Compiling a tribunal bundle

Compiling a tribunal bundle takes your ordered evidence items and produces a single paginated PDF with a cover page, table of contents, numbered exhibit dividers, and page-stamped footers.

Before you start

Make sure you have:

• Built a bundle with the documents you want to include (see Building a bundle)
• Your SENDIST appeal reference number (issued when your appeal was registered)
• Your tribunal hearing date

If your appeal has not been registered yet and you do not have a reference number, you can still build and order your bundle, but compilation will be blocked until you add these details.

Step 1: Set hearing details

Open your bundle and select Hearing details. Enter:

• Appeal reference: the reference number issued by SENDIST when your appeal was registered (e.g. H/26/12345)
• Hearing date: the date of your tribunal hearing

These appear on the cover page of the compiled bundle. Both are required before compiling.

Step 2: Order your exhibits

The order of documents in your bundle determines the exhibit numbers in the compiled PDF. SENVault provides two ways to set the order:

Manual ordering: drag and drop documents into the order you want. Each document is assigned an exhibit number (E1, E2, E3...) based on its position.

Suggest Order: select Suggest Order to let SENVault arrange your exhibits using a standard SENDIST bundle structure. The ordering logic:

1. The EHCP (most recent) is placed first as the working document
2. Local authority correspondence follows
3. Professional assessments and reports
4. School evidence
5. Parent evidence and correspondence
6. Any remaining documents

Each exhibit is assigned a short rationale badge explaining why it was placed in that position. You can review the suggested order and adjust any items before compiling.

Step 3: Run the health check

Before compiling, SENVault runs a pre-compile health check. This checks for:

| Check | Result if failing | |---|---| | Appeal reference set | Blocker, compilation prevented | | Hearing date set | Blocker, compilation prevented | | At least 2 evidence items | Blocker, compilation prevented | | EHCP document present | Warning, you can still compile | | All file types supported | Warning for any unsupported files |

Blockers must be resolved before you can compile. Warnings are advisory, you can compile with warnings present.

Unsupported file types (Word documents, Excel files) will be skipped during compilation. Convert them to PDF first if you need them in the bundle.

Step 4: Compile

Once the health check passes (no blockers), select Compile bundle. SENVault will:

1. Fetch all the document files
2. Build the cover page with your hearing details and version number
3. Calculate page counts for each exhibit
4. Generate the table of contents with accurate page references
5. Assemble the full PDF with exhibit dividers and page footers
6. Save the compiled PDF to your compilation history

Compilation typically takes between 15 seconds and two minutes depending on the number and size of your documents.

Step 5: Download

Once compiled, select Download to save the PDF. The filename includes the child's name, appeal reference, and version number so it is easy to identify.

You can also access previous compilations from the Compilation history tab on your bundle.