Instances Used in Multiple Cases

Info

New in Atfinity 17.

Because an instance can be linked into more than one ongoing case at once, a case can be missing context that only exists in another case working on the same instance. Atfinity surfaces two such relationships so a reviewer can account for them before finishing a case.

Other ongoing cases with the same instance

If the instance is also linked into another ongoing case, Atfinity shows which case, including its process and current status. A case stops counting toward this once it is approved or declined, and the current case stops showing this altogether once it is itself approved or declined.

Values approved elsewhere since this case started

A case works from its own copy of an instance's values; approving the case is what writes that copy back to the instance. If the instance is later approved with different values in another case, a case that already existed at that time is now working from outdated values. Atfinity flags this when the approved values actually differ from the case's copy, and only for cases that already existed when the other case was approved. A case created after that approval already copies the up-to-date values when it starts, so it has nothing to catch up on and is never flagged. A file counts as the same when its content is the same, although every case holds its own copy of it, and a structure the case does not hold is left out of the comparison.

Overwriting the values replaces the case's copy with the latest approved values, including a value edited in the case, and is recorded in the case's activity log as "Values overwritten". An instance that is locked cannot be overwritten until it is unlocked.

An instance can also change outside any case, through the API, an Excel import, a manual instance action or a scheduled rule on the instance. The case is then flagged, without another case to point back to, when a value that changed differs from the case's copy, including a value that was cleared. Values that did not change are not compared, so a case where someone edited another value is not flagged by it. When a later change leaves the case's copy matching the instance again, the flag is removed.

Both relationships apply to every instance in a case, not only its outcome instance, so a linked instance is tracked the same way as the case's own.