What you need to know
Some tasks wait for an outside party, such as the client or an escrow officer, to give an answer. Under Needs, each party is one line: its name, where they stand under it with the day, such as On board 11/09, and Answer on the right. When a task waits on more than one party for the same answer, a line above counts what is done, such as Signed off: 2 of 6. When the party tells you where they stand, select Answer and pick their answer. It is RealAdvice's record of their answer, not an approval by RealAdvice, and nothing is sent to them.
The answers, from first contact to a written sign-off:
- RealAdvice hasn’t been introduced to them yet.
- RealAdvice has reached out and is waiting to hear back.
- RealAdvice reached out and hasn’t heard back.
- They’ve agreed to work with RealAdvice on this engagement.
- They’ve said yes, but not yet in writing.
- They’ve signed off in writing.
Before you start
- You must be on the task, hold its job role, or be a manager of the project. A person who holds the job role records the answer on a task someone else is on under their own name, and the person on the task stays on it. Only a manager corrects an answer.
- On a task that is under way and that nobody is on, a person who holds the task's job role can record the answer too. Their first act asks Make it yours?; the Take button opens the answer and puts them on the task and on the job role's other open tasks that nobody is on, and Cancel changes nothing. A manager who does not hold the job role is put on that task only, and is not asked.
- The answer must be requested first. If its line reads Not asked, select Request on it: Ask for a document or a sign-off.
- Answer shows on any open request: an answer is recorded when it arrives. Not needed and Not asked, under ⋯, are your own calls, so they show once the task is under way: moved out of Not started, or done.
- You can record an answer after the task is done. A signed letter often comes after the work went ahead.
What to do
To record an answer:
- Open the property or engagement, and open the task's card in its Work panel. Under Needs, the party's line shows where they stand now and the day, for example Asked 11/09, or Verbal yes · not signed 11/09.
- Select Answer. Under Their answer, the dialog lists the answers in the order a party gives them: Awaiting response, On board, Verbal yes, Signed off; then, apart, No response and Declined. The answer they gave last says (now). Nothing is picked for you.
- Pick the answer they gave. The line under Their answer says when the need is done.
- The details show from the start, before you pick an answer. For every answer, you can add Heard at RealAdvice by (you, unless you pick someone else), When (today, unless you change it to the day they said it) and a Note, such as who the client introduced. For every answer except No response, you can add Who said it: it goes away when you pick that one. All of them are optional.
- Who said it lists the people of the party's organization when the record names it: the client organization for the client, a side's own organization for its decision maker, and the organization in that role on the engagement's Transaction Partners list for the others. Pick the person. For someone not listed, pick Someone else and type their name in Their name. When the record names no organization for the party, or two in the same role, you type the name. A person marked as no longer with the organization is not listed; an answer they gave keeps their name.
- Select the button, for example Record: Signed off.
To correct an answer that was recorded wrong, or to add who said it, when or a note to it. While the task is not finished, the person on it, a manager of the project or a person who holds its job role corrects it. Once the task is done, skipped or not applicable, only a department manager or above can:
- On an open request, select ⋯ on its line, then History. On a closed one, select Closed on the task's card.
- Select the answer itself. A dialog shows it in full: who said it, who heard it, when, its note, and any earlier versions with who replaced each one, when and why. Select Correct. The answer dialog opens, titled “Correct the party's answer”, with that answer's facts filled in.
- Change what was wrong, and type Why it is corrected. It is required. A correction picks Who said it again, or keeps the person picked before. Then select the button, for example Correct: On board.
Nothing is overwritten. The correction is kept as a new answer, with who made it, when and why. The card then lists the correction in place of the answer it corrects, and the answer's dialog keeps the earlier version. Each correction is also written to the audit log with the answer before and after. The database refuses to change or remove a recorded answer, so this trail cannot be edited.
A closed request stays closed, and nothing already done on it is undone, even when the answer is corrected to a weaker one. From then on, everything that reads the party's answer reads the correction: the Closing reports, and the next release approval, which lists the party again. The answer's dialog says it was corrected after the wait closed. A ladder answer cannot be corrected to Declined on a closed request, nor the other way round: the dialog does not offer it, and says why in a message.
To mark a sign-off not needed:
- On the party's line, select ⋯, then Not needed.
- Type the reason in Why it is not needed. It is required.
- Select Mark not needed.
Confirm it worked
- When the wait closes, a message says so, for example “The wait is closed.”, or “Marked not needed. The wait is closed, and the release approval does not list it.”
- The row folds into the line at the foot of Needs on the same card, for example 1 answered or 1 not needed. Select the line to see the row with its answers.
- When the wait stays open, the row shows the new answer, and History lists it.
- After a correction, a message names the answer and says “The earlier answer stays in the history.” The card lists the correction in place of the earlier answer, and the answer's dialog shows both.
- When the answer finishes a sign-off that a release approval kept as an exception, the exception resolves itself. The release task's card says so under the exception's words.
If it did not work
- A message says “This property was deleted on 10/06/2026; its work is paused until it is restored.” The work's property or engagement was deleted, and nobody can change its work until the record is restored. See A project or its tasks disappeared.
- The line has no Answer: you are not on the task and you are not a manager, or the answer was not requested yet.
- The dialog closed with “That wait was closed a moment ago. Nothing was recorded.” Someone else recorded or withdrew it first. The card shows it as it is now.
- Why it is not needed says Required: type a reason, then select Mark not needed again.
- “Start this task before you mark a need not needed.” The task is not started yet. Move it into a started stage, such as In progress, then try again.
- A message says “This task is finished: only a department manager or above can correct its answers.” Ask a manager of the department to make the correction.
- The answer's dialog has no Correct: the task is finished and you are not a department manager or above, you may not record answers on the task, or the request was closed as not needed, released or withdrawn.
- Why it is corrected says Required: type why, then select the button again.
Good to know
What the answers mean, and how a release uses them: Approvals, sign-offs and exceptions.