The Holy Triangle of TMF:  Is It Really Enough to Measure TMF Health by Tracking Its Completeness? 

October 13, 2026

When vendors build tools to evaluate TMF health, they usually focus on three main KPIs: completeness,  timeliness and quality. 

These metrics are obviously important, but are they enough? 

A real TMF user will go further and ask the next question: 

How long did it take the document to move through each of these stages? 

The devil is in the delays: 

• Who’s taking too long to review?  

• Where are documents getting stuck?  

• Which steps are slowing the whole process down? 

That’s where Document Processing Time gives you another layer of visibility into TMF health. 

See Where Documents Are Actually Spending  
Their Time 

For teams working with a TMF every day, it is really important to understand how long documents remain at different stages of the process. 

For example, documents may be uploaded on time but then remain in Review for several weeks. In another study, Review may happen quickly, while Approval consistently takes much longer.  

If many documents begin accumulating at the same stage, this can point to a bottleneck that needs attention. 

The Processing Time Report in Flex Databases TMF was designed to provide this level of visibility. For every document, teams can see: 

• days since upload; 

• time spent on review; 

• time spent on approval; 

• days since approval; 

• previous activity; 

• upload, review, approval and lock dates. 

So instead of looking only at the final status, TMF teams can see the whole document lifecycle and identify where the time is being spent. 

Add Another Layer to Your TMF Health Metrics 

Document Processing Time is not intended to replace Completeness, Timeliness or Quality. It adds another layer of information to these familiar metrics. 

Completeness shows whether the expected documents are there.  
Timeliness shows whether they arrived on time.  
Quality shows whether they meet the required standards.  
Processing Time shows how efficiently they are moving through the workflow. 

Together, these metrics give teams a more complete view of TMF health.  
Because a healthy TMF is not only one that is complete today. It is also the one where documents continue moving through the expected process without unnecessary delays.