The case lifecycle end to end

Every job — a survey, a set of remedial works, or both together — moves through the same spine: one rail that shows exactly where it is, what happens next, and how it got there if the tidy path wasn’t followed.

What it is

Open any survey or works order (the sidebar lists both together under Jobs) and you’ll see the case lifecycle rail: Raised → Survey Scheduled → Surveyed → Summary Provided → Works Scheduled → Works Complete → Verified → Closed. Each stage is marked done, current, upcoming, or skipped (struck through, never shown as if it happened). Alongside the rail sits a single Next step button — the one action that moves the case forward from wherever it currently sits.

How to do it

1. Open the case and read its position from the rail — no separate place to look for “what do I do now”.
2. Use the Next step button to advance it: send the resident summary, schedule a verification re-survey, or close the case, depending on where it sits.
3. Where a case’s stage was reached by an alternative rather than the primary path, a chip on the record says so — see below.
4. Decant and wash-down actions, where your organisation uses them, sit in their own labelled block and can be set at any point in an open case’s life, not only at one stage.

How it integrates

Real housing management doesn’t always fit the tidy path, so several stages have an explicit, weaker, honestly labelled alternative alongside the primary one — never disguised as the same thing:

Stage	Primary path	Labelled alternative
Summary Provided	Sent to the resident through the platform.	Marked as provided externally, with a note on how — chip: Summary Provided Externally.
Works Complete	A fingerprinted after-photo is captured.	A completion note is required instead, where photos are optional by policy — chip: Notes Only — No Photo Evidence.
Works Complete	GPS fix captured at completion.	Completed on the operative’s behalf from the portal, with no location claimed — chip: No GPS fix recorded.
Verified	A follow-up re-survey confirms the hazard is resolved.	Verified by attestation, with a mandatory reason — chip: Verified By Attestation — No Re-Survey.
Closed	Automatically eligible once Verified (or once a no-works survey’s summary is provided).	Closed with a reason of No works needed or Closed without verification — the latter always shown amber, never as a verified closure.

A caveat chip is always visible on the record and in reports, and statutory clocks are untouched by any of this — deadlines are computed from their own events regardless of which path a case took. A survey-only case that finds no hazard skips straight from Summary Provided to Closed; a works-only case raised with no source survey starts at Works Scheduled, with the earlier stages shown as skipped rather than upcoming.

Common problems

• A stage shows as skipped and I think that’s wrong. Check whether the case is survey-only or works-only — skipped stages genuinely never applied to this case, they aren’t a data gap.
• I closed a case without a re-survey and want that to be clearly flagged later. It is — a Verified By Attestation or Closed without verification chip stays on the record for as long as it exists.
• The Next step button doesn’t match what I expected to do. It reflects the case’s actual current stage — if that looks wrong, check whether an earlier action (a letter, a completion) actually saved.