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Well-configured statuses make cases legible at a glance: everyone sees which phase a case is in and what still needs to happen. This guide opens a case template, goes to Case settings, and adjusts child statuses under each parent category. The worked example uses the template Collect info about new employee; the same steps apply to any case template.

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What you’ll build

When you finish, your case template will have child statuses that match how your team works — for example, multiple steps under In Progress instead of a single generic label. You will have:
  • Opened Statuses from the template’s settings
  • Either renamed existing child statuses or added new ones with + next to a parent
  • Saved the lifecycle so new cases pick up the structure
Estimated time: 5–10 minutes
1

Open your case template

In the sidebar, expand Templates, then click Cases.
Templates menu expanded with Cases selected
Click the case template you want to configure — for this walkthrough, open Collect info about new employee (or your own template).
Case Templates list with Name, Created At, and Default owner columns
2

Open Case settings

In Template Edition, click the settings (gear) icon in the upper-right corner.
Case template header with settings gear icon highlighted in the toolbar
In Case settings, under Case lifecycle, choose Statuses.
Case settings sidebar with Statuses selected and parent statuses Draft through Cancelled
3

Configure child statuses

Penbox gives you five parent statuses — Draft, Pending, In Progress, Closed, and Cancelled. Each parent starts with one child status that shares its name. You refine the lifecycle by renaming those children or adding more under a parent.Rename an existing child statusClick the child you want to change, then edit the Label field.
Child status selected with Label Info collected from the new employee and optional auto-transition field
Add a new child status
  1. Click + beside the parent (for example In Progress).
  2. Click the newly created child (it may appear with a default name such as In Progress New).
  3. Update Label to the name your team should see.
In Progress parent with plus control and two child statuses listed
New child status selected with Label field showing In Progress New
Click Save when the structure matches your process.
4

Review the result

Here is one possible outcome for Collect info about new employee: under In Progress, two clear child statuses instead of one — for example Info collected from the new employee and Extra information asked to the new employee.
Statuses configuration showing two custom child statuses under In Progress

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You’re done

Your case template now exposes child statuses that reflect how work actually moves. New cases still start in the first child under Draft by default. While a case is open, your team changes status manually from one value to the next unless you add automation elsewhere.
Automatic status transitions — when watched data or steps satisfy a condition — are covered in Automatic case status transitions. Use the Auto-transition condition field on each child status to add that logic.

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What’s next?

Build your first case template

Create a template from scratch if you are new to case templates.

Run your first case

Walk through a case end-to-end in the app.

Statuses and lifecycle

Read how parent and child statuses fit the case lifecycle in Penbox.

Case templates

Deep-dive on case templates in the main documentation.