Frequently Asked Questions
Forms & Reports
Q: What is the time frame that CWS-CARES will retain a record of information that has been deleted or modified? For example, if a document such as a Court report is deleted, how far back will CWS-CARES be able to track when it was deleted? Will it be able to identify who performed the action? Will CWS-CARES be able to retrieve the original Court report?
A: Deleted data (including Court Reports) can be retrieved from the Salesforce platform by users for up to 15 days, and you can view details on who deleted it. After 15 days, system administrators can recover deleted data at any time.
Q: Can we get information about the document management tools we will be receiving? From recent CWDS bulletins, we understand counties will be using DocuEdge, but without more technical specifications counties cannot adequately assess impacts to our current imaging\document management systems.
A: CWS-CARES offers a robust set of document-related features including the ability to generate, upload, view, edit, download, print, redact, and merge documents. Appropriate access controls are enforced so that only the users who need to see the documents have access to them.
In CWS-CARES, documents are tied/indexed to key entities such as screenings, referrals, cases, eligibility, court work items, etc. Documents tied to the key entities can be viewed by retrieving the key record first and then pulling up the documents tab to see a list of all documents tied to the record.
Additional context on capabilities:
- Documents are indexed and tied to specific records in CWS-CARES.
- Document indexing uses an extensible and flexible document taxonomy system that is intuitive to use and makes saving, categorizing, and retrieving documents easy.
- Document lists allow sorting by Title, Category, Type, Uploaded By, and Uploaded Date.
- Documents can be viewed and managed directly within the relevant CWS-CARES context, such as screening or a case.
Q: Will CWS-CARES Forms be Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant? Counties wants to know if CDSS would be providing any guidance regarding ADA compliance guidance/requirements to counties.
A: Yes, State forms developed by the project will be ADA compliant and follow the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and ADA state requirements. Counties are responsible for ADA compliance for their own forms created in CWS-CARES. The Project will not be validating compliance on county created forms.
Q: Will the new CWS-CARES system have a page where you can document the client's civil rights? Specifically, are there fields to document that clients were given the Civil Rights brochure, that it was explained to them, and if interpreter services were required/provided?
A: Yes, the structured investigative contact note (which is in progress) has a place to indicate if the Civil Rights Publication 13 brochure was provided. Preferred spoken and written languages can be documented on the person profile, and the use of an interpreter can be noted. As to if the brochure was “explained” to them, the staff member will need to rely on entering that into their contact note.
Q: Will CARES have form field limitations similar to those in CWS/CMS? For instance, in CWS/CMS, multiple fathers on a case cannot be selected on a form.
A: CWS-CARES will automatically populate data when the document is created, eliminating the previous form limitations from CWS/CMS. Counties will also be able to develop/customize their county-specific form templates.
Please note that the form schemas are not yet finalized, as development is still ongoing. For specific questions about the form’s development, please have your representative reach out during the next Forms Workgroup Meeting or send any questions to OTSI CWDS CARES Forms. Counties can also refer to the FAQ spreadsheet attached in Forms Workgroup Teams channel for any frequently asked questions.
Q: Will the Binti export include “Unstructured Data” including documents? (For example: Forms, PDFs, Documents, Word etc.)
A: Unstructured data from External Systems is analyzed and converted similarly to structured data. If these documents/unstructured data are determined to be within the scope and are acceptable document types (such as RFA PDF/Word documents associated with an in-scope functionality in CARES), they can be processed and converted using the pre-defined external system conversion process. This is contingent upon counties providing the necessary mandatory metadata (e.g., IDs to link the document to the associated entity in CARES) for the conversion. Additional steps, such as moving documents to a predefined location, may be required, but the process is analogous to structured data conversion.
Forms/documents like Word, PDF, and Excel files are generally considered unstructured data. The term "applications" likely refers to forms or documents in progress but could also include partially structured data.
Q: Will we be able to add documents to closed cases/referrals in CARES? (Example: Program has a long-term project to scan old case documents and import into CWS/CMS. Likely the project will not be complete until after CARES goes live).
A: Yes, the user can upload documents to closed cases.
Q: Does the Project have a recommendation on a tool for paperless scanning and bulk upload, Application Programming Interfaces, API connection or other?
A: The CWS-CARES project team does not currently have a recommendation. The project will be researching this functionality for consideration in CWS-CARES future scope after CWS-CARES V1 is implemented. The design and timing of this enhancement is currently unknown.
Q: What is the timeline inclusion of bulk upload from CWS/CMS to CWS-CARES?
A: CWS-CARES continues to ingest new documents from CWS-CMS on a weekly basis. Counties can continue to upload documents into CWS/CMS until the day of CWS-CARES go-live and expect those files to be transferred into the CWS-CARES environment.
Q: What are External System needs for preparing scanned files for upload to CWS-CARES?
A: CWS/CMS limits the file size for uploaded documents to 5 MB per document. CWS-CARES will allow documents uploads of up to 100 MB. File types must be compatible with CWS-CARES, allowable file types include PDF, DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLSX, Jpeg/jpg, txt, mov/mkv/mp4 files. Users will be able to upload files into CWS-CARES using either individual or multifile selection into a case record.