Level 4 - Multi-Step Procedures and Notices
What Level 4 adds
Documents now have parts that interact: a procedure with branching steps, a notice with a table of deadlines, a policy with an approval chain. The language is still plain, but you must hold more of it in mind at once.
Concepts to own
- Prerequisites: 'Before you may X, complete Y.' Order is a test item.
- Who performs each step: the requester, the supervisor, Facilities, Payroll. Track the actor, not just the action.
- Deliverables: what must be attached, signed, or filed, and with whom.
- Timelines in sequence: 'within 2 days,' 'by the 15th,' 'no later than 30 days after.' Convert to a calendar if that helps.
- Exceptions: 'except when the absence exceeds three days.'
- Records: where the outcome gets logged or reported.
Traps
- Skipped step. A choice that combines steps 1 and 3 without step 2.
- Actor swap. 'The supervisor submits the form' versus 'the employee submits the form and the supervisor signs it.'
- Deadline drift. The clock may start at the event (injury, request, hire date), not at the notice date.
- Almost-right conditions. 'If approved by HR' when the text says 'by your manager.'
Worked example
Procedure: (1) The employee submits a supply request to the office manager. (2) The office manager checks the budget line. (3) If the item costs over $500, the request goes to the director for approval. (4) Purchasing places the order. Question: who approves a $650 order? Step 3: the director. The office manager still performs the budget check, but that is a separate step, not the approval. An answer naming the office manager is the actor-swap trap.
Rule of thumb
Sketch a quick chain - who, then who, then who - and write the dollar or date thresholds on the arrows. Answer from the chain, not from memory or habit.