The Complaint Intake object allows organizations to intake and triage potential product quality complaints for specific products and their respective batches before an associated Complaint record is created automatically. QMS users can continue to create Complaint records directly, but this feature helps streamline the process of receiving, triaging, and creating complaints.
This article explains the Admin setup required to configure the Complaint Intake object and its associated Promote to Complaint action. Once setup is complete, QMS users can create Complaint Intake records and trigger Vault to automatically create a Complaint record from the source Complaint Intake record.
Configuration Overview
Complete the following steps in your Vault to configure this feature:
- Configure the Complaint Intake object.
- Configure the Complaint or Quality Event Complaint object.
- Optional: Configure the Complaint Intake Follow-Up object.
- Configure the Promote to Complaint action as a user action, entry action, or workflow action on the Complaint Intake object lifecycle.
Configuring Complaint Intake Object
To allow users to utilize Complaint Intake effectively, we recommend the following configuration steps:
- Activate the MedTech Complaint Intake object type.
- Activate object fields belonging to the MedTech Complaint Intake object type. In order to create Medtech Complaint records from MedTech Complaint Intake records, ensure all fields required for the Medtech Complaint object type are active on the MedTech Complaint Intake object type.
- Create a layout for the MedTech Complaint Intake object type and configure it to fit your organization’s business requirements.
- Configure the Complaint Intake object layouts to display all Complaint or Quality Event Complaint records created from a Complaint Intake record.
- Configure the Complaint Intake object layouts to display all child Reported Products associated with the Complaint Intake record.
- Add the special Email Body section or Email Body field to the Complaint Intake object type page layout. The section and field display up to 32,000 characters. If the email content exceeds 32,000 characters, a message displays within the Email Body section in Vault and on downloaded PDFs, while the Email Body field displays a truncated version of the email text in Vault. Users can view and download the full email in the record’s Attachments section.
- Optional: Add a Complaint Contacts related object section to the layout for all applicable object types. This step is required if your organization uses External Notifications for Complaint Intake records.
- Optional: If required for your processes, add the following application sections to the layout for the appropriate object type:
- Complaint Intake Follow-Ups: Allows users to manually record follow-up requests for the Complaint Intake.
- Follow-Up Attachments: Displays attachments on all related Complaint Intake Follow-Up records.
- Optional: Create a custom Complaint Intake object tab for users to quickly access and manage Complaint Intake records.
- Optional: If your process requires translation, configure Quality Automated Language Translations for the Complaint Intake object. When configured, Vault automatically translates field data on a Complaint Intake record at the appropriate step in your organization’s complaint intake process.
- Configure Quality Teams for the Complaint Intake object.
Configuring Complaint or Quality Event Complaint Object
To allow users to utilize Complaints or Quality Event Complaints effectively, ensure that the Complaint Intake field is displayed on the Complaint object or Quality Event Complaint object page layouts.
If required by your process, add the following application sections to the layout for the appropriate Complaint object type. To use these sections, the Complaint object must have the Complaint Intake object reference field populated.
- Complaint Contacts: Displays all Complaint Contacts from the related Complaint Intake record and lets users create new Complaint Contacts.
- Complaint Intake Follow-Ups: Displays follow-up requests for the related Complaint Intake and lets users create new Complaint Intake Follow-Ups.
- Follow-Up Attachments: Displays attachments on all Complaint Intake Follow-Up records from the related Complaint Intake record.
If your process requires translation, configure Quality Automated Language Translations for the Complaint object or Quality Event Complaint object. When configured, Vault automatically translates field data on a Complaint record at the appropriate step in your organization’s complaint intake process.
Configuring Complaint Intake Follow-Up Object
The Complaint Intake Follow-Up object lets users record and view requests for additional information related to a Complaint Intake record. Users can enter these requests directly on Complaint Intake records and the resulting Complaint records.
Users must manually follow up through their preferred channel, then record the details in a Complaint Intake Follow-Up record related to a Complaint Intake record. The Complaint Intake Follow-Up object will support External Notifications in a future release. Use of Complaint Contacts will be required for notifications sent from Complaint Intake Follow-Ups.
About Dependencies for Complaint Contacts & Complaint Intake Follow-Ups
The following table lists the requirements for the use of Complaint Intake Follow-Ups and Complaint Contacts with intakes and complaints.
| Supported Object | Complaint Intake Follow-Ups | Complaint Contacts |
|---|---|---|
| Complaint Intakes | Optional | Optional; only required for External Notifications |
| Complaints | Optional; requires Complaint Intakes | Optional; requires Complaint Intakes |
Configuring Promote to Complaint Action
The Promote to Complaint action allows Vault to create one (1) or more Complaints related to the source Complaint Intake record. When this action executes, Vault copies active custom and standard fields from the Complaint Intake to the resulting Complaint records created from this action, including product information and attachments on the Complaint Intake record. Vault copies fields with matching names, for instance, from Awareness Date (awareness_date__v) on the Complaint Intake object to Awareness Date (awareness_date__v) on the Complaint object. If fields with otherwise identical names but different namespaces exist on the Complaint Intake and Complaint objects (for instance, awareness_date__v and awareness_date__c), Vault may prioritize the last created field rather than the field with a matching namespace.
To configure the Promote to Complaint action:
- Configure the Promote to Complaint action on a Complaint Intake object lifecycle state as a user or entry action or a Complaint Intake workflow step. All required fields on the Complaint or Quality Event Complaint object must also be populated on the Complaint Intake and Reported Product records prior to executing the Promote to Complaint action.
- Select the Object Type of the Complaint record to be created.
- Optional: Select the Split by Batch checkbox. This setting allows Vault to create multiple Complaints from a single source Complaint Intake and group them by related products and batches. This checkbox is turned off by default.
- Optional: Select the Copy Attachments checkbox. This setting ensures that Vault copies any supported attachments associated with the Complaint Intake record to all created Complaint or Quality Event Complaint records. This checkbox is turned on by default but is unavailable if the configured Complaint or Quality Event Complaint object does not allow attachments.
- The Promote to Complaint action does not copy attachments displayed in the Follow-Up Attachments section on a Complaint Intake. Attachments from Complaint Intake Follow-Ups related to the source Complaint Intake display in the Follow-Up Attachments section of the created Complaints.