What is a controlled document?
A controlled document is a document whose changes run through a defined process, so it has a named owner, a review and approval step before release, a tracked distribution, and a full revision history. Control is a property of the process around the file, so the same drawing is controlled inside a document control system and uncontrolled the moment it is printed or emailed out.
Also called: document under control · controlled copy · Related term: uncontrolled document
Four marks make a document controlled.
A document is controlled when you can answer four questions about it without asking anyone: who owns it, who approved this version, who was sent it, and what came before.
On a shared drive every document is uncontrolled from the system’s point of view. There may be a business process around it, but nothing constrains who edits the file or how versions are kept.
Read the full explainer on controlled documents- 01Ownership
One named owner is accountable for the content and for keeping it current, so there is someone to ask when it is wrong.
- 02Review and approval
A change is raised, the document is locked to one editor, and the new version is approved before it is released.
- 03Distribution tracking
The record shows who was issued which version, and when, so holders of a superseded copy can be reissued.
- 04Revision history
Every version is kept, numbered, and marked current or superseded, with an audit trail behind each change.
Runs through a workflow, with the document locked to one editor.
Anyone with access edits, overwrites, or deletes it.
One version is marked current, and earlier versions are kept and marked superseded.
Whichever copy you opened last, with no way to tell it apart.
Recorded against the version, with the approver and the date.
Held in someone's memory, or in an email.
Issued on a transmittal that records the recipient and the revision sent.
Attached to an email, printed, or dropped in a folder.
A print or a download is an uncontrolled copy, because it stops receiving revisions the moment it is taken. That is what the uncontrolled-when-printed stamp is telling you.
Control is the default, and uncontrolled is a choice.
Lunr holds controlled documents through the full document lifecycle, and still lets you upload uncontrolled files where control would only add friction. Changes run through a document workflow, so the number, the revision, and the file stay the same thing.
- Raise a change and the document locks to one editor, so two people cannot edit the same drawing at once.
- Route the change through review and approval, and the approved revision becomes the one the register serves.
- Version numbers are allocated automatically as each new version is released, following your CAD standard.
- Document numbers follow your own naming rule, so a file carries meaning even once it leaves the system.
- The previous revision is marked superseded and kept, never deleted and never mistaken for the current sheet.
- Every workflow transition, approval, revision, and tag edit is logged with the person and the time.
workflow · approval · automated version numbering · automated document numbering · audit trail
See engineering document management in LunrKeep reading.
The full explainer, with the photo-in-the-field example of a document nobody needs to control.
Where the controlled record lives, alongside revisions, approvals, and the audit trail.
How each iteration is tracked, and what happens to the version it replaces.
The recorded issue of a controlled document to another party, and the proof it was sent.
Questions about controlled documents.
- What is the difference between a controlled and an uncontrolled document?
- A controlled document has a named owner, changes through a workflow, an approval recorded against each version, a tracked distribution, and a full revision history. An uncontrolled document has none of that: anyone with access can edit or delete it, no version is marked current, and nothing records who holds a copy. Both have their place. A photo taken in the field and attached to a drawing carries no risk if it is changed, so it does not need control. The drawing itself does.
- What is an uncontrolled copy?
- An uncontrolled copy is a copy that leaves the control of the system, most often a print or a download. The moment it is taken, it stops receiving revisions, so it stays at the revision it was taken at while the record moves on. This is why printed sheets carry a mark such as uncontrolled when printed, and why the safest copy is the one read from the register itself.
- Do controlled documents help with ISO 9001?
- They are the mechanism behind it. ISO 9001:2015 clause 7.5.3 requires documented information to be controlled for distribution, access, retrieval, and use, for storage and preservation, for control of changes, and for retention and disposition. A controlled document meets those requirements by design: the approval and every subsequent change sit on a changelog that records who made the change, what it was, and when.
- Which documents should be controlled?
- Control anything the organisation would be exposed by if it were wrong, missing, or silently changed: drawings, models, specifications, technical reports, procedures, and asset records. Leave uncontrolled the material that carries no such risk, such as site photos attached as comments, meeting notes, and reference copies of third-party material. Most systems, Lunr included, hold both, so the distinction is a decision you make per document rather than a limit of the software.
Put the documents that matter under control.
Book a walkthrough and watch a change run through workflow, take an approval, and land on the audit trail with the superseded version kept.
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- entity
- Lunr Labs Pty Ltd
- location
- Melbourne AU
- workspace
- documents.lunr.app
- rev
- 2026