Updating a Matter's Active or Inactive Status

In this article:

• Which Status Should I Use?
• Setting a Matter to Active or Inactive Status
• Setting a Matter to Closed Status
• Searching for Matters by Status

When you create a matter within Actionstep you may notice that it defaults to the status of active. An active status implies that work is and will likely continue to happen within this matter. However, there are other statuses as well, including inactive and closed. Understanding and applying these these statuses can help you use Actionstep more effectively.

Which Status Should I Use?

Actionstep supports four matter statuses: active, inactive, closed, and template. 

There is no set protocol within Actionstep for when to use a status. You can choose to close, delete, and mark matters as inactive as and when needed. Each status is unique and includes certain considerations, like access to historic records and visibility in your Actionstep system. 

You should create company-wide best practices for when to apply each method. For example, you might consider the following rules:

• 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 client.
• 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, you might consider adding these types of procedures to Wiki articles. 

Setting a Matter to Active or Inactive Status

An active matter status represents matters that are open and currently being worked on. 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.

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

• Setting a workflow step to activate a matter (admins only)
• Changing a single matter's status to active/inactive
• Changing one or more matter's status while working with the Matter List view

To set a workflow step to active a matter:

1. In Actionstep, go to Admin > Matter Types. The Matter Types page appears.
2. Select the matter type whose workflow you want to change. 
3. In the Workflow section, click Manage. The Workflow page appears.
4. Click a step name in the Steps list on the right side of the page.  The Edit Workflow Step page appears.
5. In the Matter data section, click the Matter status drop-down list and choose the status you want assigned when the matter reaches this step in the workflow.
6. Click Save to save your changes.

To change a single matter's status to active/inactive:

1. In Actionstep, edit a matter. (See Editing a Matter for help.)
2. Click the information icon next to the matter name. A popup window appears.
3. Click Edit. The Edit Matter Properties window appears.
4. Click the Status drop-down list and choose Active or Inactive, depending on your needs.
5. Click Save to save your changes.

To change one or more matter's status while working with the Matter List view:

1. In Actionstep, click Matters and choose the list of matters you want to view. 
2. In the list that appears, select the checkbox for one or more matters. 
3. Click the Change drop-down list and choose Mark as Inactive or Mark as Active, depending on your needs.
4. On the Update Matters To page, select the matters you want change and click Submit. The matters are updated.

Setting a Matter to Closed Status

A matter can only be closed when it reaches the closed step in the matter workflow. When setting up the workflow, an admin can ensure the status is automatically set to closed when the matter reaches this step. 

To do this:

1. In Actionstep, go to Admin > Matter Types. The Matter Types page appears.
2. Select the matter type whose workflow you want to change. 
3. In the Workflow section, click Manage. The Workflow page appears.
4. Click the Closed step in the Steps list on the right side of the page.  The Edit Workflow Step page appears.
5. In the Matter data section, click the Matter status drop-down list and choose Closed.
6. Click Save to save your changes.

Searching for Matters by Status

When searching for matters in Actionstep, the matter's status will affect its visibility. By default, only matters with certain statuses are displayed in default list views, panels, and searches. To make sure you can always find your matters regardless of status, consider creating a custom list view (with locked filters) where the list is determined by matter status. 

Additionally, when using Quick Search box to search for matter, results are shown based on a hierarchy so keep the following in mind:

• If there are active matters that meet the search criteria, only those matters will be listed 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.

Related Articles:

• Closing a Matter
• Creating a Matter