One Initial State and Multiple Final States

When you set up a case type's states, you must pick one as the initial state. The initial state is the state assigned to new cases of a given type. For example, high-bill complaint cases have an initial state of Lodged, whereas literature request cases have an initial state of Literature Sent.

You must also define which statuses are considered to be "final". When a case enters a "final" state, it is complete and no further action is necessary. You might want to think of the "final" states as the potential outcomes of a case. For example, a high-bill complaint has potential outcomes of Completed, Rejected, and Canceled.

The "final" states are used by the system to differentiate between open and closed cases. For example, an alert highlights when the person / account / premise in context has open cases (this alert only exists if you've plugged-in the appropriate installation alert).