Spectrum 5.1 procedure starter pack

The Spectrum procedure starter pack installs 21 workflows on your Heratio install — one for each of the Spectrum 5.1 primary procedures defined by UK Collections Trust. Each shipped workflow comes with a sensible set of paraphrased starter steps you can immediately use, customise, or replace.

What it is

Procedure	Starter steps
Object entry	Receive object → Issue receipt → Initial condition check → Provisional location → Handover for processing
Acquisition and accessioning	Acquisition proposal → Governance approval → Transfer of title → Assign accession number → Formal accession record
Inventory	Define inventory scope → Physical verification → Reconcile against records → Investigate discrepancies → Inventory report
Location and movement control	Move request → Plan move → Pre-move record → Execute move → Confirm new location
Cataloguing	Identify object → Descriptive catalogue → Subject indexing → Quality review → Publication
Object exit	Reason for exit → Authorisation → Pre-exit record → Handover → Close record
Loans in (borrowing)	Loan request → Lender agreement → Insurance & transport → Receive & inspect → Return at end of loan
Loans out (lending)	Borrower request review → Loan agreement → Condition documentation → Dispatch → Return inspection
Insurance and indemnity	Valuation for insurance → Policy review → Document declarations → Annual review
Damage and loss	Discovery & immediate response → Damage assessment → Incident report → Recovery/repair planning → Final disposition
Conservation and collections care	Condition assessment → Treatment proposal → Approval → Treatment & documentation → Preventive care review
Audit	Audit planning → Sampling & verification → Findings documentation → Management response → Audit report
Object condition checking and technical assessment	Initial visual inspection → Detailed examination → Technical analysis → Condition report
Object valuation	Valuation request → Comparable research → Independent appraisal → Documentation & review schedule
Risk management	Risk identification → Risk assessment & scoring → Mitigation planning → Implementation → Periodic review
Emergency planning for collections	Hazard identification → Plan development → Staff training → Drill & exercise → Plan review/update
Use of collections	Use request → Eligibility review → Approval & conditions → Supervised use → Post-use condition check
Rights management	Rights identification → Rights documentation → Permission requests → Licence tracking → Periodic review
Reproduction	Reproduction request → Rights clearance → Production → Quality control → Delivery & record
Deaccessioning and disposal	Deaccession proposal → Governance review → Authorisation → Disposal execution → Permanent record
Retrospective documentation	Identify undocumented items → Prioritise → Catalogue → Verify → Integrate

Important — what it is NOT

⚠️ These step names and instructions are paraphrased starting templates, not the verbatim Spectrum 5.1 specification text. Spectrum 5.1 is © UK Collections Trust and we do not redistribute their copyrighted text.

Before claiming Spectrum compliance, review each workflow's steps and instructions against your own Collections Trust subscription and adjust to match your institution's adopted Spectrum implementation.

How to install

From the admin UI

Log in as administrator
Go to Workflow → Workflows & diagrams (top-right AHG Plugins dropdown)
Click Install Spectrum pack in the page header
Confirm the dialogue
Workflows tagged with their Spectrum procedure now appear in the list

The button is safe to re-click — by default it only adds missing procedures. Existing workflows with the same spectrum_procedure tag are left untouched.

From the command line

# Install missing procedures (default — safe, idempotent)
php artisan workflow:seed-spectrum

# Dry-run — show what would change, write nothing
php artisan workflow:seed-spectrum --dry-run

# Install only a specific procedure (or several)
php artisan workflow:seed-spectrum --only=object_entry --only=cataloguing

# RESET existing Spectrum workflows to seed defaults
# ⚠️ This DELETES hand-customised steps for those procedures
php artisan workflow:seed-spectrum --overwrite

The `--overwrite` flag — what it does

Without `--overwrite` (default)	With `--overwrite`
Existing Spectrum workflows are skipped	Existing Spectrum workflows have their name + description updated to seed defaults
Steps are not touched	All steps for that workflow are deleted and re-inserted from the seed
Safe to run repeatedly	Safe ONLY if you want a clean reset

If your team has hand-customised the steps for, say, Cataloguing — running with --overwrite will lose those customisations. Use --only to scope the reset to specific procedures if you only want to reset some.

Customising after install

After install, each Spectrum workflow is a normal Heratio workflow. You can:

Add/edit/reorder steps from the workflow edit page
Use the drag-and-drop designer (Designer button) to add branching between steps
Adjust step types, approvers, escalation rules
View the workflow diagram (Diagram button) including the Spectrum badge

Your customisations stay until you run workflow:seed-spectrum --overwrite on that procedure.

Removing a procedure

If a procedure doesn't apply to your institution, delete the workflow normally from the admin page. Re-running the install will recreate it; either skip re-running, or use --only to install just the procedures you want.

Reporting

Once installed, you can:

Filter the workflow list to show only one procedure type
See compliance progress per object (when Phase C — compliance dashboard — ships)
Surface the procedure name on the diagram and on tasks for that procedure

Reference

UK Collections Trust — Spectrum 5.1 framework
Seed file source — packages/ahg-workflow/database/spectrum_procedures.json
Command source — packages/ahg-workflow/src/Console/Commands/SeedSpectrumCommand.php

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