A case is not a row that changes colour. It has a name you can quote on the phone, a set of moves it is allowed
to make, and a point where it stops. This article is that lifecycle, end to end.
[Support cases](support-cases) covers what a case is for and how to open one.

**Support cases are a capability your plan either includes or does not.** If there is no **Support cases** item
in your sidebar, nothing in this article is reachable for you, and no setting in your own account turns it on. It
is a plan question first — see [plans, limits and what they stop](plans-limits-and-what-they-stop).

## Its reference number

Every case is given a reference the moment it is created: **TCK-000123**.

It is sequential **within your account** — your first case is TCK-000001. Two businesses on the same
installation both have a TCK-000001, and they are different cases.

The reference is shown in the **Reference** column of the case list, and at the top of the case itself, above
the subject. Three places take it back:

- **The search box** on the case list. `TCK-000123`, `tck123` and plain `123` all find that one case.
- **The address bar.** A case's page address ends in its number; paste the reference in place of it and the same
  case opens.
- **Anywhere a colleague reads it** — an email, a note, a phone call. That is what it is for.

**The search box does not fall back.** A reference that matches no case returns nothing; it does not then go
looking through subjects. Anything that is not a number is treated as a subject search instead, matching
anywhere in the subject.

## The moves a case may make

A case has [six statuses](support-cases), and it cannot move between them freely. Once a case is finished, only
some moves are left open.

| From | May become |
|---|---|
| **Open**, **In progress**, **Waiting on customer**, **Waiting on us** | any of the other three, or **Resolved**, or **Closed** |
| **Resolved** | **Closed**, or **Open** |
| **Closed** | **Open** |

In words: while a case is still being worked, put it in whichever state you like, including finishing it
outright. Once it is finished, **the only way back into the work is Open**.

The status control on the case offers only the moves that are open to it, so you will not often meet the
refusal. When something else sends one — a stale browser tab, your own integration — the answer names the edge
it refused and the set it would have accepted: *A ticket cannot go from 'closed' to 'resolved'. Allowed: closed,
open.*

**Resolved and Closed are both endings, and they are not the same ending.** Resolved means the work is done;
Closed means the case is filed. A case can be closed without ever being resolved. Going from resolved to closed
keeps both stamps, which is how "resolved on Monday, closed on Friday" stays readable in the **Timeline** block
of the case.

## What reopening does

Moving a resolved or closed case back to **Open** is a reopen, and it is more than a status change.

| | What happens |
|---|---|
| The **Resolved** and **Closed** stamps | cleared — they disappear from the Timeline block |
| The **resolution target** | restarted, measured from the instant you reopened |
| A recorded **resolution** miss | cleared, because the new target has its own outcome |
| The **first response** | untouched: a response already recorded stays recorded, and a first-response miss stays permanently |
| The **history** | gains a *Case reopened* entry |

The split is deliberate. The resolution clock is about work still to do, so a reopened case gets a new deadline.
The first response is about how long the customer waited the first time, and nothing you do later changes that.

A case with no [SLA policy](sla-policies) attached has no clocks to restart. Reopening it clears the stamps and
nothing else.

## Internal notes

A case's history records every change the product made to it. The one entry a person writes is an **internal
note**.

Add one from the **History** section of the case. It lands in the same list as the status changes and the
reassignments, in the order it happened, under your name.

- **Only on a case that is still active.** The note box is there on open, in progress, waiting on customer and
  waiting on us. Resolve or close the case and the box goes.
- **2000 characters** in the dashboard, with the remaining count shown as you type. That ceiling is the box's
  own — the server accepts a note of up to 10,000 — so a note written through the API can be longer than one you
  are allowed to type here.
- **Nobody outside your team sees it.** A case is not a conversation: the customer has no view of it at all, and
  a note is not sent anywhere.

Anything the customer needs to know has to be said in the conversation instead. Private notes there are a
different thing on a different object — see [work in the inbox](work-in-the-inbox).

## Where a case shows up outside the workspace

Open a contact and there is a **Cases** tab beside Activity. It lists that person's cases — reference, subject,
status, priority and SLA state — newest activity first.

It shows the first **25**. When the contact has more, a **View all cases for this contact** button appears
underneath and opens the Support cases workspace already filtered to them. The tab is absent altogether when the
module is off for your account, rather than present and failing.

A conversation shows its own cases the same way, in a panel in [the conversation sidebar](the-conversation-sidebar).

## Who sees which cases

Visibility is ownership, not channel membership. A case can exist with no channel at all.

| | Sees |
|---|---|
| **Administrators** | every case in the account |
| Agents whose role carries **support case management** | every case in the account |
| Everybody else | the cases assigned to them, assigned to one of their teams, or that they opened themselves |

A case you cannot see is absent from your list and from a contact's Cases tab, and opening its address directly
says the case could not be loaded — the same answer as a case that does not exist. See
[roles and permissions](roles-and-permissions).

## Limits

- **A case cannot be deleted.** There is no delete action anywhere in the product. A finished case is closed,
  not removed, and its reference is never handed to another case.
- **Reopening is always to Open.** There is no move from closed straight back to in progress; go to Open first.
- **Nothing reopens a case on its own.** A customer writing again reopens a *conversation*; it does nothing to
  a case. Somebody has to decide.
- **Resolving the linked conversation does not resolve the case**, and closing the case does not touch the
  conversation.
- **A case opened without an SLA policy is unmeasured**, and attaching one later measures from that moment. See
  [SLA policies](sla-policies).

## Related

- [Support cases](support-cases)
- [SLA policies](sla-policies)
- [Support case analytics](support-case-analytics)
- [The conversation sidebar](the-conversation-sidebar)
- [Assign and prioritise](assign-and-prioritise)

## If it does not work

**The status I want is not in the list.** The case is resolved or closed, and the control offers only what it
can reach from there. Move it to Open first, then on.

**I pasted a reference into the address bar and the case opened with an empty history.** The case itself loads
from a reference; its history is fetched by number and does not. Open the case from the list or the search box
instead.

**Searching a reference finds nothing.** References are per account, so TCK-000123 given to you by somebody on a
different account is not your TCK-000123. If the account is right, the case is probably one you do not have
access to.

**The resolution time moved after I reopened a case.** That is the reopen doing its job. The old target
belonged to the old piece of work; the new one runs from the moment you reopened.

**There is no note box on the case.** It is resolved or closed. Reopen it, or say it in the conversation.