save it off (“Save as Draft”) or turn it on now (“Save & Activate”); the per-row switch flips a rule between Active and Draft. Only Active rules run (“Drafts are saved but never match documents”).
• “Import” / “Export” move whole rule sets in and out as JSON.
• The stat strip tracks “active rules”, “drafts — not yet running”, “matches”, and “grounds covered”.

These are detection rules, not redaction rules — “Rules supplement the AI — they never override a reviewer.” A match becomes an ordinary detection for a person to accept or reject.

Rules named “Auto: …” were not typed in by hand: when a reviewer adds a manual detection and promotes it to a rule from the review screen, Veil creates a Draft keyword rule named “Auto:” plus the detected text (for example, a manual detection of “Priya Nair” becomes “Auto: Priya Nair”), with fuzzy matching and a description recording who suggested it. Like any Draft it never matches until someone reviews and activates it — treat the “Auto:” list as a suggestion inbox from your reviewers.

9. Monitoring the caseload

• Dashboard (“Home”) — the “Statutory deadline health” panel classifies cases as “On track”, “Urgent”, or “Overdue”, alongside your personal queue.
• “Review Workflow Setup” — the “Currently with:” / “Awaiting sign-off:” strip shows where each case sits.
• “Withholding Schedule” (the Schedule tab) — every withheld item grouped by ground, with an editable “Covering Statement”, the “Right of Review (Standard Text)”, and “Preview as PDF”.
• “Audit Trail” (the Audit tab) — the “Immutable audit log” (“entries cannot be modified or deleted”): every action with its user, role, target, and timestamp; search, filter by type, and “Export CSV” / “Export PDF”.
• “Reports” — statutory reports and disclosure analytics (case roles only): the regime’s Compliance Summary, “Withholding Schedule”, “Chain of Custody”, and “Cost Recovery”, with the “Reporting period” selector for the analytics.
• Case-page warnings — two banners deserve action, not dismissal. “No final approver assigned” means nobody is rostered on the final sign-off stage, so the case cannot be attested or released — add one on the Workflow tab (“Assign a final approver”). “Collection unconfirmed for {department} — releasing will require an acknowledgement” tracks the collection-complete confirmations: it never blocks work, but releasing with it outstanding requires an explicit acknowledgement. A department member confirms with “Confirm collection complete” on the Workflow tab; the Lead can record it for another department with “Record on behalf”.

10. Export packages — the Lead can produce all three

Reference: export & verification in the feature reference · FAQ: an export is blocked

Package generation and download are gated by role tier; the Lead is the only role, alongside the Final Approver, that can produce all three:

• “Requester Package” — the only package screened for external release.
• “Internal Package” (marked “Recommended”) — for your own records.
• “Ombudsman Package” — the full disclosure file, including the unredacted originals. Never send it to a requester.

Generating an external package (Requester or Ombudsman) requires the case to be fully attested and your agency name to be set — otherwise the export is blocked with an explanatory message. Veil fail-closes: an external release is blocked if the automated check finds a leak or cannot run.

11. The end of the case — release, close, reopen

The end of the case lives on “Finalise & Close”. The assigned Final Approver completes the “Final sign-off” panel (“Attest case complete”, choosing a “Disclosure outcome”: “Granted in full”, “Granted in part”, or “Refused”). Then the Lead takes over:

• Once attested, press “Mark as released” under “Release for disclosure”. This freezes the case and all its documents and stamps the disclosure date — it is terminal. The case then reads “Released for disclosure”.
• Finally, “Close & archive” the case with a closure outcome; the Lead can “Reopen case” later if needed.
• Administrative early-close outcomes for cases that never reach release: “Withdrawn”, “Transferred”, “No information held”.

Release is irreversible. Be certain the package you have generated and checked is the one you intend to disclose before marking the case released.

Hands-on exercise

Work on the demo instance (demo seed data; upload the sample files provided by your trainer — never real case material).

1. Create a case. Open “New Case” and complete “Log a new request”: a short “Request summary”, a fictional “Requester name”, and two departments under “Department(s)”. Before pressing “Create Case”, note the auto-assigned “Reference” and “Statutory deadline”.
2. Upload. On “Document Ingestion”, drag in the sample files. Watch “Processing Progress” and the “Processing Queue”. Re-upload one file deliberately and observe the amber “Duplicate” warning; remove the duplicate. Press “Continue to Review”.
3. Configure the workflow. Open “Review Workflow Setup”. Drag one person from “Reviewers” onto “First-Pass Review” and a Final Approver from “Approvers” onto “Final Sign-off” (a Senior Reviewer can only be dropped on the review stages). Press “Save Workflow”.
4. Assign a document. On the Documents tab, tick two documents and use “Assign Reviewer” to assign them to a demo reviewer.
5. Extend the deadline. Press “Extend deadline”, note the “Maximum Extension Date”, set a “New Deadline”, and enter a “Reason for Extension”. Then open the “Audit Trail” tab and find your extension entry.
6. Create a rule. On “Custom Rules”, press “New rule”, build a Keyword rule mapped to a withholding ground, and use “Save as Draft”. Confirm the stat strip counts it under “drafts — not yet running”.
7. Check case health. Return to “Home” and locate your case in the “Statutory deadline health” panel.

Quick-reference card