Matter Status

Overview

When you create a matter within Actionstep you may notice that it defaults the the status of Active. Active status implies that that work is and will likely continue to take place within this matter. There are a number of alternate statuses throughout Actionstep as well. Understanding the distinctions between these status can help you use Actionstep more effectively. This article covers: 

1. Which status should I use?
2. Closing a matter
3. Marking a matter as inactive 
4. Deleting a matter 
5. Creating a template
6. Searching a matter by status 

Which status should I use?

There is no set protocol within Actionstep for when to apply a status. Users and organizations can choose to close, delete, mark as inactive, or convert to template as they see fit.  Each status is unique and includes certain considerations like access to historic records and visibility in your Actionstep system. We recommend creating company-wide best practices for when to apply each method. Some examples of these may include 

• Only delete a matter if it was created by mistake and will be replaced with a new matter. 
• Mark a matter as inactive if you haven't heard from a client for 30+ days
• Mark a matter as inactive if there is no task or action which needs to be completed for this matter in the next 60 days but future activity is expected
• Mark a matter as closed if a customer has indicated they no longer wish to work with your company.
• Mark a matter as closed if a conflict of interest has been found and your firm has chosen not to move forward with a customer.
• Matters associated with unresponsive sales prospects should be marked as inactive but not closed unless the customer asks not to be contacted again
• Create a template if the same team will be assuming the same roles in multiple cases

Company procedures for when to close a matter can, and should, be built into a workflow. Inactive steps can be built into a workflow but are often more difficult to predict. Workflows cannot be preconfigured for deletion. For these reasons procedures for when to make a matter as inactive and when to delete a matter are great topics for Wiki articles. 

 Closing a matter
The ability to close a matter is set in the step. To change a normal step to a close step you'll need to go to Admin>Matter Types > {your matter type} >Workflow > {your step}

Here you'll choose between Active, Inactive, Closed, and Template for the Matter Status field. This indicates the status a matter will be in when you move to this step. Matters can only be closed by switching to a close step.

How Can I tell if a step is a close step? 

For users with administrative access you can always check the status of a step using the navigation listed above for editing a step's properties. Alternatively, you can also check the step change form prior to finalizing the step change (see example below) to check the "Set the status to" field. This field will default to the status you've set for that step in your workflow. 

What if I need to close  a matter before the end of the workflow? 

Actionstep recommends building alternate close steps throughout your workflow. An alternate close step is a step that you make available as an alternative to another step of your workflow. For example, the step choices that follow an "Initial Meeting" step might be "Client Engagement" or "Closed." The more optional close steps you have throughout your workflow the easier it is to mark a matter as closed. For more information on customizing your step tree please see our Workflow and Workflow Customization user guide articles.

How can I tell if a matter is closed? 

When a view is filtered to display closed matters, the matter name and primary participant will be struckthrough on the list view. 

A stamp indicating an action is closed will also appear on the action overview screen.

Marking an action as Inactive

Inactive matters are typically used to indicate matters that have no tasks to complete soon but which may in the future, or matters that have otherwise temporarily stopped progressing.

Inactive matters are designed to reactivate once an incomplete task becomes due. So, for instance, if you need to assist your client in renewing their visa in 6 months you may choose to temporarily move a matter to inactive but create a task to begin the visa renewal process again in 3 months. Users moving a matter to inactive indefinitely should check to see if there are any incomplete tasks associated with the matter which may cause the matter to become active again in the future.  

There are three ways to move a matter from active to inactive: 

1-Set a step to change a matter to inactive from within the workflow
Go to  Admin>Matter Types > {your matter type} > Workflow > {your step}

2-Manually change a single matter to inactive

Select the information icon next to the matter name on your matter overview screen

then select "edit"

Choose "Inactive" from the status dropdown and select save

3-Marking a matter or multiple matters as inactive from a matter list view

Check the boxes next to all matters you would like to mark as inactive. After selecting at least one matter you will see a "Change" dropdown appear. Select the "Mark as Inactive" option.

You will be brought to a screen displaying all the matters you have chosen to mark as inactive. Confirm your choices and select "Submit" 

Deleting a matter

A deleted matter is removed from your system entirely. You will not find a deleted matter in any list view or search function throughout the program. 

To delete a matter select the information icon next to the matter name on your matter overview screen

then select "edit."  

If the matter is currently able to be deleted you will see the "Delete" button displayed in red. 

If there are matters which need to be preformed prior to closing an matter the "Delete" button will be grayed out. 
 

You can select the "?" icon to see why your action is not able to be deleted. 

Creating a template

The template status works a little differently than other matter statuses within Actionstep. When you mark a matter as a template, you're indicating that the some of the data from that status should be used to create new matters. The fields that can be saved to a template are as follows

-Parties
-Custom Data  

This differs from the from the matter type (or workflow) functionality in that the you would create a field in a matter type that prompts you for information while you would create a template to populate some of those fields. 

Here we see a matter created without a specified template. The program prompts you to add parties based on the settings in your action type. 

Here we see a matter of the same matter type with a template applied. 

How to create and apply a template

Step 1: Create a template

You can create a template by changing the status of a matter from Active to Template. This can be done while creating the matter or after the matter has already been created. 

Step 2: Apply the template

Searching for matters by status

The status a matter is set to will affect the it's visibility throughout the program. This should be taken into account especially when deciding whether the status of a amtter should be changed to Inactive, Closed, or Deleted. 

By design, only matters with certain statuses are displayed in default list views, panels, and searches within Actionstep. For easier access to some of these secondary statuses you may want to consider creating custom list views with locked filters set by status.

"Search Matters & Contacts" Window

Matter searches are returned based on a hierarchy. If there are Active matter that meet the search criteria, only they will return in search results even if there are inactive or closed matters that also meet the search criteria. If there are no Active matters, only Inactive matters will be returned. If there are no Active or Inactive matters that meet the search criteria, only then will the search return closed matters.