QualityOne Vaults provide you with the ability to create sample records and analyze samples against inspection plans. As a user processing COA (Certificate of Analysis) inspections, you can create or select an appropriate COA Inspection record, attach the corresponding COA file, and then trigger Vault to analyze the COA file. Ensure that you have uploaded a COA file in a supported language.
Depending on your Admin’s setup, object, field, and section labels may appear differently than the labels mentioned in this article.
Note: This feature is currently available only to Early Adopters. Contact your Veeva Representative for more details.
About COA File Ingestion
After uploading a COA file, triggering the Analyze COA action scans the COA file to extract relevant data in a process called “file ingestion”. After ingesting the file, Vault compares the extracted data to a specified inspection plan. Vault uploads the files to the COA Inspection record, any subsequent duplicate records of the initial COA Inspection record for each file, and analyzes the files. Vault then indicates whether the COA Inspection passes or fails based on the inspection plan specifications, and provides you with the inspection sample test results so you can review the results and make any manual adjustments, if needed. Alternatively, an approved external user (such as a supplier) can email the relevant COA files to an Admin-specified email address configured in Vault to start the file analysis process.
About Manual COA File Uploads
When you manually upload a COA file to a COA Inspection record, Vault automatically does the following:
- Populates the Type and Subtype fields for the document
- Links the document to the Inspection record
If Supplier Name and Supplier Manufacturing Site Name fields are empty in the Inspection record, triggering Vault to analyze the COA file will populate the two (2) fields for the Inspection record with field values from the document; populated fields will not be overwritten by values from the document. If configured, you may also upload or email multi-batch COA files for analysis for the main COA Inspection batch record. After Vault verifies the number of batches in a file, Vault creates the related COA Inspection batch records for each verified batch and links them to the main COA Inspection batch record.
COA Multilingual Limitations
The following limitations apply to COA multilingual support in Vault:
- Currently, we recommend only COA files in English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and German for analysis. Any other language may not be properly analyzed.
- After Vault successfully analyzes the COA file and creates the appropriate records, your Admin needs to create the localized data to display the localizations in your Vault’s locale. See the list of Vault-supported languages that COA values can be translated into.
- The following fields are currently supported for localization for the Inspection Plan Requirement object:
- Characteristics
- Units
- COA files comprising more than one (1) language are currently not supported.
COA Sample File Limits
The following conventions for COA sample files are supported:
- PDF, JPEG, JPG, and PNG file types
- Maximum file size of 10 MB
- Maximum of 20 pages per file unless modified by your Admin
- Only one (1) file upload per COA Inspection record
- For email intake, a minimum of one (1) to a maximum of 20 COA file uploads per COA Inspection record
- Maximum of 10 (ten) batches per multi-batch COA file.
Overview
The general process of working with a COA file involves the following steps:
- Creating a COA Inspection record
- Analyzing a COA file attached to a COA Inspection record or emailed to Vault
- Reviewing the COA file test results in the Inspection Sample Test Result section
- Optional: Syncing COA Inspection field values to Inspection Sample Test Results
- Optional: Deleting a COA Inspection record
Inspection Plans and the specification rules for measurement values are set up by your organization’s Admin.
How to Create a COA Inspection
To create a COA Inspection:
- Navigate to Inspections and click Create.
- Select an Inspection Plan.
- Optional: Select a Purchase Order.
- Optional: Select a Purchase Order Line Item.
- Do one (1) of the following:
- If you have a file ready for upload, click Upload, select the appropriate file, and click Open.
- If you do not have the file ready at this time, you or another user can upload the file after record creation.
- If an external user has the file ready for upload, they can upload the file after record creation through a workflow task.
- Optional: Select a COA Document Language. If this field is blank, Vault attempts to perform a language detection to set the COA file’s language for the COA Inspection record.
- Click Save, or to create another COA, click Save + Create.
How to Upload COA Files by Email Intake
There are two (2) ways to upload COA files by email intake:
- Vault Interaction with Email Intake: You and External Collaborators can interact with email intake by receiving an email from Vault for an assigned task to submit COA files. After receiving the email notification, reply to that email with the appropriate files attached. After Vault receives the email with the appropriate files attached, Vault validates each file and ingests the data.
- External Interaction with Email Intake: You can interact with email intake by compiling COA file attachments from external parties (such as suppliers) and forwarding the attachments by email to an Admin-specified Vault inbound email address with COA files for submission attached, unprompted by Vault. After Vault receives the email with the appropriate files attached, Vault validates each file and ingests the data.
Vault Interaction with Email Intake
If you need to upload single or multi-batch COA files to an existing COA Inspection record without an attached COA file, you can upload the COA file by replying to a Vault email notification. The external user assigned on the record as the External Collaborator can upload the COA file by replying to a workflow task email actioned by you or by an Admin-configured entry action. Depending on your Admin’s configuration, uploading a COA file by email successfully may trigger Vault to analyze the COA file as part of a configured entry action.
To email the COA files by reply, follow the instructions in the workflow task email and attach the COA files. When replying, ensure that the subject line contains the number sign followed by a set of parentheses surrounding the COA Inspection record ID. For example, if the COA Inspection record ID is “INSP-000001”, then your subject line should contain #(INSP-000001). You may see the Purchase Order and Purchase Order Line Item names after the COA Inspection record ID in the subject line as well.
When you upload multiple valid files, Vault attaches the first COA file to the initial COA Inspection record (as defined in the subject line of the email) and creates a copy of the initial COA Inspection record, as the source, for each subsequent file uploaded by triggering Vault to run the Copy Record action - each file attached to each newly-copied record (a shallow copy). Depending on your Admin’s configuration, uploading COA files (in the PNG, JPG, or JPEG file types) by email successfully may trigger Vault to analyze each COA file as part of a configured entry action for the initial and subsequent records.
Note: COA file upload fails if another Vault user or External Collaborator has already successfully submitted a COA file for the specified COA Inspection.
External Interaction with Email Intake
You can create COA Inspection records based on the COA file attachments compiled from external parties (such as suppliers or parties on behalf of suppliers) by emailing the valid single or multi-batch COA file attachments for validation and data ingestion without needing a Vault login to contribute. You must work with your Admin to ensure that you’re emailing to an appropriate Vault email address. Depending on your Admin’s configuration, uploading a COA file by email successfully may trigger Vault to analyze the COA file as part of a configured entry action for a lifecycle state.
To email the COA files, ensure you do the following:
- Set the appropriate Vault email address provided by your Admin in the “To” field.
- Optionally, ensure that the subject line contains a single Purchase Order number. This allows Vault to locate the associated Inspection Plan, Material, and Purchase Order Line Item records. If you do not include the Purchase Order number, Vault cannot automatically analyze the COA file after validation and ingestion complete if your Admin has configured an entry action.
- Attach the files according to the COA file limitations. Vault expects that all files included share the same Supplier Name, Supplier Manufacturing Site Name, and Material.
- Optionally, you can include specific fields to populate with record details by using JSON formatting in the body of the email. Ensure that when you define the object names to use, enclose the JSON code with curly brackets. For example:
{
"facility__v": "ABA000000000101",
"supplier_name__v": "ABB000000000101",
"supplier_manufacturing_site_name__v": "ABC000000000101",
}
Once Vault receives your email with attachments, Vault validates each attachment and ingests the data based on the custom Vault Java SDK implementation. After ingestion, Vault classifies the files as documents and creates a COA Inspection record for each document with all the associated data records linked to the new records and relevant field values populated.
How to Analyze a COA
To analyze a COA file manually, navigate to the appropriate COA Inspection record and select Analyze COA from the Workflow Actions menu. If any Inspection Sample records are related to the COA Inspection record, running the Analyze COA action deletes all existing related Inspection Sample records and re-creates new Inspection Sample records according to any new changes since the last time the action ran.
If you don’t see the Analyze COA option on the Workflow Actions menu, the action may be part of an entry action. If available, select Change State to change the COA record’s state and trigger the entry action. Depending on your Admin’s configuration, you may see the analysis result as part of an entry action after a COA file has been uploaded by email.
If you’re triggering the Analyze COA action for a multi-batch COA file on a COA Inspection record, Vault does the following:
- Verifies the number of batches found in the file. The first batch detected is set to the COA Inspection record where the action is triggered; Vault marks this initial record as the Main Batch record.
- Creates the related COA Inspection batch records for each verified batch found after the first.
- Links each related batch record to the Main Batch record where the action was triggered.
- Analyzes each batch record according to the portion extracted from the multi-batch COA file and creates the Inspection Sample for each batch record (main and related).
- If you trigger the Analyze COA action again, Vault deletes all existing related Inspection Sample records and re-creates new Inspection Sample records according to any new changes.
- Changes the lifecycle state for the Main Batch record to COA Uploaded and sets all related batch records to the same lifecycle state.
You cannot trigger the Analyze COA action on a related batch record. If you attempt to trigger this action on the related batch record, Vault prompts you to navigate to the Main Batch record to trigger the action from the appropriate record.
How to Review COA Test Results
To review COA test results:
- When notified, navigate to the analysis results.
- Review the values for the Pass/Fail and Pass/Fail Icon fields.
- Review the details in the Inspection Sample Test Results section. If configured by your Admin, the Observed Attribute Result field includes any matched text from the COA file that determines the verdict of each attribute Inspection Sample Test Result.
- Optional: If needed, modify the original or localized data values. Changing the original data values results in the localized data values to mirror the change; the reverse applies as well.
- If needed, modify values in the Test Result column. Modifying test result values triggers Vault to validate the newly-entered data against the specifications. Modifying these values also changes the Analysis Source value from Automatic to Manual to reflect the adjustment. Depending on your Admin’s configuration, you may see more than one (1) Test Result column.
- If you made manual changes to the test results, run the Analyze Inspection action. You may run the Analyze COA action instead if you need to re-create all related COA Inspection records and their Inspection Samples (previous related records will be deleted in this process).
Syncing COA Inspection Field Values
When you modify specific fields in a COA type of Inspection record, upon saving, Vault asynchronously updates the related Inspection Sample Test Result record with the new field values, ensuring that your related record has the most up-to-date information. If the asynchronous action fails, you’ll receive a Vault notification informing you that the related records weren’t synced successfully.
In the event that you receive an error notification, use the Sync Related Record action to manually update related records with the new modified values from the Inspection type record. You’ll only need to use this action should an error occur with the asynchronous action. To sync COA type of Inspection field values to its related record’s fields manually:
- Navigate to the appropriate COA Inspection.
- From the All Actions menu, select Sync Related Record.
If the sync failure persists and you continue to receive error notifications from the job and action, contact your Admin for assistance with the job reference ID provided in the error notification.
How to Delete a COA Inspection
To delete a COA Inspection:
- Navigate to the appropriate COA Inspection.
- From the All Actions menu, select Delete Inspection.