Tasks, workflows, linked work and closure¶

Use a case task for a focused piece of work, a workflow for a repeatable process, and a work link to connect supporting material. Closing the case records the final outcome. These actions have different results: linking a letter does not send it, completing a workflow does not close the case, and closing a case does not complete its outstanding tasks.

Availability: This draft follows five inspected final designs for task creation, workflow start, linking work and blocked/ready closure. Backend operations exist, but the corresponding frontend pages still use sample data and preview outcomes. Connected use, deployment and full companion-state coverage remain unverified. Task-update and existing-workflow-link controls have not been verified as complete screen journeys.

Prepare the case¶

Open the correct case and check its reference, overall status, current stage and people and decisions. These actions require an open case and case-management permission. Protected HR cases also require HR-management permission. Reading the case and using a linked system have their own access requirements; being assigned work is not an automatic grant of access.

Current case-type rules affect permitted workflows, required roles, supporting links and closure. A rule change can affect an existing case's next action. Ask the administrator to resolve missing or contradictory configuration before relying on a ready-to-proceed indication.

Create a task¶

1. Choose Create task from the case's available actions or work area.
2. Enter a clear Task title that describes the work to do.
3. Add a Task description if context is needed. Select an Assignee and Due date when appropriate.
4. Review the case, person and date, then choose Create task, or Cancel.
5. Refresh the case and confirm the task under Work & relationships before creating another one.

The title is required. Description, assignee and due date are optional in the current operation. The assignee is a person, not a department or team label. Assignment does not automatically add the person as a case participant, grant confidential access or prove that a notification was delivered. Confirm that the person can access the work they need.

A new task starts Open. The current task fields do not include priority, an independently assigned department, attachments or a required-evidence checklist. The frontend preview's priority and department choices are not saved by this operation. Keep the title within 256 characters and the description within 2,048 to fit current storage limits.

Choose a useful due date and check the displayed time zone in the connected application when it becomes available. The current case task does not enforce a future date or a date before the case's own deadline. Case overdue status is calculated from the case's due date; it is not a summary of task deadlines.

Understand task progress and changes¶

The task lifecycle supports Open, In progress, Completed and Cancelled. Open and In progress contribute to the case's open-task count. Completed and Cancelled do not. A result summary can explain the work performed or why it ended, but the current implementation does not require a summary before completion.

Task updates support title, description, assignee, due date, status, result summary and a workflow reference. The inspected designs do not establish a complete update/complete/cancel screen, so this guide does not invent the controls for those actions. Ask the case manager or authorized support to confirm the available connected path.

Several limits matter when updating a task:

• The case must still be open, even if the task itself is completed or cancelled.
• Changing a task back to Open or In progress clears its current completion/cancellation time. This is not a promise of a complete revision history.
• Blank or omitted fields generally keep existing values. The current request path cannot clear a saved assignee, due date or linked workflow, and cannot clear the description through a blank input.
• Sending a status also replaces the result summary; if no summary accompanies the status, the previous summary can be cleared.
• A task's workflow reference does not itself start a workflow or establish a case-level workflow link.

Review the saved task after any update. Do not treat a preview's success message as proof that the changes were retained.

Start a workflow from a case¶

1. Choose Start workflow on the case.
2. Select a Workflow from the available choices.
3. Review the Workflow title and add a description when it helps the people carrying out the process.
4. Choose Start workflow, or Cancel.
5. After success, verify the workflow itself and its link under Work & relationships.

Choices come from published definitions in the case's permitted workflow families. The current implementation has a configuration mismatch when no families are configured: the selector can offer a default family that the later link check rejects. Required participant/staff roles, changed permissions or changed case state can also prevent linking after the workflow has started. A visible choice is therefore not a guarantee that the whole action will finish.

Starting and linking are separate steps. If a timeout or error occurs, the workflow may already exist even though the case does not show the link. Ask support to check the workflow and case together before launching it again. Retain the case reference, workflow identity if available and the time of the attempt. This avoids creating a second process to replace a first process whose outcome is merely uncertain.

Saving the link on the case and updating the case reference inside the workflow are also separate outcomes. A workflow-side label or history entry can be delayed or missing even when the case relation is saved. That difference does not establish that the process failed, and starting another process is not a safe way to repair a missing label.

The current action does not accept the preview's “Start from latest case note,” workflow-owner department or first-response-due fields. It uses the case as its source context. A missing title can fall back to the case reference and title. Workflow execution, assignment and completion follow the workflow's own rules.

The backend also supports linking an existing workflow, but its complete selection and confirmation journey is unverified. Do not assume that the Link work selector includes existing workflows; its current supported choices are described below.

Link supporting work¶

1. Choose Link work on the case.
2. Choose the Work type: record, memo, official letter or external work.
3. Search the available items and select the correct one. Check its reference and title, especially when names are similar.
4. Choose Link work, or Cancel.
5. Refresh the case and confirm the saved relationship. Open the source item through your authorized access when its current contents or status matter.

The link saves source context; it does not transfer ownership, grant source access, file a record, issue a letter, transmit external work or complete the linked item. The current operation does not save a free-text relationship reason or the preview's “Blocks this case” relationship choice. A memo and an official letter are different work types and must be selected correctly.

Already-linked items are removed from the current case's selector. However, current storage also restricts an item of the same kind to one case within a workspace. An item linked to another case can therefore appear selectable and still fail to save. Ask support to reconcile the existing relationship; there is no verified unlink or move-between-cases journey in this guide.

Workflow links have the same one-case-per-workspace storage limit for a workflow. Saved titles and statuses are snapshots, so a case's displayed state can lag behind the source. Review the source before treating a letter as delivered, a record as filed or a workflow as complete.

Review readiness to close¶

Before closing, confirm the outcome with the responsible people and review unfinished work deliberately. The current closing rules check:

The backend does not require all tasks or workflows to be complete, and it creates the closure decision as part of closing. The inspected blocked/ready designs currently imply that an open task and a missing earlier closure decision are mandatory blockers; those examples need correction. Do not record an ordinary decision merely to satisfy that misleading readiness example.

The readiness display is guidance, not a guarantee. Permissions, type rules, roles or state can change before you submit. The default protected HR-investigation rules also end at Completed rather than allowing the ordinary transition to Closed; that configuration inconsistency remains unresolved. HR-query review and escalation have their own lifecycle.

Close the case¶

1. Open the case's closure-readiness area and review its current requirements. If it is blocked, resolve the actual required role, link, outcome or transition with the responsible person.
2. In the Close case area, select the Closure outcome and add a Closure summary explaining the result and any remaining follow-up.
3. Check the case reference and outcome, then choose Close case. Choose Cancel to leave without submitting.
4. Refresh the case and confirm that its overall status is Closed and that the closure outcome was saved.

The outcome is required; the summary is optional in the current operation. Storage permits up to 256 characters for the outcome and 2,048 for the summary. The signed-in actor and current time are recorded automatically. The operation does not accept a backdated closure date, record classification or participant-notification preference, despite those fields appearing in the frontend preview.

Closing records a closure decision, the Closed status and stage, the outcome and closing actor/time. It retains the case's existing children. It does not complete tasks, stop workflows, deliver correspondence or delete the case. Closed cases remain subject to read permissions. Participant, task, link, note-addition and ordinary-decision changes are blocked afterward, while authorized note editing/redaction and some background updates can still occur. No ordinary reopen action is established by the inspected case controller.

Ordinary response records, quality reviews and escalation completion record evidence on an open case. They do not create a rework task, execute a workflow or close the case; their histories are not currently included in the ordinary case-detail view.

Handle failed or uncertain results¶

Share sanitized references and timing with support through an approved channel. Return to Case management, Read and update a case or Configure case types.