The Close Case button is used to mark a case closed or soon to be closed, and to automatically perform a set of actions related to closing the case. It can only be used if the case is not currently in the Closed status; otherwise, the button will be greyed out and unusable.

Using The Close Button

To use the Close Case button to mark a case closed or soon to be closed:

1. Click the button. A panel will appear with four fields: Close Reason, Letters, Comments, and Change Case Status To. (The field for Letters will not initially be visible.)
2. Select the reason you are closing the case from the Radio button list in the Close Reason field. (See the Case Close Reasons picklist to edit the contents of the list.) This will cause the Comments field to be set to "Closed for the following reason:" followed by the name of the reason on the next line. It may also cause a Radio button list to appear in the Letters field. That list consists of every non-archived document template whose name contains the text in the Document keywords column of the selected reason in the Case Close Reasons picklist. If there is only one template in the list, the corresponding radio button will automatically be selected; otherwise, none of the options will be selected by default.
3. If there is more than one option in the Letters field, then if you wish, you may select a document to generate. This is generally used to generate the reject letter that accompanies the case closure.
4. If you wish, you may change the contents of the Comments field.
5. Depending on whether the case is soon to be closed or actually closed, select the appropriate option from the Change Case Status To field.
6. Click OK.

What This Button Does

Once you have used the button, several actions will occur. In no particular order:

• The status of the case will change to whichever status you selected in the Change Case Status To field. The comment field of the status will be set to the contents of the Comments field. If you selected Closed, the reason you selected in the Close Reason field will also be in the Close Reason field of the new status.
  • Additionally, if you selected Closed, the case closed date will be set to the current date, and the Close Case button will be greyed out; these side effects are due to the case status becoming Closed Case and would also have occurred if you had simply changed the case status to Closed Case manually instead of clicking the Close Case button. (The case closed date is equivalent to the status date of the current Closed Case status.)
• A note will be added to the case consisting of the contents of the Comments field; you (the staff member who used the button) will be listed as the creator of the note.
• If a document template was selected in the Letters field, you will automatically be redirected to the Document Generation page, and the Generate Document panel will be opened for the document you selected. You may then generate the document as usual (if you instead cancel the document generation, the status change and note will still occur).