Paperless
On this pageA Submitted Request Contains an Error
  1. A Submitted Request Contains an Error
  2. A Request Takes Longer Than Expected
  3. A Request Should Be Rejected
  4. The Study Program Changes Mid-Process
  5. A Decision Was Based on a Wrong Request

Edge Cases

What to do when a submitted request contains an error, a request takes unusually long, or a request has to be rejected.

A Submitted Request Contains an Error

Once a student submits a request, the submitted content is read-only — you cannot change individual fields. Instead:

  1. Use the conversation with the student in the History tab to ask for the missing or corrected information.
  2. Adapt the decision to the corrected situation — for example, by adding a file the student uploads afterwards or by taking the corrected data into account when you draft the decision.

The decision, not the form content, is what carries the official result — so the decision is where corrections ultimately land.

A Request Takes Longer Than Expected

Some requests legitimately take a long time. Recognition of earlier achievements is the most prominent example: it involves a lot of manual work per request, and the number of requests is high. In such cases, processing can take several months.

Keep this in mind before escalating: a long processing time is not automatically a signal that something is stuck. Check the History tab first — if the last entry is recent and the state matches the situation (for example Waiting for reply), the request is simply in the queue.

A Request Should Be Rejected

If a request cannot or should not be granted, set the student state to Was rejected. The student sees this status immediately.

  • Explain the reason to the student in a message in the conversation with the student, if the request’s rejection allows for questions.
  • Draft a decision that documents the rejection where your office issues decisions for rejected requests.
  • Check the states afterwards: the student state shows the rejection, and the staff state should reflect the finished processing.

The Study Program Changes Mid-Process

Students can change study programs while their request is in progress. The request stays assigned to the study program it was submitted for, and the people responsible for that study program continue the processing. If the request now clearly belongs to a different study program, coordinate with that office — alternatively, the request can be assigned to people of the new study program.

A Decision Was Based on a Wrong Request

If you created a decision for the wrong request or with wrong content, delete the decision in the Decision tab. Paperless rolls the states back (the student goes back to Was received, the staff state to Was received, and the ZPA state is cleared). Create the correct decision afterwards and publish it. The deletion is recorded in the History tab — see Downloads and the Audit Trail.