Case update categories allow you to organize case updates by a specific type or genre. Doing so makes it easier to group similar types of updates (e.g. updates designated for the report, surveillance observations, follow-ups, etc...) together for easy filtering.
In addition, case update categories provide addition functionality, including the ability auto-generate a case review for a case update when it is created with a matching update category. For example, when posting an update related to a recent surveillance, it may be useful to capture other metrics that go along with that surveillance (e.g. weather, minutes of video, claimant identified, etc...). By linking a case update to a case review via the update category, you can now bring those metrics into the update for ease of use.
Creating a Case Update Category
To create a new case update category, head over to Settings > Case Update Categories. From here click New Update Category.
- Name - Choose a name that is short (preferably one or two words) that is easily identifiable from a list (e.g. Report, Surveillance, Diary, etc...)
- Document Tag - A short one-word tag that identifies updates associated with this category when used in Document Templates. Essentially, this tag will become part of your template variable when used in documents.
- Case Review - Optionally connect a case review to be generated each time a new update is created with this category.
- Create Expense Entry after Save - If you select this option, the checkbox to create a new expense entry after saving the case update will automatically be checked by default when selecting the case update category. You'll still have the option to uncheck it if you prefer.
- Access Groups - Choose which access group(s) this category will be associated with. Update categories are only available to choose after the access group has been selected.
Using Case Update Categories in Document Templates
By default, using the Updates.list template variable inside a document template will include all case updates that are eligible (defined by the associated access group) to populate into a document. This works great most of the time, however sometimes you'd like to only include a subset of case updates in your generated documents. This is where specifying the update category in the template variable will assist you in this process.
To specify a specific update category, simply include the category Document Tag (as defined above) in the variable name like so:
- Updates.list[document_tag] (where document_tag is the tag you specified)