The reporting office handles every report on the case page, which guides the process in six phases: Intake, Responsibility, Review of the report, Follow-up measures, Execution and Closure. This guide covers the first three: acknowledge receipt on time, check the details for relevance, assign responsibility, and establish scope and plausibility. Through the thread the reporting office stays in contact with the reporting person in every phase.
Keep track of cases
Open the case list
Open Wizards → Whistleblower Protection. As a person of the reporting office you see the state of the portal at the top, below it the figures Cases total, Open, Awaiting reply, Acknowledgement overdue and Feedback overdue, and the list of cases with channel, subject, receipt, state of the acknowledgement, feedback deadline and assigned person. The Filters narrow by Status, Assigned person and Overdue.
Open a case
Click Open case in a row. The case header names the identifier, channel, receipt and state, below it the running deadline with a clock: first the acknowledgement, after it the feedback. The line below names the assigned person and the next reminder. Under the header sits the phase bar; each phase opens with a click and says at its top what is still open in it.
Acknowledge receipt
Send the acknowledgement
In the Intake phase the acknowledgement card shows the deadline. Click Acknowledge receipt. The window proposes a text you can adjust; Send acknowledgement sends it as a message to the reporting person. With the acknowledgement the feedback deadline starts.
Check details for relevance
The Report card shows the report text, the subjects, whether the information was obtained in a professional context, the address for notifications and the person’s language. Check every detail for its connection to the reported facts. If everything is relevant, click Checked, nothing to redact; the card then carries Relevance checked. If the text holds a detail without connection, such as a name mentioned in passing, click Redact data, mark the passage, choose the reason and confirm. The same applies to every message of the person in the thread.
Record named persons
In the Named persons card use Add person to record everyone who is the subject of the report, is named in it, has supported the reporting person or is connected with them. Names from this list do not leave the reporting office. If an entry points to the account of a designated person, the card reports a possible conflict of interest.
Assign responsibility
Assign the responsible person
Open the Responsibility phase. In the card Responsibility and access click Assign or Reassign and choose a person of the reporting office. They carry the case until closure. How to bring in a supporting person for a limited time is described in the guide on access.
Review the report
Establish the scope
Open the phase Review of the report. The card of the same name has two steps: 1. Scope and 2. Plausibility. Click Check scope. In the window record the kind of information and of breach, the professional context and the subjects; what the reporting person chose is prefilled. For some subjects the law asks an additional question, for others it knows priority reporting procedures. Under protected secrets you note trade secrets or confidentiality duties. As the Result choose Within the scope or Outside the scope with an exclusion ground or a reason.
Establish plausibility
Once the report is within the scope, Check plausibility becomes available. A report is plausible when it is concrete (who, what, when, where), coherent in itself and offers leads that can be followed up. Record Plausible or Not plausible with a reason. Both steps then show when and by whom they were recorded and can be updated with Check again.
Stay in contact with the reporting person
Send a message or an inquiry
Below every phase you find the section Contact with the reporting person with the Thread; the button at the bottom of the screen jumps there. Choose a Message, an Inquiry or an internal note under Type, write the text, add attachments if needed and click Send. The person reads the message in the portal; if they left an email address, they receive an email without content saying that a message is waiting. An inquiry sets the state to Awaiting reply.
Result: Receipt is acknowledged, the details are checked for relevance, an assigned person carries the case, and scope and plausibility are recorded with reasons. The Follow-up measures phase is open; the next guide describes how to continue there. Every step appears in the Protocol at the end of the page.