Cleanup and maintain
This Playbook uses the System Administration register of Crisisworks and requires the System Administration & Data Entry position.
Introduction
Regular updates to your Crisisworks site are key for effective emergency response. By keeping all data current, including events, contacts, resources, and plans, your platform remains ready for quick action.
Data management tips
As confidential data is stored in Crisisworks, it is important to ensure that users who are no longer using Crisisworks are promptly deactivated. Additionally, when adding new users, they should be given access appropriate to their role. Avoid giving top-level access such as System Admin & Data Entry or System Admin - User Management unless the User will be managing user access and accounts and customising your site.
Deleting Records
In Crisisworks, records cannot be deleted. However, there are two alternative approaches to achieve a similar outcome:
Change the record's status to “inactive”, closed”, or "Expired".
Move the record to another event, such as an archived data event; see Archiving Data
Events
Regularly reviewing and closing completed or irrelevant active events is best practice. This enhances the speed and efficiency of the system and prevents users from inadvertently interacting with outdated events. By maintaining a small, manageable list of active events, it simplifies user experience and limits access to potentially sensitive information.
Closing Events
Once an event is finished, it should be Closed. Closing an event effectively archives all the data associated with it. While closed events cannot be viewed or modified, they can be reopened if necessary. Once reopened, one or more Positions may need to be added to allow you to go back on duty and continue working on the event.
Closing an event will:
force Users Off Duty for that event
remove all Positions from the Event
Users and contacts
Operations > Contacts
Contacts and Users in Crisisworks are maintained in the Contacts Register - Users are Contacts that have a Crisisworks Account ‘Enabled’.
Disabling / Deactivating Users
Keep your list of Active Users in Crisisworks updated regularly, as access to Crisisworks remians available to anyone with an Active User account.
Immediately disable user access for any staff who have left your organisation.
If you wish to retain the person as a contact, disable their user account, but leave them ‘Active’.
Before deactivating users, remove their VPR Coordinator position. Even though only users with active Crisisworks accounts cannot access the VPR, their names may still appear as contacts in the VPR after deactivation unless you remove the VPR position.
Consider removing other Positions from the user profile if it's unlikely the user will be reactivated in the future. This prevents them from appearing in searches. For example, if a disabled user previously held the MRM position, they will be included in searches unless filtered to show 'Active' accounts only.
Maintain and update non-user contacts regularly. Searching for contacts with "Has a Crisisworks Account" set to "No" will list all non-user contacts, allowing you to edit or deactivate them as necessary.
When new staff complete their emergency management induction, create a User Profile for them and direct them to register for the online Crisisworks Beginners training.
Add the training details into Crisisworks under the Expertise section.
Positions
Key high level Positions
Positions are the key to managing the level of access your users will have to data and features in Crisisworks, so it’s important that Users have current positions appropriate to their role.
Positions such as System Admin & Data Entry and System Admin - User Management give the user powerful access to create and edit users, and to edit and customise the back end of your Crisisworks site. These positions should only be given to experienced or committed Crisisworks Users.
Managing Positions
While Crisisworks comes standard with all the Positions you should need, there could be times when you may wish to create custom Positions to suit your work program. Conversely, you may find yourself managing an excessive list of positions that are no longer relevant. Here are some strategies for managing this:
Customise Existing Positions - this is a good option when you just want to add extra permissions to a position.
Create New Positions based on existing ones - You can duplicate an existing position via the Actions menu and 'Copy this Position'. The newly copied position will show with the status of Draft. Edit the position name, and security policies and set the status to 'Active'.
System Positions - Some positions are labeled 'This is a system position and cannot be modified.' These are called 'System Positions'. To modify these, untick 'Keep in sync with changes from Datalink' under the Advanced tab, which allows changes to the Position. While Security Policy updates will still apply, you can only add new policies. We don't recommend removing security policies, as they might be re-added during a future system update.
Deactivate Positions - custom positions that are no longer required can be deactivated by setting their Status to 'Inactive'. System Positions cannot be made inactive, but you can exclude them Events by deselecting them in your current Events and Event Templates.
deselecting them in Positions within your Events and Event Templates.
Tip! be sure to add any newly created Positions to your active events and Event Templates.
Organisations
Review Organisations in the Operations>Contacts register, obsolete Organisations can only be made inactive, they cannot be deleted.
Warning! Don’t make your Council Organisation inactive as all your users are attached to them.
Resources
The primary use for resources is to track costs and usage of items or services. Examples of resources may be contractors, vehicles, offers/volunteers or services.
Global Resources will be available to all Events. Make sure these are up to date, with current rates etc, this will assist in your financial recording of an event.
Manage Resource availability via the Status field.
Library
Maintaining an up to date library in Crisisworks will pay dividends when you activate for an emergency. Not only can you add emergency plans, procedures and templates to the Library, you can also create geospatial layers to easily visualise and organise your records, for example impacted areas from previous events, township sectors, vulnerable facilities like aged care homes etc. Here’s some tips for managing your Library:
Set review dates and assign records to a role to prompt when the record needs to be updated.
Tag plans, procedures, templates and guides with the roles that will be using them, eg EMLO, ERC, MRM etc.
Create geospatial layers of ERCs, council facilities, impact areas, inspection zones, vulnerable facilities, etc.
Archiving Data
In Crisisworks, most records can't be deleted to maintain data integrity. However, closed or inactive records can sometimes clutter up your data view. In such cases, we recommend archiving this data. This involves moving the data to another event, effectively storing it out of the way. This approach also enables you to restore archived data if needed. Think of it as a system ‘trash can’.
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