Quick start

This walkthrough takes you from signing in to a submission that is complete enough to start its review. It takes about five minutes if you have the details of your item at hand.

Before you start

You need a City Microsoft account and a role in your department (for example Submitter). Without a department role, your department will not appear in the Submitting department list; ask your CLIF administrator to add you (see Department roles).

Open CLIF and sign in with your Microsoft work account. There is no separate CLIF password.
Look around. The left menu holds your daily work (My Tasks, My Emails, My Reports); the top menu holds management and setup pages, depending on your permissions. The header shows the search box and the next meeting's cutoff countdown.

2. Create the submission#

Open New Submission from My Tasks in the left menu.
Enter the Subject and pick the Submitting department. As soon as both are filled the submission is created, gets its Submission Id (for example SB-25-1234) and the page switches to the submission editor.

There is no Save button

Every field is saved the moment you change it. You can close the page at any time and continue later from search or My Tasks.

3. Fill in the required details#

The approval process can start only when these fields are filled:

Tab	Fields
Information	Subject, Submitting department, Districts
Actions	Submission category, Transaction type, Requested action
Background info	The background / explanation text

Then complete the other tabs that apply to your item: funds and contracts on Amount & Source, vendor on Actions, SMBA&D goals, impacted addresses and supporting files on Documents. Submission tabs & fields explains each one.

4. Check how it will look#

In the right-hand panel, click Preview under Submission to see the memo as the Board will read it. Missing sections there usually mean a tab still needs work.

5. Send it for review#

Open the Approvals tab. Your department's box in the Submission tier is already assigned to you.
Set Submission status to Ready. Your department's approvers receive an email that the submission waits for their approval.
Follow progress. Status icons in the right-hand panel show where each reviewing department stands. Once your department approves, the next tier is notified automatically.

Next steps#

Core concepts & lifecycle Submissions, departments, approval tiers, meetings and statuses. Approval workflow How submissions are routed and approved tier by tier. My Tasks Your personal work queue of assignments and approvals.