Overview
Automation can be added to Case Types in CiviPlus through Timelines and Sequences. They both automatically add certain Activities to a Case, but work in different ways.
A Standard Timeline is automatically added when a new Case Type is created. This initially only contains one Activity, "Open Case", but you can add as many additional activities as you like. Since you may have different sub-processes that are followed, dependent upon the outcome of an item in the standard Timeline, you can have multiple different timelines within a particular case which you can add to the case as needed.
A summary of the key features of timelines is:
Set the Status of the activity when it is added to the timeline
Offset the activity's date based on another activity in the timeline (the reference)
Set the assignee of the activity
Sequences can also be added to a Case Type, but you can only have one sequence per Case. Although a Sequence also consists of a list of activities in chronological order, there are key differences compared to a Timeline:
Offsets cannot be used
The activities are not added to a case record all at once. Instead, the first activity is added, and the subsequent activity appears upon completion of the one prior.
In summary, Timelines offer the most detailed option for pre-setting activities on a case record, and all are visible at the same time. Conversely,Sequences are useful for more passive workflows, for example when the activities are completed by third parties and your team just needs to be able to see where the case is currently.
How to set up a timeline
To amend / create a new timeline against a particular Case Type navigate to Cases -> Manage Workflows and click Edit against the particular Case Type to want to configure.
Within this Case Type, navigate to the Standard Timeline tab and you will see the standard timeline that is created by default for all Case Types with one activity Open Case.
Note: if you do not see this "standard" timeline then the Case Type must already have had changes made to it.
This timeline can be completely customised with any Activity Type that is in your CiviPlus site - both thoses that come shiped or bespoke ones created for your organisation. For our example we are going to add a "Client Assessment" Activity Type to the standard timeline and configure some attributes as shown below.
Lets go through each of the settings for the activity we have just added to the timeline:
Activity: This is the name of the Activity Type that has been added to the Timeline.
Status: The status the activity will have in the case record when it is added to the timeline. In our example it is "Scheduled" because the Client Assessment will happen within 7 days of the case creation.
Reference: The activity that is used to calculate the Offset value below. In our example it is Open Case because the new Client Assessment Activity due date will be 7 days after the case is first created.
Offset: How many days after the reference activity that this activity should be offset by. In our example it is 7 days after the case is opened.
Select: If there is more than one of the reference activity type in the case record, which should be used to calculate the offset. Since there is only ever one Case Open activity we can set this to Newest, but there may be multiple Reference Activities in which case you could decide to use the Latest one to start the timer.
Default Assignee: Who this activity will be assigned to (this can be manually amended in a case record). In our example we are going to say that whoever is assigned the "Support Worker" role will be the person responsible to completing the "Client Assessment"
Amending the Standard Timeline vs Creating a New Non-Standard Timeline
If you are amending the Standard Timeline:
Use the Add Activity button to add to the timeline
🗑️ Use the Bin icon against a row to delete the activity type from the timeline
᛭ Use the Four-Way Arrow against a row to drag and drop the rows and rearrange the order of the activity types
Select the Pencil icon on the tab to edit the name of the timeline
If you are creating a new Non-Standard Timeline in addition to having a standard timeline:
Select Add...
Select Timeline
Refer to all of the guidance for Standard Timeline above
How to set up a sequence
To amend / create a Sequence against a particular Case Type:
Navigate to the Standard Timeline Tab of the Case Type configuration page (or any other Timeline tab if you have added additional ones), and click Add ..... Sequence
Now you can use the Use the Add Activity button to add to create a list of Activities that make up this workflow. Remember, there are no offsets or default assignees - just a list of activities that are added to the workflow one at a time.
In the example above, the ADC Review activity will appear in the Case's Activity list when the Case is first created. When the status of the ADC Review is set to Completed, the Client Assessment Activity will be added to the Case. Once that is marked Completed the final activity, Exit interview will be added to the Case's Acitity list.
You can make a few alterations to the Sequence:
Use the Bin icon against a row to delete the activity type from the sequence
Use the Four-Way Arrow against a row to drag and drop the rows and rearrange the order of the activity types
Select the Pencil icon on the tab to edit the name of the sequence