# Multi-Site Document Distribution (Clinical Operations)
With multi-site document distribution (MSDD) workflows, sponsors can send a document workflow task to multiple sites at once, track overall workflow completion, and track task completion for individual sites. For example, you may need to send a safety document to multiple sites participating in a clinical trial. You need one person at each site to acknowledge that they received the document. With this workflow, you can send the document and associated acknowledgement task to all participating trial sites at once. You can also track which sites have completed the task and which have not. ## Distributing to Sites When the distribution workflow is available, usually on _Approved_ documents that are ready to go to a site, you'll see **Distribute to Sites** in the document's **Actions** menu. The label for this action may be different in your Vault. To start a distribution workflow: 1. Navigate to your document. 2. Select **Distribute to Sites** from the **Actions** menu. 3. In the _Study Sites_ dialog, use the checkboxes or **Select All** to select sites to include in the distribution. Vault automatically adds filters based on the document you're distributing. You can also search or add more filters to find additional sites. You cannot select more than 5,000 sites. 4. Click **Next** to open the _Multi-Site Distribution Wizard_. 5. On the _Distribution List_ page, confirm the sites to which you are distributing the document. Use the checkboxes to further refine your selected sites. 6. Click **Next** to confirm your distribution list. 7. On the _Distribution Details_ page, use the **Choose Roles** picklist to select the roles that should receive the document at each site. 8. Optional: Click **Add Task Instructions** to add a message or instructions to task recipients. 9. Optional: Set a **Due Date** for the task. You'll only see this option if the workflow configuration includes a due date. 10. Click **Next**. 11. On the _Confirmation_ page, confirm all details and click **Finish** to send your document to your selected sites. Completing your distribution sends an **Any User** workflow task to all users in the roles you selected at each site. A single user at the site will need to accept and complete the task. After your complete the _Multi-Site Distribution Wizard_, Vault queues your distribution. Vault only sends you a notification if an error occurs during the distribution. For example, if there are no users assigned to any role that you selected for one of your selected sites, you'll receive a notification. Click the link in the notification to open a CSV document containing both successful and failed distributions. Note that you cannot start the document distribution workflow if the document is currently in another active workflow. ### Adding More Sites to an Active Workflow Sometimes, after you've distributed a document, you may need to send it to additional sites. You can add more sites to the active distribution workflow in the same way that you start a distribution workflow. Click **Distribute to Sites** from the document's **Actions** menu, select your desired sites for distribution, and proceed through the _Multi-Site Distribution Wizard_. Note that Vault uses the due date and message from the active distribution workflow. If you select any sites that already have distributions in the existing workflow, Vault displays a message on the _Distribution List_ page in the _Multi-Site Distribution Wizard_, and excludes the sites from the new distribution. ## Tracking Distribution Progress There are several ways that you can track progress for your distributions and associated workflow tasks. ### Distribution Task Object {#distribution-tasks} Depending on your Vault configuration, you may see the _Distribution Task_ object in a custom tab. When you start a multi-site document distribution workflow, Vault automatically creates one _Distribution Task_ object record for each **Any User** workflow task sent to each study site that you selected. Vault also creates one _Distribution Task Recipients_ object record for each workflow task recipient at each site. From the _Distribution Task_ object, you can drill down to see the _Distribution Task Recipients_ for your distributions. ### Reports When configured, you can create and run a report of type _Distribution with Activity and Recipient_ to track the status of your active distributions. Add the following prompts to track specific distributions: * _Distribution Task > Document Version_: Tracks status of distributions for a particular document version * _Distribution Task > Study_: _Tracks status of distributions for a specific study_ * _Distribution Task > Study Country_: Tracks status of distributions for a specific study country * _Distribution Task > Study Site_: Tracks status of distributions for a specific study site * _Distribution Task Recipient > Recipient_: Tracks status of distributions for a specific recipient ### Workflow Timeline View From your document, you can open [**Timeline View**](/en/lr/13880/) to see the status of all workflow tasks for the document. You can also see this information by clicking the [**View Workflow History Report**](/en/lr/3168/) link in **Timeline View** or from the **Actions** menu. ## Related Permissions The following permissions control the ability to distribute documents and report on distributions:
Type Permission Label Description
Security Profile Objects: Study Site: Read Ability to select sites for distribution
Security Profile Objects: Application Role: Read Ability to select roles to receive distributions
Security Profile Objects: Activity: Read Ability to track status of distributions
Security Profile Application: Workflow: Start Ability to send documents to sites