What is a "Case Instance"?
When you create a new Case Type you specify the Instance that it belongs to. Each Case Instance has its own dedicated menu, dashboard and set of Case Types that share a similar use case, for example Prospects or Applications. CiviPlus comes with a set of standard Case Instances:
Cases
Awards
Prospects
Grant-applications
Applications
We recommend that whenever possible you try to use one of the existing Case Instances to group together your Case Types, but there may be occasions when you want to create a new Case Instance of your own, for example:
You need separate dashboards for different teams working on similar, but separate workflow processes
You need to add some specific Case features (like Financial Management) to an Instance that isn't within the default version.
How to create a Case Instance
Note: In earlier versions of CiviPlus, what are now called Case Instances were labeled as Case Type Categories. If you encounter the term Case Type Category/Categories in any menus or pages on your system, simply interpret it as Case Instance/Instances.
If you decide decided to create a new Case Instance follow the steps below:
Navigate to Administer -> CiviCase -> CiviCase Instances and click the + ADD CASE INSTANCE button at the bottom of the page.
You will now complete the Case Instance configuration page (as per the note above, this may be labelled "Case Type Categories Options"):
Complete the page as follows:
Primary Label: The name for this Case Instance. It should describe the types of Case that will be included, and will typically will appear as heading in the main Navigation menu so ideally will be plural (e.g. Prospects, Awards, Applications)
Secondary Label: The singular version of the primary label, which will appear in menu items (e.g. If the Case Instance is "Prospects", the Secondary Label would be "Prospect")
Value: This the interval value of the Case Instances and should be be left as the default shown.
Instance Type: Three options will be presented here
Case Management
Applicant Management
Sales/Opportunity Tracking
These are the the underlying structures for three different types of use case. Pick the one that most closely describes the kind of the Case Types you will be adding to the new Case Instance.
Note: If you want to use the "Finance Management" features within your Case Types you have to choose Applicant Management as the base Instance.
Additional Features: These are optional extras that can be enabled on the Case Instance
Quotations
Invoices
Description: An internal note about the purpose of this Case Instance, useful for new members of your team / wider teams who will use this settings area
Order: This will default to the next chronological number i.e. last in the list, but can be adjusted from the Case Instances screen using the mini arrows
Icon: An icon chosen here will appear as a prefix to the Primary Label in the main menu
Enabled: Tick this if you wish to activate this case instance immediately on your system. We would recommend not ticking this until all of your. Case Types and any automated workflows are set up.
Click SAVE and the new Case Instance will then appear in the CiviPlus Navigation Menu. You can start configuring Case Types within this Case Instance.