XI Editing and Deleting Reports

MMIR lets you make changes to your Internal Use or Incomplete reports indefinitely. You can also delete these reports.

Each time a user edits a report, their initials (based on their MMIR registration name) are assigned to the report and the change is date- and time-stamped. This tracking function is the "paper trail" that indicates which users have accessed the report.

AMEND vs. EDIT

Once a report has been finalized (submitted to the manufacturer or sent to the FAA), it cannot be edited or deleted. However, if you determine that a mistake was made on a report that has already "gone out," MMIR lets you easily submit an amended report. And therein lies the difference between Amend and Edit: you can only Amend an externally-submitted report by generating a new report, but you can edit or delete a report that is Internal Use or Incomplete.

! Tip Don't get worried or confused. MMIR automatically determines whether a report can be edited, deleted, or amended.

When you search your reports, you may see a listing where some reports have View, Edit, and Delete buttons available, while other reports provide View and Amend buttons:

Is there a difference? Definitely!

From Chapter IX, Creating new reports, we learned that reports can be designated for Internal Use or Incomplete. This simply means that the report is not final, or will not be submitted to any outside entity. Because such a report does not "go anywhere," it can be edited as many times as necessary, or it can be deleted entirely from the MMIR system. Therefore, only Internal Use or Incomplete reports offer the Edit and Delete options.

If you used MMIR to submit a claim to a manufacturer, or submitted a SDR or MIS to the FAA, the report is now finalized. You cannot edit a report that has been submitted to a third party (i.e., outside of your company and the MMIR system itself). You cannot delete it, either. But, you do have the option to send an amended report, should it be necessary. So, any report that has been finalized (i.e., submitted to a third party) offers only the Amend option.

If you determine that a correction or clarification needs to be made to a finalized and submitted report, just click the Amend button for that listing. MMIR will generate a duplicate report, with the fields already completed. The difference now is that this newly generated report also indicates that it is an amendment to a previous report, referencing the previous report's MMIR number as well as the date and time the original report was submitted. All you have to do is make whatever corrections are necessary and press the Submit button. Your new "amendment" report is itself assigned a new MMIR number. So, in summary:

Internal Use or Incomplete Reports — View, Edit, Delete (alter or delete the existing report)

Submitted Reports — View, Amend (generate a new report referencing the existing report to correct errors)

EXCEPTION: You may be able to edit and delete a SDR or MIS after it has been finalized. Here's why:

While these reports are instantly collected into the MMIR computer, they are not always sent to the FAA database immediately. There may be a "grace period" of several days after the report is submitted to MMIR before it is electronically sent to the FAA. During this time, you may notice that your SDRs or MISs allow editing and deletion. Once the report is sent to the FAA however, the report is only amendable. Again, you don't have to remember whether you can edit or amend a report; this is an automatic function of MMIR.