FOIA Admin (Advanced Access)

The FOIA Admin portal provides tools for configuring agencies used in workflow steps, defining case number formats, setting working days, and managing email templates.

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Public Portal Settings

You can customize the information your agency presents and collects at each step of the FOIA process. The Public Portal is specific to the agency accessing it.

Highlights include:

• Portal Status—if enabled, agency information is visible to other agencies and the public in forms and templates.
• Public Agency Profile—displays agency information, including processing times and specialties.
• Submission Form—agencies can add, edit, or remove fields on the public-facing submission form.

To edit public portal setting, click Edit Configuration.

Portal Status

This option is enabled by default. When it is disabled, the agency’s information is hidden. You cannot submit new requests to the agency or view past requests in the reading room.

Public Agency Profile

Use the fields in this section to provide information about the agency, its typical processing times, and any specialties the agency handles.

Fields include:

• Full Agency Name—the agency name that appears in public-facing forms and templates.
• Acronym—specific to the agency.
• Description—provides insight to who the agency is and what they do.
• Agency Website—the agency's website address.
• Mailing Address—the agency's mailing address.
• Phone—the agency's public contact phone number.
• Processing Time—the agency's typical processing times. You can enter multiple time frames, for example, processing times for simple versus complex requests.
• Specialties—the agency’s specialties. Specialties are short, descriptive keywords or subject matter tags that define an agency’s primary areas of focus or the types of records it handles.

Submission Form

Records requests are submitted through the submission form. When a user opens the form, they first select the government agency that will process their request. Each agency can customize the submission form to fit its own requirements, for example, relabeling existing fields to better match the agency's terminology, or creating entirely new custom fields to capture additional information. Because customizations are agency-specific, the form a user sees depends on which agency they select. If a user switches to a different agency, the form updates to reflect that agency's configuration.

Default sections and fields:

Contact Information

• Section Label (cannot be hidden)
• Help Text (cannot be hidden)
• Intake Source
• First Name
• Last Name
• Your Organization
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• Fax Number
• Mailing Address 1
• Mailing Address 2
• City
• State or Province
• Zip or Postal Code
• Country

Request Information

• Section Label
• Help Text
• Case Narrative
• FOIA Team Notes

Fees & Fee Waiver

• Section Label
• Help Text
• What type of requester are you?
• Fee Amount Willing to Pay
• Request a fee waiver
• Fee waiver justification

Expedited Processing

• Section Label
• Help Text
• Request expedited processing
• Justification for expedited processing

Additional Information & Attachments

• Section Label
• Help Text
• Attachments

Review & Submit

• Section Label
• Help Text
• Review

Editing a field's properties

Click the field name to open the properties.

Editing default field properties is limited to:

• Label—the field name that appears on the form.
• Required—to require a field, slide the toggle to the right.
• Help Text—provide instructions to users on the kind of information you are expecting for the field value.
• Character Limit—limit the number of characters the requester can enter. (Not all fields display the character limit option.)

Adding a new field

To add a new field, click the +Field button at the bottom of the target section.

Complete the field properties:

• Label—the field names displayed on the form.
• Field Type—select from the drop-down menu options.
• Required—slide the toggle to the right to require this field.
• Help Text—enter a brief sentence to let users know what kind of answer you are expecting.

The field list now displays the custom field, along with a tag that indicates it's custom and not part of the default fields.

Additional options

After you save a custom field, there are a few additional options that become available. Click the field name once again to open its properties.

Options include:

• Show in Portal—shows the field in public-facing forms.
• Show in Relativity—shows the field in Relativity.
• Placement—by default, the field appears in the section where you added it. Select an option from the drop-down menu to move it to another section. The field is then moved to the new section, allowing you to reposition custom fields without deleting and recreating them.
• Delete Custom Field—removes the custom field and its properties.

Case Tracking Number

You can change the formatting of case numbers assigned to FOIA requests to customize them for your agency.

Steps:

1. Click Edit Format.
2. Current Format Preview—you can view the case number format as you go. Each time you make a change, the preview updates with the new configuration in real time. If you need a reminder on the case number settings before you made any changes, navigate to the Current Configuration Summary at the bottom of the screen.
3. Component Ordering—change the order of the case number components. By default, the order is Static Text - Year - Sequence. To change the order, click a component, then use the arrows to move it up or down. The preview pane displays your changes in real time.
4. Delimiter—by default, a hyphen separates the case number components. Select (none) from the Delimiter drop-down menu to remove the hyphen.
5. Component Configuration—configure the component values for your case number, along with a starting number and how often the number sequencing should reset.
   • Static Text—this value is often used as a prefix to the case number. You can set this to any meaningful value you like, along with changing its order (see Component Ordering).
   • Year—set the year format to two or four digits.
   • Starting Number—set the starting number for case number. This is the first number in the sequence. You can specify how often the sequence resets in the Reset Frequency setting.
   • Field Length—set the number of digits for case numbers.
   • Reset Frequency—use this value to specify how often the numbering sequences reset back to the starting number. You can set it to yearly, quarterly, monthly, or never.
   Current Configuration Summary—this section displays the case number formatting before any changes are made. You can use this information as a reference when making changes.
6. Click Save & Activate to save your changes.

Appeal Tracking Number

You can change the formatting of appeal numbers assigned to appeals to customize them for your agency.

Steps:

1. Click Edit Format.
2. Current Format Preview—you can view the appeal number format as you go. Each time you make a change, the preview updates with the new configuration in real time. If you need a reminder on the appeal number settings before you made any changes, navigate to the Current Configuration Summary at the bottom of the screen.
3. Component Ordering—change the order of the appeal number components. By default, the order is Static Text - Year - Sequence. To change the order, click a component, then use the arrows to move it up or down. The preview pane displays your changes in real time.
4. Delimiter—by default, a hyphen separates the appeal number components. Select (none) from the Delimiter drop-down menu to remove the hyphen.
5. Component Configuration—configure the component values for your appeal number, along with a starting number and how often the number sequencing should reset.
   • Static Text—this value is often used as a prefix to the appeal number. You can set this to any meaningful value you like, along with changing its order (see Component Ordering).
   • Year—set the year format to two or four digits.
   • Starting Number—set the starting number for appeal number. This is the first number in the sequence. You can specify how often the sequence resets in the Reset Frequency setting.
   • Field Length—set the number of digits for appeal numbers.
   • Reset Frequency—use this value to specify how often the numbering sequences reset back to the starting number. You can set it to yearly, quarterly, monthly, or never.
   Current Configuration Summary—this section displays the appeal number formatting before any changes are made. You can use this information as a reference when making changes.
6. Click Save & Activate to save your changes.

Working Days

Set your standard working days and hours for FOIA processing. Federal holidays are automatically applied to the working days schedule, but you can add other days as well.

Steps:

1. Click Edit Configuration.
2. Working Hours—set the ending time and zone for FOIA processing. The ending time represents the cut-off time for the day. Any processing after this time is considered next-day processing.
3. Federal Holidays and Non-Working Days—federal holidays are applied by default. Click the delete icon to remove a predefined holiday. Click Add Holiday to add other non-working days to your schedule.
4. Click Save to commit your changes.

Email Templates

Relativity provides email templates that help your agency communicate with the public and other organizations. These templates are fully customizable, allowing you to edit and tailor them to your agency’s requirements. Each template includes two types of prompts: one that you select and replace with your own content, and the other that indicates a merged field where Relativity merges data from the FOIA request directly into the email.

Prompts will appear in one of the following formats:

• <***ABC***>—indicates data that you must provide. Replace the prompt with content specific to your request.
• [ABC]—indicates merged content that is pulled directly from the pre-existing record. Relativity populates these prompts for you.

The Templates browser is located on the left side of your screen. If you do not see the browser panel or browser icon, make sure you are on the Letter Template Management tab. If the browser panel is collapsed, click the browser icon to expand it.

To edit a template:

1. Select a template from the Templates browser. The email appears in the preview pane.
2. Click the Edit icon (it looks like a pencil) located in the upper right corner of the preview pane.
3. Edit the text as needed. Click Save when you are done.

To insert a merged field:

1. Click the Insert Merge Fields button at the top of the template content. A list of available fields appear.
2. Select the fields you want to insert, and click Insert.
   

To insert a prompt:

1. Place your cursor in the prompt location.
2. Type <***PROMPT***>, replacing PROMPT with a brief annotation or keyword describing what the user should enter. If you have more than one word, use underscores to separate the words. For example, <***ENTER_YOUR_PETS_NAME***>. As you close the angle brackets, the prompt becomes highlighted, making it easy to see.
   

Adding a custom template

While the default email templates promote consistent communication, there may be times when you need to further tailor that communication to meet specific policies. In those cases, you can create custom templates and save them for repeated use. Custom templates are specific to the agency creating them and appear in template drop-down menus once saved. They can be selected by anyone in your agency. You cannot delete custom templates.

To create a custom template:

1. Click the Add icon in the Templates browser.
   
2. Complete the following fields:
   • Template Name—give your template a descriptive and meaningful name so that you can easily search for it later.
   • Template Description—enter a description of the template, its intended use, and audience.
   • To—Relativity provides a merged-field suggestion for this field, but you can enter your own prompt if you prefer. For example, <***ENTER_EMAIL_ADDRESS_HERE***>.
   • CC—add a merged field or your own prompt.
   • Subject—Relativity provides a merged-field suggestion for this field, but you can enter your own prompt if you prefer. For example, <***IMPORTANT!_PLEASE_READ***>.
   • Template Body—use merged fields and prompts, along with your own content to custom the message.
3. Click Save to save your template.

Agency & Component

Configure agency information and contacts to use in FOIA workflow steps.

To add a component to an agency:

1. Click the arrow to the left of an agency's name to expand its properties.
   
2. Click Add Component.
   The component card opens at the bottom of the agency tier.
3. Enter the Name.
4. Enter a Description.
5. Enter the Phone number.
6. Enter a contact Email address.
   
7. Click Save Component.

To delete any of the components, teams, or users, click the ellipses on the right side of the card and select Delete.

Other options include:

• Add Team—add a team under the component. You can then add Relativity users or external users to the team.
• Add Relativity User—select a Relativity user from a list.
• Add External User—add additional external users. Click Add External User, then complete the Name, Title, Email, and Phone fields.