You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly at the top of your post. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion.
You ask a question, or questions, to gather information required, and when then reporting on the events do you write "We were advised that...", or "We have been advised that...."?
Similarly, when after having been told a fact, without prompting, that you subsequently report on, do you write "We were informed that...", or "We have been informed that..."?
They're both possible; it really depends on the relationship the speaker thinks the advice has with the present time- the closer the relationship, the more likely the use of the present perfect. In writing, I'd be more likely to use the past, but in speech, the present perfect would be more likely.
Informed or advised 
Linear Mode
