How to manage cases and track SLA

What this feature does

Ownself Gather provides case duration tracking, bulk operations, reporting, and a statistics dashboard to help you monitor case resolution times, process cases efficiently, and generate data for analysis. The case duration feature automatically calculates how long each case has been open, flags cases that exceed a configured threshold, and supports manual and workflow-driven adjustments.

Scope: This guide covers configuring case duration thresholds, adjusting case duration, performing bulk operations, generating reports, using the statistics dashboard, and working with audit logs. It does not cover workflow configuration (refer to Configure automated workflows) or case intake setup (refer to Set up case intake channels).

Who this applies to

• Audience: App administrators and case officers who manage cases and monitor SLA compliance.
• Access required:
  • Duration adjustments: Your role must have the Update case duration permission.
  • Bulk operations: Your role must have the relevant case management permissions (assign, edit, tag, delete).
  • Reports: Your role must have the Export cases permission.
  • Statistics: Your role must have the View case statistics permission.
  • Audit logs: Your role must have the View case audit logs permission (case-level) or View app audit logs permission (app-level).
• Assumed knowledge: You have completed the initial app setup and have cases in your app.

Steps

Step 1: Configure case duration thresholds

The case duration threshold defines the number of days after which a case is flagged as overdue. Configure this per case type.

1. Navigate to Settings > Case Types.
2. Select Edit on the case type you want to configure.
3. Under Case Duration Threshold (in days), enter the maximum number of days a case should remain open before being flagged (e.g., 14 for a two-week SLA).
4. To count working days instead of calendar days, enable the option to exclude weekends and public holidays. You can also exclude ad-hoc days (e.g., agency-specific non-working days).
5. Select Save.

Cases that exceed the threshold are automatically highlighted in the Cases table. If you configure scheduled workflows, you can trigger actions on cases approaching or exceeding the threshold (e.g., send reminder emails, flag for escalation).

Step 2: Adjust case duration manually

You can pause, resume, or reset the case duration counter for individual cases. This is useful when a case is waiting on an external party and the SLA clock should not run.

1. Open the case you want to adjust.
2. Select the duration adjustment action (available in the case details view if your role has the Update case duration permission):
   • Reset case duration — Resets the counter to 0 days.
   • Pause case duration — Pauses the counter indefinitely until a user or workflow resumes it.
   • Resume case duration — Resumes the counter from where it was paused.

The audit log records each duration adjustment with the user who made the change and the timestamp.

You can also adjust case duration through workflows. In the workflow actions, select Adjust case duration and choose reset, pause, or resume. This is useful for pausing the clock automatically when a case enters a “Waiting for Customer” status.

Step 3: Perform bulk operations

Select multiple cases from the Cases table and apply changes in one action. The available bulk operations depend on your role permissions.

1. Navigate to the Cases page.

2. Select the checkbox next to each case you want to include, or use the select-all checkbox.

3. Select Bulk Actions in the toolbar that appears.

4. Choose an operation:

   Bulk operation	What it does
   Assign	Assign or replace assignees for all selected cases. Choose specific users or user roles
   Update status	Change the status of all selected cases to a specified status
   Update tags	Add or remove tags for all selected cases
   Flag / Unflag	Flag or unflag all selected cases
   Delete	Permanently delete all selected cases (irreversible)

5. Confirm the action.

The Cases table updates to reflect the changes.

Step 4: Generate reports

There are two methods for generating reports: manual export from the Cases page, and automated export via scheduled workflows.

Manual export

1. Navigate to the Cases page.
2. Apply filters to narrow the list to the cases you want to export (optional).
3. Select the Export button.
4. Choose which fields to include — you can export all fields or only the visible columns in your current table view.
5. Optionally include case attachments in the export.
6. The report is generated and available for download in the Reports page.

Scheduled export via workflow

1. Create a scheduled workflow (refer to Configure automated workflows).
2. Add one of two report actions:
   • Generate in-app report — Creates a ZIP file with matching cases and optional attachments, available for download in the Reports page.
   • Send report via email — Creates an Excel file with matching cases and sends it to specified email addresses.

Viewing generated reports

1. Navigate to the Reports page via the left navigation menu.
2. You should see a table of all previously generated reports.
3. Search for a report by file name, or filter by generation date.
4. Select Download to save the report to your device.

Reports are retained for 60 days after generation. Download the necessary reports within this period.

Step 5: Monitor trends with the statistics dashboard

1. Navigate to the Statistics page via the left navigation menu.
2. Select the Filter icon (top right) to configure your view:
   • Chart type — Bar chart or area chart.
   • Filters — Creation time (day, week, month, year, or custom range), case source, case type, case status, or tags.
   • Grouping — Group data by case source, case type, or duration threshold.
3. The dashboard displays the filtered data visually. Use the time range selector to zoom in on specific periods.

The statistics page provides a high-level view of case volume, distribution across statuses, and SLA compliance trends.

Step 6: Use audit logs for accountability

Audit logs are available at two levels: individual case level and app level.

Case-level audit logs

1. Open an individual case.
2. Scroll to the Audit Logs section at the bottom of the case details page.
3. The timeline shows all actions: case creation, field edits, status changes, assignments, comment additions and deletions, and workflow actions.
4. Select View Details on any entry to see field-level changes with previous and updated values.

Field-level permissions also apply to audit logs. If a field is hidden from your role, any changes to that field are also hidden from your audit log view.

App-level audit logs

1. Navigate to Settings > Audit Log.
2. Search and filter user actions across all cases since app creation.
3. To export a subset, apply filters, select Export, and set a password for the CSV file.

The export date range is restricted to 35 days per export due to data size constraints.

Constraints and limitations

• Duration threshold granularity: Case duration is tracked in days. For hour-level or minute-level SLA tracking, use Plumber integration.
• Report retention: Generated reports are retained for 60 days. Download reports before they expire.
• Audit log export limit: Each app-level audit log export is restricted to a 35-day date range.
• Bulk delete: Bulk deletion is irreversible. Deleted cases cannot be recovered.
• Statistics dashboard filters: The dashboard supports five filter dimensions (creation time, case source, case type, case status, tags) and three grouping options (case source, case type, duration threshold).
• Duration exclusions: Weekends and Singapore public holidays can be excluded from the duration count. Ad-hoc exclusion days must be configured per case type.
• Default notifications: Cases exceeding the duration threshold can trigger default email notifications without requiring a workflow. Configure these under your profile > Manage My App Notifications. Notification types include: duration threshold exceeded in cases assigned to you, created by you, or flagged by you.
• Case duration in reports: Case duration is included as a column in exported case reports.

Related features

• Configure automated workflows — Use scheduled workflows to auto-generate reports, send SLA reminder emails, and process cases approaching duration thresholds.
• Set up case intake channels — Configure the sources that create cases in your app.