Automatically prepared personnel and case dossiers¶
Zerohive can prepare a dossier in the background when it receives staff information or when a case requires its own file. This saves people from creating an unrelated general dossier for every staff member or case. A dossier is a grouping and reference; creating it does not itself add a document, complete case work or grant access.
Availability: this page explains the inspected background behavior. The complete connected case journey, message delivery in a target environment and user acceptance have not been verified. The personnel-file guide remains the canonical guide for the intended staff-file screens and their current limitations.
Three kinds of grouping¶
| Kind | What it groups | How it begins |
|---|---|---|
| General dossier | Records about a business matter chosen by an authorized user or a supported business rule. | The general dossier journey or a separately configured process. |
| Personnel dossier | Records associated with one staff member in the organization. | Staff-information synchronization, or a supported action that needs the person's file. |
| Case dossier | Records associated with one particular case. | A case type configured to request its own dossier. |
The general dossier list contains general dossiers. It is not a complete list of personnel files and case dossiers. Use the appropriate authorized workspace for specialist records; a missing row in the general list does not mean the specialist file is missing.
A dossier reference identifies the grouping. An official record number identifies a record, and a case reference identifies a case. They serve different purposes. An empty dossier with a valid reference does not establish that a required record has been submitted or accepted.
Why a personnel file can be empty¶
As staff information from People becomes available in Records, Zerohive can create the staff member's personnel file before any document is added. The file uses the person's name, employment information and organizational context.
Supported case or personnel-record actions can also request the file when it is absent. This is automatic preparation within those actions; there is no separate manual synchronization button established by this documentation. A general dossier with the person's name is not a substitute for the personnel file.
Later staff updates can change the personnel file's displayed name and employment information. That changes the file's descriptive information, not its collection of documents. A recent file modification date is therefore not necessarily the date of a new staff record.
The personnel file may still exist for a staff member whose employment state has changed. Preparing or refreshing the file does not delete records, start a retention countdown or change the person's sign-in access. Those decisions belong to their respective processes.
How case grouping is chosen¶
The case type determines which dossier relationship is expected.
| Case-type rule | Expected behavior |
|---|---|
| No dossier relationship | Creation does not request a personnel or case dossier. |
| Try to use the staff member's personnel file | A staff member must be selected. Creation attempts to obtain the file, but an unavailable lookup can leave the relationship pending. |
| Require the staff member's personnel file | A staff member must be selected and the file must be resolved for case creation to continue. |
| Prepare a separate case dossier | The case is saved with a pending relationship and a background request prepares its own dossier. |
These are explanations of configuration behavior, not instructions for an unverified configuration screen. Other case-type rules can also require a staff member.
For a separate case dossier, creating the case and preparing its dossier are distinct stages. Zerohive prepares the dossier, then links it to the case. A case-creation response can therefore arrive while the link is still pending. The newly prepared dossier contains no records simply because it was created; later supported record-linking work is separate.
A personnel relationship refers to the staff member's existing file. It does not copy all staff documents into the case. A dedicated case dossier has its own reference and title. Neither kind of relationship proves that everyone who can view the case can read every linked record or document.
Delayed or inconsistent information¶
Updates can reach different workspaces at different times, so a successful People update is not proof that every dossier already shows it. Some actions use previously received information. Zerohive checks change times to avoid applying older updates, but complete ordering and recovery across all paths have not been verified.
If a name or employment state appears outdated, confirm the intended update in People and ask authorized support to check synchronization. Do not change the person's employment state repeatedly or create another file to force a refresh.
A pending case link does not by itself establish failure, completion or a promised waiting time. This background path does not establish a user-facing retry button or automatic repair for every pending relationship. Avoid creating a replacement case merely to test whether the link will appear.
Recovery and responsible use¶
| Observation | Useful next step |
|---|---|
| An empty personnel file exists | Confirm the staff member, then follow the authorized personnel-record journey when a document needs to be added. |
| The personnel file is absent from general Records | Use the approved personnel workspace and verify access before treating it as lost. |
| Staff details differ between People and a dossier | Give support the affected person, organization, expected change and time through a private channel. |
| A case remains pending | Preserve its case reference and ask support to reconcile the existing case and dossier relationship. |
| A different dossier is already linked | Ask the responsible team to investigate. Creating another dossier does not safely replace the existing relationship. |
| An action times out or returns an uncertain result | Check the existing case or file before repeating the action; a missing response does not prove nothing was saved. |
| A file exists but cannot be opened | Ask the administrator to verify the appropriate personnel, case and record permissions. Existence does not grant access. |
Managers should verify both the correct relationship and the required documents. File counts are not evidence of complete employee records, completed cases, approved contents or compliance with a retention obligation. Keep personnel information and support details out of public channels.
See personnel files for staff-record tasks, general dossiers for ordinary grouping and Records and archives for record lifecycle concepts.