Web dashboard

Set up a conditional case type

Build a case type that opens itself from a form answer, chases the first step, and publish it without disturbing cases already running.

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Sound is off

A case type is the workflow a case follows: who picks it up, by when, and who is told if it slips. This one opens a Safeguarding Concern case whenever an Incident Report answers Yes to the safeguarding question.

Without a condition, every submission of that form opens a case. The condition is what makes the trigger narrow enough to be useful — one question on the form, and the answer that should open a case.

A deadline is what makes a step chaseable. Without one, nothing is ever late, so nothing ever escalates and nobody is ever told. Chasing is a ladder: level one is notified the moment the step is overdue, and the wait on a level is the gap before the NEXT one, not a delay before that level fires. That is the single most common misreading of these.

You can write the ladder inline — where it belongs to that step alone — or use a saved escalation plan, which is the answer when the same ladder keeps getting written. Picking a plan replaces the levels you wrote, so read its deadline and recipients before accepting it.

Publishing applies to submissions from now on. Cases already open keep the steps they started on, so nothing in flight breaks.

You need case-type admin access, an Incident Report form containing that question, and the roles the steps name to exist with people in them.

Step 1
Open Case Types
Admin Settings > Case Types, then start a new one.
Step 2
Name it for the situation
Not for the department that handles it — the team who owns it may change, and the situation will not.
Step 3
Open it automatically
Choose to open from a form submission rather than by hand.
Step 4
Choose the trigger form
The form whose submissions should be considered — here, Incident Report.
Step 5
Read the workflow map
Creating the case type gives you the map: the steps a case of this type will move through.
Step 6
Narrow the trigger
As it stands, every incident report opens a case. A condition is what stops that.
Step 7
Pick the question
The question on the form that actually decides whether this is a safeguarding matter.
Step 8
And the answer
Now only reports answering that way open this case type.
Step 9
Assign the first step
Who picks up intake. A step with no owner is a case waiting for somebody to notice it.
Step 10
Give the step a deadline
Without one, nothing is ever overdue — so nothing escalates and nobody is told.
Step 11
Use a saved plan
Open Use a plan… on the step's Escalation and choose a saved plan — here Incident follow-up. Picking a plan replaces any levels written on the step, so read its deadline and recipients first.
Step 12
Who gets chased
Each level of the plan names who is told — here Support Agent first, then Admin if the step is still not actioned.
Step 13
Level one fires at the deadline
Level 1 is notified the moment the step goes overdue — four hours after it starts, here. Level one has no wait of its own.
Step 14
The wait delays the NEXT level
An hour on level one is an hour before level two hears — not an hour before level one does. That is why Level 2 reads 5h.
Step 15
Assign the approval step
Where the workflow includes an approval, somebody has to own it.
Step 16
Check, then publish
The trigger and both owners. Publishing is the moment it starts applying.
Step 17
What publishing affects
Submissions from now on. Cases already open keep the steps they started on, so nothing in flight breaks.
Step 18
Test the trigger before you rely on it
Submit the form once, both ways — with the triggering answer and without it — and check that exactly one case opened. A condition pointed at the wrong question is indistinguishable from a correct one until something does or does not happen.
Step 19
A case type is a promise about response
Every owner and deadline you set here becomes someone's work with a clock on it. Naming a role that has nobody in it, or a deadline nobody can meet, produces escalations rather than responses — so check the roles exist and have people in them before publishing.