Getting started as a records custodian

As a records custodian you own requests from the moment they land to the moment they close. Govflo holds the request, the correspondence, the records and the decisions in one place, so the thing you hand over at the end is a complete account rather than a folder and a memory.

The five places you will work

• Dashboard. What needs attention now. Start here each morning.
• Requests. Your queue. Everything your agency has received.
• Document Workspace. Where records are reviewed and redacted.
• Approvals. Where work waits for sign-off, if your agency requires it.
• Requesters. Everyone who has filed with you, and their history.

What you are responsible for

You pick a request up, you decide what is responsive, you decide what must be withheld, and you release what remains. Govflo proposes and records; it does not decide. Every AI summary in the product carries the same line: Advisory, AI assists, a human decides.

What the product does without being asked

Three things happen whether you touch them or not, and knowing about them saves confusion later.

The clock starts on arrival. Not when you pick the request up. Two deadlines run at once, one for your first response and one for resolving the request.

Every change is logged. Who changed what, and when, written as part of the same action. There is no way to make a change that leaves no trace.

Redaction is permanent. When you redact, the content is removed from the file rather than covered over. A released document cannot be reconstructed.

What you cannot do

You cannot change how the agency operates. Statuses, deadlines, roles, teams and templates are set by an administrator and apply to everyone at once. That split is deliberate: configuration changes affect the whole office, casework affects one request.

You also cannot move a request backwards. Closed and Denied are end states, and the lifecycle runs one way only.