This article explains how to process PTO communications and link them to existing cases in Equinox.


TABLE OF CONTENTS


View PTO Notifications

To view PTO notifications in Equinox, click PTO Notifications in the left-hand sidebar.


This opens the All PTO Notifications screen.

Note: By default this screen will show you all PTO notifications in your system that require a user action, e.g., they need to be processed or discarded. 

If you've received a PTO notification that isn't yet listed on this screen in Equinox, you'll need to manually add the notification, either via the 'Create Notification' option, or by forwarding the email to your @incoming.workanyware.co.uk 

Equinox will scan the message contents for a PTO Reference. If it finds a PTO Reference with a matching pre-set link, Equinox will fill in the Title field with the correspondence name from the pre-set link.

View more information about a PTO notification

To view more information about a PTO notification you've received:

  1. On the All PTO Notifications page, click the Title of the notification you want to see more information on


  2. This takes you to the Details page for that notification.

  3. Equinox will pre-fill the following fields in the Details box on the left of the screen with information it finds in the linked email message, which you can see a preview of on the right of the screen.

    • PTO

    • PTO Reference

    • PTO Notification Date

    • PTO Application Number

  4. The Case box contains the details of the Equinox case that has a filing number that matches the PTO Application Number found in the PTO notification email.


Example - USPTO notification with existing linked pre-set

For this example, a USPTO notification email has been sent to Equinox that contains the PTO Reference '123'


  1. This PTO Reference is already linked to a pre-set that's in our system.

       

  1. The Details screen will display a Ready to process notification in a green box on the top of the page

  2. If a specific person needs to be aware that this notification has arrived, you can enter their name in the Mark documents as FYI for at this stage. In this case, we'll mark the document as FYI for 'Jane Doe' when the notification is processed and the document is added to the case.

  3. Click the green Process button on the right of the box to process the notification 

  4. This will bring up the pre-set run screen 

  5. Click Proceed 

  6. This will run the pre-set onto the case

  7. The pre-set associated with this notification will now be visible on the Tasks tab of the case

  8. The PTO notification email is now visible on the Documents tab of the case

Example - PTO notification with no linked case found

For this example, a USPTO notification email has been sent to Equinox. Equinox has not found a PTO application number that corresponds to any existing case in the system.

You can manually link this notification to the correct case in Equinox. To do this:

  1. Click the Title of the notification you want to see more details for

  2. This takes you to the Details screen for the communication

  3. You'll see a notification in a red box at the top of the screen saying "Please allocate a case to this correspondence"

  4. To manually link the notification to the correct case, click the Add case button in the Details box

  5. This opens the Case to add pop up screen

  6. Add the case reference for the case you want to link this notification to

  7. Click the green Update button

  8. Now that it's linked to a case, you'll see a green box at the top of the Details page saying Ready to Process 

  9. Click the green Process button on the right of the box to process the notification 

  10. This will bring up the pre-set run screen 

  11. Click Proceed 

  12. This will run the pre-set onto the case

  13. The pre-set associated with this notification will now be visible on the Tasks tab of the case

  14. The PTO notification email is now visible on the Documents tab of the case

In this example we've received a PTO notification that contains a PTO reference number that's not linked to an existing pre-set in our system. 

  1. When you receive a PTO reference number that's not linked to an existing pre-set, the pre-set column in the green Ready to process box will default to your system's Default Fall Back Pre-set. You can choose to:

    • Leave the default pre-set on this case 
      Or

    • Select another pre-set rule from the dropdown menu

  2. Click Process

  3. This will run the pre-set onto the case

  4. The pre-set associated with this notification will now be visible on the Tasks tab of the case

  5. The PTO notification email is now visible on the Documents tab of the case

Example - Discard a PTO notification

In this example we've received a PTO notification but we don't want to process it. To discard the notification:

  1. Click the red Discard button on the left of the Details box 

  2. This will remove this notification from your list of unprocessed notifications

  3. You can view any discarded PTO notifications in your system by going to the Discarded column and selecting Yes from the dropdown menu 

  4. Click Filter to view all PTO notifications you've discarded 

Use the PTO notification date as the set date in a pre-set

Pre-sets in Equinox have set dates. See our article on Pre-set Base Dates for more information.

When you process a notification and trigger a pre-set, if the pre-set uses set dates you can use the date that you received the notification (i.e., the set date) as the base date to trigger pre-set tasks. 

The set date being used here is the mailroom date that Equinox has found in the PTO correspondence.

When you click the green Process button, you'll see the pre-set trigger screen. On here you'll see that the set date is being used as a base date for the pre-set task.


View processed notifications

To view notifications you've already processed:

  1. In the Processed column on the far right of the screen, select Yes From the Dropdown menu

  2. Click Filter

  3. Equinox will show you PTO Notifications in your system that have already been processed