Create a case¶

A case records a matter that needs investigation, coordination or a decision. Creating it establishes the reference, responsibility, starting stage and handling rules that later casework uses.

Availability: These steps follow the inspected New Case Final Screen. The backend supports case creation, but the inspected frontend still uses sample fields and navigation between preview states. A preview saying “Case created” does not establish that a case was saved. Connected creation and delivery in your environment remain unverified.

Prepare the information¶

Check the case register for an existing matter first. You need permission to manage cases; viewing cases alone is insufficient. Creating a protected HR case also requires permission to manage HR cases. An administrator should verify the necessary case-reading and supporting People/organization access as well.

Have a clear title, the case's purpose, the appropriate case type and the responsible office or accountable position ready. Case types can provide defaults for responsibility, confidentiality, starting stage and target duration. Some types also require a staff member or personnel file. A case type must be active when you create the case.

Write factual, relevant context. The title is required and allows up to 240 characters. The description is optional and allows up to 4,000 characters. Do not use the description as a substitute for a supporting document or a formal HR notice.

Complete the intended form¶

1. Open Cases in the correct WorkOS workspace and select New case.
2. Under Case essentials, enter the Case title and, when useful, Description. Choose the Case category, then the Case type that fits the matter. Review the selected type before filling its dependent choices.
3. Under Ownership and responsibility, review or select the Responsible office and Accountable position. Use the type's defaults only when they describe the actual responsibility for this case.
4. Select an Owning team when appropriate. Check the parent office displayed with the team so that similarly named teams are not confused.
5. If the case concerns a staff member, select Primary staff member and the applicable Primary staff role. These fields are conditional: a type that requires a staff role or personnel-file relationship cannot proceed without the staff member.
6. Under Timing and handling, review Confidentiality and Starting stage. Use a stage supported by the selected case type.
7. Enter a Due date and Target resolution date when needed. They are separate dates: the due date drives the overdue indicator; the target resolution date expresses the intended resolution timing.
8. Review the details, especially the case type, staff member, responsibility and confidentiality. Select Create case when they are correct. Use Cancel if you do not intend to submit.

The reference is assigned automatically after creation; you do not enter it in the form. The current request does not include a selectable case-owner person, priority, business-day response window or attachment upload. The older frontend preview's fields and review page should not be treated as the intended final journey.

There is no saved draft of the general creation form established by this flow. Do not assume that cancelling, leaving or refreshing preserves unsent entries. A later HR-query notice draft is a separate action on an existing case.

Understand the responsibility fields¶

Responsibility must resolve successfully before creation completes. If neither an office nor a position is supplied directly or by the type, ask the administrator to correct the setup or choose the appropriate responsibility. The saved case retains an organizational snapshot from creation; later structural changes do not make that snapshot a live organization chart.

Internal, Restricted and Secret are different confidentiality choices. Restricted and Secret case reads require the reader to be the owner or an active participant as well as having the ordinary case-reading permission. Protected HR matters add HR authority. Naming a staff member, office or team is not a substitute for those access rules.

Review defaults before submitting¶

If no starting stage is supplied, the type's first configured board stage is used, with Intake as the fallback. If no confidentiality is supplied, the type's default applies.

An omitted target resolution date uses the type's target duration when configured. That duration adds calendar days to the creation time; it does not establish a business-day calendar or promised response time. If no duration is configured, the target can remain absent. An omitted due date remains absent and does not automatically copy the target date.

When a primary staff member is selected and the role is left blank, the first required staff role from the type is used; if none is required, the fallback is Subject. The resulting role must still be allowed by the type.

A type's required roles and supporting-record rules can matter later in casework. Creating one primary staff relationship does not prove that every role or closure requirement has been satisfied. See Configure case types for these rules and their effect on existing work, then Read and update a case for everyday casework.

Staff names, employment information and personnel-file references can come from previously received information. Selecting a person does not guarantee that their details were fetched again at that moment. Background updates can refresh those references, while the saved case retains its own historical information. If a name, employment state or personnel file looks wrong, have an authorized People or Records administrator verify the identity and existing file before proceeding. Refreshing a label does not itself replace a case's file link; creating a duplicate case or file is not a repair.

What a successful creation means¶

The result identifies the new case, its generated reference, Open status, starting stage and dossier-link state. Keep the reference and check the saved case before starting follow-up work. A dossier groups records; its link state is separate from the case's Open/Closed status.

Depending on the case type, no dossier is required, a staff member's personnel file is linked, or a separate case dossier is requested in the background. A pending link can therefore accompany a successfully created case. If the type requires a personnel file, that file must be resolved before creation can proceed.

See Automatically prepared personnel and case dossiers for the complete explanation of these grouping rules and delays. A linked dossier can still be empty. Its existence does not prove that required evidence has been added.

Creation does not by itself start a workflow, issue an HR notice, deliver correspondence or close the matter. Each is a separate action with its own permissions and outcome. A staff relationship also does not establish that the person has been notified.

Resolve problems without duplicating the case¶

For managers, a created case establishes a starting record and accountability. Confirm the correct owner, responsibility, dates and expected follow-up before treating it as work already in progress or evidence already complete.

Continue with Find cases and understand workload or return to the Case management overview.