Intranet and Document Acknowledgement

Document Acknowledgement turns your intranet from a passive library into an active compliance tool. By requiring employees to read and acknowledge specific documents — policies, procedures, safety updates — you create a clear, auditable record of who has seen what, and when.

Who this is for: Intranet Administrators (setup), Managers with intranet access (tracking), and Employees (acknowledging)

Read time: 6 minutes

What is Document Acknowledgement?

Document Acknowledgement is a feature of the Prosper Intranet that allows administrators to mark a document as requiring formal acknowledgement from employees. When a document is set to require acknowledgement:

Employees in the assigned audience see the document flagged in their Hub.
They're prompted to read it and confirm acknowledgement.
Prosper records the acknowledgement against their profile.
Managers and administrators can track who has and hasn't acknowledged.

Common use cases:

Workplace health and safety policies and updates
Code of conduct and ethics policies
Standard operating procedures
Updated terms of employment or handbook changes
Site-specific operational documents
Compliance and regulatory documents

Prerequisites

Administrators need permission to manage Intranet content.
The Intranet module must be enabled for your organisation.
Employees and managers must have active Prosper accounts.

Part 1 — Setting up a document for acknowledgement (Admin)

Step 1 — Upload or open the document

From the Prosper main menu, navigate to the Intranet.
Open the folder where the document will live, or upload a new document.

Step 2 — Open the document settings

Locate the document in the folder. Under Actions, select the Edit icon.

Step 3 — Enable acknowledgement

Switch the Requires Acknowledgement toggle to the on position.

Step 4 — Configure the acknowledgement

Set your Audience and confirm your selected recipients— who is required to acknowledge. Options include all employees, By Team, By Location, By Position, or a custom list.

Step 5 — Save and Publish

Select Update to save the document settings. The document is now live with acknowledgement enabled. Every employee in the audience will see it flagged in their Hub the next time they log in.

Step 6 — Communicate the requirement

For important documents — particularly compliance or policy updates — pair the acknowledgement with a brief communication using your regular channels letting employees know the document is live and what they need to do. Acknowledgement rates are significantly higher when the requirement is communicated explicitly.

Part 2 — Acknowledging a document (Employee)

From an employee's perspective, the experience is designed to be quick and clear.

Step 1 — See the prompt

Documents requiring acknowledgement appear in the To Do or Acknowledgements section of the employee's Hub, with a visual indicator showing it's outstanding.

Step 2 — Open the document

Click the document to preview or download the document.

Step 3 — Read the document

Scroll through or read the full document.

Step 4 — Acknowledge

Select Acknowledge.

The acknowledgement is recorded immediately. The document moves out of the employee's outstanding list and a confirmation is displayed.

Part 3 — Tracking acknowledgements (Manager and Admin)

Manager view

Managers can see acknowledgement status for their direct reports if they have intranet access:

Navigate to Intranet > Reporting.
Select the Acknowledgements or Pending tabs to view which employee have completed their acknowledgment and which are still outstanding.

Administrator view

Administrators have a full reporting view across the organisation if they have intranet access:

Navigate to Intranet > Reporting.
Select the Acknowledgements or Pending tabs to view which employee have completed their acknowledgment and which are still outstanding.

From here, administrators can:

Search by name.
Export the acknowledgement report for compliance records or audit.
Send a targeted reminder to outstanding employees

Reporting and audit

Acknowledgement data is designed to be audit-ready. Each acknowledgement record includes:

The document name and version.
The date created.
The employee's name, Team, Location, Job Role (position).
Acknowledged status
Date and timestamp of acknowledgement.

Versioning documents

When you update an acknowledged document with material changes, you should require a fresh acknowledgement:

Upload a new version and toggle Acknowledgement Required. Every employee in the audience will be prompted to acknowledge the new version, even if they acknowledged the previous version.
Upload as a new document with a clear version reference in the name (for example, WHS Policy v2 — Effective 1 March). This keeps the historical acknowledgement record fully separate.

Tips and best practices

Use acknowledgements sparingly. Requiring acknowledgement on every document leads to acknowledgement fatigue — employees click through without reading. Reserve it for documents where the read-and-understood record actually matters.
Write specific statements. A clear, document-specific statement is more defensible in any future audit or dispute than a generic confirmation.
Set realistic timeframes. Give employees enough time to read the document properly — particularly for longer policies. 7 to 14 days is a common standard.
Pair major documents with a briefing. For complex policies, a short manager-led team huddle before the acknowledgement deadline drives both completion and genuine understanding.
Make managers accountable for their team. Surface team-level acknowledgement rates to managers. Completion improves significantly when it's visible to leaders.
Audit periodically. Run a quarterly review of acknowledgement reports to identify gaps before they become a compliance issue.

Troubleshooting

An employee says they can't see a document they should be acknowledging.
Check the document's audience configuration — confirm the employee's site, department, or role matches the selected audience. Also confirm the employee's profile data is current.

An employee acknowledged the wrong document.
Acknowledgements cannot be deleted, but you can require a fresh acknowledgement on the correct document. The original record remains for audit purposes.

We've updated a policy — do existing acknowledgements still count?
Only for the version that was acknowledged. For material changes, require re-acknowledgement on the new version using the approach in Versioning documents above.

Can I require acknowledgement from a contractor or external user?
Acknowledgement requires an active Prosper account. If contractors are in Prosper, they can be included in audiences like any employee.

Acknowledgement rates are low — how do I lift them?
The three highest-impact actions are: communicating the requirement explicitly, surfacing team-level completion to managers, and pairing important documents with a short briefing rather than relying on the document alone.

Can I see who acknowledged after the due date?
Yes — the acknowledgement timestamp is preserved in the report and export, so late acknowledgements are clearly identifiable.