Word document review features

I am looking into ways Microsoft Word can be used for effective document review and version control – as well as any audit logs the software provides.

Basically, in a current setup we have:

•      Junior Employees
•      Senior Employees
•      Managers

The standard process for creating a word document report is as follows:

Junior employees who write, lets say “reports”. Version 1 of the document.

At present they just email the senior employee and sends a hyperlink to the senior who reviews the report, suggests changes, and sends it back to the junior employee to make the amendments. Version 2 of the document.

The junior then sends a hyperlink to the manager of the report to management for a final review, and changes are then made by the manager. Version 3 of the document.

At present the process is really messy. There is no effective version control, no audit log of changes made, by whom, when etc, so we have a hard time demonstrating to an external audit how the process went through the correct channels.

Has word the capacity to streamline this process more effectively, in terms of both “passing documents” for review, audit logs, informing users documents are ready for review and so on.