CPIMS+ User Guide

March 2024

Introduction

The purpose of this user guide is to outline all features and functionality available in Primero. The forms built into Primero are configured to the in-country forms currently being used, and aligned to standard operating procedures currently in practice.

Logging In

When logging into Primero, you’ll see:

  1. Participating organizations: If you see your organization listed, click on your organization to sign in through single-sign on as seen below

  1. “Primero” to log in: Please follow the instructions found here: https://community.primero.org/t/resetting-primero-identity-user-password-in-primero-v2-and-reset-link-for-organizational-identity-provider/474 
  2. User name and password: Click in the Username field and type in the unique user name provided to you by your System Administrator. Then enter your password in the field below and click LOG IN. If you have forgotten your password, you must contact the system administrator who will provide you with a temporary password.

Note that access to features and functionality varies depending on the user you are: Case Worker, or FTR manager.

The different type of users and their access vary depending on the implementation. Generally the roles are defined below:

Navigating Primero

Navigation Menu

The Navigation Menu appears at the left side of your screen where you can quickly navigate to the options which are available to you in Primero. The type of information that appears here will depend on the type of work you do for your organization. For instance, social workers, managers, and agency administrators will each see cases which are tailored to their level of access as mentioned in the previous section.

 You can access this menu from any page of the app.

On smaller devices, such as tablets or phones, you will need to click or tap on the menu button to show the Navigation Menu. The menu button will appear at the top left of your screen.

 

Dashboard

The Dashboard ("Home") is where you can quickly find information about the records you manage in Primero. The type of information that appears here will depend on the type of work you do for your organization. For instance, social workers, managers, and agency administrators will each see dashboards which are tailored to the needs of their day-to-day work.

A few notes about dashboards:

Case Worker Dashboards

The image below shows an example of the dashboard you might see as a case worker when you first login to Primero.

Case Manager Dashboards

Below are some examples of sections which may appear in your dashboard if you are a manager.

CP Administrator Dashboards

The below image gives an example of the sections you may see in your dashboard if you are an administrator.

Tasks List

As a Case Worker, if you click on the "Tasks" link in the Navigation Menu, you will arrive at the Tasks page.

Here, you will see the incomplete Tasks present for all of the cases you manage. Primero automatically generates Tasks for four types of actions: assessments, case plans, services, and follow ups. For each Task, the list shows:

Primero automatically generates Tasks based on information you fill out in the Case forms. Each type of Task action has a date field in the Case forms that acts as its due date. As soon as a user enters a date value into one of these fields, Primero generates a Task with that due date. To find out which field sets the due date for a Task, hover over the due date for any Task you find in the Tasks page.

Each type of Task action also has a date field in the Case forms which marks the Task as "complete". Once a user enters a date value into this field, the Task is marked as "complete" and disappears from the Tasks list.

To complete a Task, click on that Task in the list. You will arrive at that Task's Case, on the form which corresponds to that Task and contains its "complete" field. (Note: Usually the "complete" field for a Task will have help text which is assistive text under a field to let you know it is used to complete a Task.) For example, if I click on a Case Plan Task, I will arrive at the Case Plan form for that Case. This form contains the field "Case Plan Initiated". If I fill out this field, the Task will be completed and will disappear from the Tasks list.

Tasks. Below is a list of the fields used for each type of Task action in the Primero configuration. Note: only record owners can see tasks for their cases. You will not see the tasks if you are assigned to a case (such as a referral).

Record Lists

There are three main types of records in Primero: Cases, Incidents, and Tracing Requests. In the Navigation Menu, below the Tasks link are the links to the List pages for each type of record. These are the Case List, the Incident List, and the Tracing Request List. Depending on the work you do for your organization, you may only have access to one or two of these pages. For instance, in most Child Protection contexts case workers only deal with Cases, and so only have access to the Case List. For this reason, we usually use the Case List as an example when discussing record list functionality.

For more information on how record lists work, please see the Navigating Record Lists section.

Support

In the Navigation Menu, below the Exports link, you should see the Support link. Clicking on this will bring you to page with contact information for your system administrator, as well as links to support forums and documentation.

My Account and Password Change

In the Navigation Menu, below the Support link, you will see a link with your username. Click this to go to the My Account page.

Here, you can see details about your user account. Click the Edit button at the top right of the page to update any of these details or to change your password.

Here, you will be able to update the following:

Note: the Primero must be installed as a PWA on your device. In order to do this, you must go to your profile, edit the user account to set it to receive push notifications as well as use the toggle at the top of my account page to turn on notifications for your current device (see screenshot below)

You can view how push notifications work in this demo video: https://youtu.be/62Wiz2aUpRk?si=VYynXJsVhhAOdugj 

Click the SAVE button once you are finished making changes.

Offline Mode

Online Mode:

When you have internet connection, you will see the “Online Mode” symbol at the top of the Navigation Menu. This means that Primero has full functionality.

Offline Mode:

If you lose your internet connection or choose to work offline, you will be in “Offline Mode,” as indicated in the images below.

When you are in Offline Mode, you will have limited functionality.

  1. You will be able to create and save new cases, but your changes will not be submitted until you are back online.
  2. You can “Mark for offline” cases to be able access and edit records to the device you are using. You can do this by selecting the cases you would like to work on while offline, and select “Mark for Offline” in the actions menu:

  1. Once you have marked cases for offline editing, those will be available while offline:

For example, in the image above, the cases you were working on before you lost connectivity (ie. Maxwell, Robin, and Angelica) are still accessible from the Case List. All the other cases are greyed out and inaccessible until you are back in Online Mode.

This means that if you are planning to go into Offline Mode, you should “Mark for Offline” any Cases you will want to edit or access while still online.

  1. Only certain actions will be available in Offline Mode (such as requesting approvals or deleting uploads). Note that these actions will only get submitted to the system once you are back online.
  2. Some pages, such as Tasks and Exports, are unavailable in Offline Mode.

  1. While offline, the case list displays all cases including closed, disabled, transferred and duplicate cases but when online it defaults to only open cases.

IMPORTANT: Note that if you choose to log out while in Offline Mode, you will not be able to log back in until you are online again. Additionally, if you log out, any changes you made while offline will be lost. There is unfortunately no easy technical solution for logging in while completely offline in Primero v2. PWA’s are a relatively new technology. In order to log in while offline, we would require storing user credentials in your browser which is unsafe and is a security risk.

NOTE: If you are using a VPN, or if your organization has provisioned your device with advanced security settings, you may not be able to use Offline Mode. Before attempting to use Primero in a low-connectivity setting, try using Primero at home or in your office, and switch on your device's "Airplane Mode," which cuts your device's internet connection. If you do not see the "Offline" notification appear in Primero, then Offline Mode may not work on your device. This means information you enter while you are offline will not be saved. If you are unable to use Offline Mode, please talk to your organization's ICT team about how to update your device's settings.

Unsubmitted Offline Changes

In the support page, there is a new tab called "Unsubmitted Offline Changes" which looks like this:

When users are offline, and if they go online and any cases fail to sync in the backend of the system, users can try to re-submit any of the unsynced records here by clicking "Submit". When the user clicks on submit, Primero attempts to submit the changes again. This is useful for those users who have intermittent internet access.

Note: We had reports from some colleagues who were not able to log in to their Phone A52 Samsung or Galaxy Tab A7 lite. For 1 user who can log in on a mobile device, ask them to check the settings and see if the date and time set automatically (to adjust to the time zone) or manually. Depending on the answer, update the settings on the mobile device to be either automatically or manually set and then re-try logging in.

Saving Primero to your Home Screen (Android):

Option 1:

1. Open Google Chrome on your mobile device.

2. Type in the Primero URL – xyz.primero.org

3. You will see ‘ Add Primero to Home Screen’ at the bottom. Select it.

 

4. You will have Primero now saved on your home screen

Option 2:

1.      Open Google Chrome on your mobile device.

2.       Select the 3 dots   in the upper right.

3.       Select ‘Install app’:

4. You will have Primero now saved on your home screen.

 

Navigating Record Lists

Searching for Records

On all of the record list pages, you will find a search bar at the top right of the page. When you perform a search, Primero compares your query against the following fields for each record type:

By default, search includes both open and closed cases. You can search and filter the record lists at the same time (example: Search for Cases with the name "Smith" while filtering for only Male Cases with a Risk Level of "High").

Primero's search uses phonetic matching to include results which have the same sound as your search term. For instance, if you search for 'John,' the result 'Jon Doe' will appear, even though the first name 'Jon' is not spelled with an 'h' like in your search term. While this method gives the user flexibility if they do not know exactly how to spell a name, it does come with limitations. For instance, if you search for 'John Doe,' and a child's full name is 'Jon Amos Doe,' it will not appear in your search results. This is because Primero is searching for a name which contains the words / sounds you typed, in order. Basically, when Primero compares 'John Doe' to 'Jon Amos Doe,' it first determines that the sound 'John' matches the sound 'Jon,' but then decides that the sound 'Doe' does not match the sound 'Amos,' and so excludes this child from the search results. While this may seem limiting, it prevents Primero's search from including irrelevant results. So, if you search using full name, and the Case you are seeking does not appear, try searching for the first, middle, and/or last name instead.

If a case worker searches “John” OR “Doe”, the case list will return names such as “John Jack” or “Jane Doe”.

If you are searching “Akiel Pilgrim”, the results will also include names with similar letters (a, i, l, k, r) such as “Adarius Balkaran”.

Note: With the new React UI in v2, if you select the “back” button in the browser, the results of the search will be cleared.

Searching for Cases Managed By Other Users

Some users have the ability to search for and view limited information about records managed by other users. When users with this ability perform a search and arrive at the Search Results page, they may see Cases for which they have full access (for example, a Case they manage) as well as Cases for which they do not have full access (for example, a Case managed by another user at another organization or district).

When the user clicks on a Case in the Search Results page...

The View Details Modal

The View Details modal displays a small set of fields about a Case. This allows you to see some limited information about a Case managed by another user, without endangering the data confidentiality of the Case.

You can see a button labelled Request Transfer at the bottom of this modal. For more information on this action, please see the Requesting a Case Transfer section.

NOTE: Depending on the system's configuration, you may also be able to see the Case's photo in this modal.

For more information on configuring the View Details modal and which information appears there, please see the Primero Administration Guide.

Filtering

On the right side of all of the Record Lists, you will see the Filters Panel. Filtering is an efficient way to find the record or records that need your immediate attention. Filtering allows you to search for a case with a particular feature - e.g. all cases of women (in which case, you will filter by 'Sex'). Or cases of a certain age group. Filters in Primero allow the user to search for cases by risk level, case status, etc.  

NOTE: By default, the record list pages will only show records which are open and enabled. You can choose to show closed or disabled records using the "Status" and "Enabled / Disabled[2]" filters.

The most-commonly-used filters are always visible at the top of the Filters Panel. To expose more specific filters, click the "More" button below the panel. To re-hide these, click "Less".

Once you have set one or more filters, click the "Apply" button at the top of the Filters panel to update your list results. To clear the filters you have selected, click the "Clear" button.

You can also save a set of filters for later use by clicking the "Save" button at the top of the Filters Panel. This opens the modal pictured below.

Enter a name for your new saved search and click "Save". Once the search has finished saving, click on the "Saved Searches" tab at the top of the filters panel.

Here, you can find the search you had saved earlier. Click on the saved search to apply the filters that were saved. To delete a saved search, you can click on the trash can button next to it.

For the User Group Filter: Remember that, even if you are not in a user group, you still may have access to cases that are in that user group. For instance, I may work in Camp 1, but someone from Camp 2 may have referred a case to me. Therefore, I will see the User Group filter and the corresponding user groups.

Viewing and Editing a Record

In the Case List, you can click on any Case to see more details. You will arrive at the View Case page. On this page, you can only view information about the case; you cannot edit it. In order to edit information about the case, click the "Edit" button with the pencil icon at the top right of the page.

You should now be able to update information about the case. Once you have made changes, click the SAVE button in the header. NOTE: If you do not click the Save button, your changes will be lost.

You can find more details on this topic in the Creating, Viewing, or Editing a Case section. Note that depending on your permissions, for example if you are a case worker you can only edit your own cases and if you are a manager or administrator you are able to view records, not edit.

Workflow Status Bar

On the view and edit pages for a Case, the user will see the Workflow Status Bar. This tells the user which stage of the case management workflow the case has reached.

The Primero configuration has the following workflow which is aligned to the inter-agency Case Managment Task Force forms: 

Navigating Case Forms

When you are viewing, creating, or editing a record in Primero, you can move between Forms using the Form Navigation Menu, which appears on the left side of the screen. Forms in Primero have been customized from the Global Inter-Agency Case Management Task Force Forms:

You will notice that some Forms appear under a collapseable header. This is called a Form Group. In the above image, "Identification / Registration" is a Form Group, which contains a number of Forms, including "Individual Details." When you click on a Form Group, the Form Group opens, and you arrive at the first Form in the group. Click on any other Form in the group to view that Form. To collapse an open Form Group, click on it again.

Creating, Viewing, or Editing a Case

Creating a Case

To create a case from the Case List, click on the NEW button. You will see a modal like the one pictured below.

You will be prompted to review a series of options concerning the individuals consent and legitimate basis.

Selections made on the consent and legitimate basis will appear on the “Consent & Assent” form.

Once you have reached the new case page, you can navigate to different forms as described in the “Navigating Case Forms” section.

Editing a Case

To edit a case, enter the case record and click the EDIT button. The page will then allow you to edit information in the forms.

There are a number of different field types which you can edit differently.

You may be required to complete certain fields. Required fields can be identified by the star next to the field name. You will receive an error if you try to save the Case before filling out those fields. Red error messages will appear on the corresponding forms in the Form Navigation Menu to further help you identify the required fields.

If you enter a field incorrectly, the system will return a similar series of error messages and alerts when you try to save the case. In the example below, a negative age and a “Date of Birth” in the future cause errors until those fields are fixed.

Some fields may have help text, which is grey assistive text under a field to help you determine what the field is used for.

Some fields may have guidance text, which is a more detailed summary of the field.

For more information on how to set which fields are required and other data constraints, please see the Primero Administration and Configuration Guide.

Navigating Subforms

Some Forms contain information that is entered multiple times. For example, a case worker might fill out the Name, Age, Date of Birth for multiple family members on the same Case. In situations like this, Primero organizes information in Subforms.

Adding Subforms

When you click into a Form that contains a subform, you will see an ADD button. Click this to add a Subform Entry.

A modal will appear. Here, you fill out information about the entry you want to add. For example, on the "Family Details" subform, you might add information about the Case's sibling.

When you are done filling in information, click ADD at the bottom of the subform modal. Note that if you click CANCEL instead, you will lose all of your changes.

Updating Subforms

If multiple subforms are added in this way, they will be listed in collapsed form. Each can be reopened by clicking on the right-side arrows. Once you are finished with your edits, click UPDATE at the bottom of the subform in order to add your changes.

Removing Subforms

To remove a subform, click on the trashcan icon on the collapsed subform. A modal will appear asking you to confirm your decision.

Other Documents

To upload PDF, TXT, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX or CSV files, go to the “Other Documents” form. The maximum size of an upload is 10MB. You can upload up to 100 documents in 1 case record. (Note: This limit applies only when using the Primero X hosted service)

Alerts

Alerts help you keep track of updates to a Case's situation. Alerts are represented by small gold dots or message banners.

Case-level alerts:

Form-level alerts:

Alerts appear in any of the following situations:

Note, services can be added to the user’s profile as well as to the agency. If a service is added to the agency, all users will also by default provide those services. If a service is added to the user profile, and then a service is removed, by default they will not also have the services added to their agency.

Flagging

The Flags button allows a case worker or manager to leave a message or a "Flag" on a record. Usually, this is a reminder to other users that they need to perform an action (example: reminding a case worker to perform an assessment or reminding a manager to approve the Case Plan).

When you click the Flags button, a modal appears with two tabs: "Flags" and "Add New Flag". The "Flags" tab will open by default. Here, you will see a list of all flags that have already been added to this record. To add a new flag, click on the "Add New Flag" tab. Here, you can enter a reason for your flag, as well as a flag date.

Once you click "Save", you will arrive back on the "Flags" tab. Here, you will see the flag you just saved.

Records which have active flags will appear in the record list with a flag icon displaying the number of active flags on that record.

When you are viewing a record, if it has any active flags, the Flags button will display a small red circle showing the number of active flags.

Once a flag is no longer relevant (example: your manager read the flag and approved your Case Plan as you requested), you can resolve the flag. To do this, click the Resolve button next to the flag. A modal will now appear where you can enter your reason for resolving the flag. NOTE: Only the user who created a flag can resolve it.

Once the flag is resolved:

Note: Note: case workers and managers have the ability to have a flag dashboard functionality. This functionality does not work for users with roles that have access to “all records in the system” such as an administrator.

Change Log

Some case worker and manager roles may see a page under Record Information called the “Change Log.” This page tracks all changes made to that Case, as well as the name of the user who made those changes. Changes can include simple field editing, updated subforms, and other actions such as approvals or transfers.

For more in-depth information about a subform update, click the “See Details” link on the Change Log to open up a modal window.

You will also be able to filter for a specific change by selecting the form or field. To do this enter in a specific form or field in the filter on the right.

Actions Menu

To the right of the "Edit" button on the View Case page, you should see a small button with three dots. This is the Actions Menu.

The full list of actions (which ones you see depends on your permissions):

NOTE: When using these actions, you must follow the your local Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs). Primero does not replace normal day-to-day communications (e.g. email, text, WhatsApp) between the people and organizations that perform Child Protection work.

Assignments, Transfers, and Referrals

There are three very important actions which allow you give another user access to your case: Assign, Transfer, and Refer.

Assignments

Case Managers have the ability to assign a case / cases to a different user. If you select the case(s) and then the Assign option, a modal will appear that allows you to select from existing users. Assigning the case will change the record owner to the selected user. The new owner will have full access to the record, and the previous case worker will lose their access.

Case managers have a dashboard that can be configured onto their home page which displays cases that need to be assigned. Displays the number of cases owned directly by the current manager (and not a case worker). This dashboard assumes that managers do not manage their own cases, and that, if a manager has their own cases, they should assign these cases to case workers on their team. The dashboard appears as shown below. The dashboard also shows overdue cases and you can view a tool tip by hovering over the risk level to see the timeframe for the overdue cases.

Transfers

Managers can also transfer a record to a different user. Unlike assignments, however, transfers give the recipient the opportunity to accept or reject the record. If the recipient rejects it, the record will stay with its original owner. If recipient accepts it, they will now have full ownership of the record, and the original owner will no longer have access.

When you select the Transfer action from the Action Button, a modal will appear so you can add the correct information for the transfer. Consent of the individual (or a consent override) is required. The consent question is typically on the Consent and Assent form and is labelled “Consent has been given for the child to participate in the case management process”. The individual providing consent agrees to share information about the case with other service providers. You may also be asked if you are transferring to a remote system (ie. someone who does not use Primero). As this feature is not currently enabled for most configurations, you can ignore this field without affecting the Transfer action.

To select the user that you are transferring to, first select the agency and location associated with the user.

Once you have selected an agency and location for your transfer, the "Recipient" field will only display users who are part of that agency and based in that location.

If the desired user is not in the drop down, it means this user does not have privileges to be transferred to or that the user does not meet the criteria selected in the Agency or Location fields.

Accepting or Rejecting Transfers

You have the ability to receive a case transfer. You can see if any cases have been transferred to you on your dashboard under "Shared With Me - Transfers Awaiting Acceptance".

When you enter the case that has been transferred to you, open up the Record Information form group and click on the Transfers / Assignments form. You will see that the status is in progress. Clicking on the menu at the far right displays buttons to either accept or reject the transfer.

If you click to accept the case, the status will change to accepted, and you will become the record owner, rather than an “Other Assigned User”. The record information is updated with this change (see below images).

Before accepting the transfer:

After accepting the transfer:

If you click Reject, a modal opens with text box for entering the Rejection Reason. When you click REJECT, the rejection reason is in the transfer subform on the Case and the transfer status is changed to 'Rejected.' You are will then lose access to the record.

Requesting a Case Transfer

If you find a record owned by another user and need full access to it, you can ask the record owner to transfer the record to you. In Primero, this is known as a Transfer Request. Your ability to perform a Transfer Request will depend on your instance's configuration. To request a transfer, first search for your case from the case list view. When you identify the case in the search results, clicking on the case will open the View Details modal.

At the bottom left of the View Details modal, you will see a button marked "Request Transfer". Click it, and a modal will appear. Note: you must also have the permission to receive transfers to be able to request a transfer of a case.

Here, you will see information on the record owner and a text box where you can enter a note to the owner of the record. Click "Send Request" to submit.

Once you have sent the transfer request, the Case's record owner - if their user account is configured with an email address and the ability to receive email notifications - will receive a notification telling them about your request for a record transfer. If there is no email address, they can also accept or reject a transfer request in the system.

If the Case record owner clicks on the link in the email, they will arrive at the case record in Primero. Here they will see an alert in the Form Navigation Menu on the Transfers / Assignments form. Here, they can expand the transfer request subform to see the details of your request, including any notes you have included.

At this point, the record owner can choose whether or not to transfer the record to the user who requested the transfer.

Referrals

Referring a record is a way of giving a user limited access to a record without transferring it completely. While referring a record allows the recipient to access your record, the referring user will maintain full record ownership and will be able to remove the recipient's access at any time. To start a referral, click the Refer in the Referring From Services Form section below.

Note: the “Other Assigned User" field in the Record Information form would be populated if another user is able to view/edit the case in addition to the current owner. For example, this include be a service provider to whom the case was referred in addition to a user who has not yet 'accepted' a case transfer.

The following modal form will appear and allow you to select options for your referral.

As with transfers, consent of the individual is required for referral. Consent for referral is found on the Consent form where consent has been given for the child to participate in the case management process and the individual providing consent agrees to share information about the case with other service providers.

The following fields are important for selecting a user:

Now, select the “Recipient” - who must be a user within your deployment of Primero. A list of all users that perform the service selected, from the agency selected, and in the location selected will appear. If the desired user is not in the drop down, it means this user does not have privileges to be referred to or does not meet one of the three criteria listed above. Note: specifying type of referral restricts recipients’ ability to delete a service subform.

When sending a referral, you will also be able to select from a dropdown “Would you like to specify a Type of Referral?”. This dropdown is a list which determines the level of access the recipient has to the case to ensure information is shared on a need-to-know basis and based on information sharing protocols. Note: this list are roles configured by the system administrator.

The recipient, for example, may have edit access to all forms in a case record for the cases they are managing. If, for example, they receive a referral where the Type of Referral is specified, they may have edit/view-only access to a few forms. If the recipient receives multiple referrals for the same child where the Type of Referral is specified, then the form access is additive and they may get edit/view-only access to additional forms. For example, if I am a case worker who receives a Legal Service referral and an Alternative Care Service referral for the same case, I would see both the forms needed for a Legal Service, and the forms needed for an Alternative Care Service.

If “Would you like to specify a Type of Referral?” is left blank, the recipient will get access to the forms they normally would have access to.

For more information on how to specify the Agency a user belongs to, the Location where they are based, and the Services they offer, please see the Primero Administration and Configuration Guide.

Referring to a Remote System

The "Remote System" option allows you to record a referral to an individual or organization who is not using Primero. This action will generate a PDF export of some limited information about the Case which you can give to the referral recipient. To start this process, select the tick box for "Are you transferring to a remote system?"

The "Type of Referral" field indicates the level of information access your export file will include. The options in this list will generally be roles in the system which are permitted to see specific forms on the Case, depending on the role's expertise. For instance, one option might be "Medical Service Provider." Selecting this option will produce a non-encrypted PDF export file which only contains the information a Medical Service Provider would be able to see in Primero. In the example above, we have chosen a generic "Referral" type.

Revoking a Referral

The Case Worker who manages the Case can remove a referral recipient's access to a Case, usually upon completion of the referral work. To revoke a Case you have referred to another user, simply enter the Case and go to the Referrals form in the Record Information form group. Expand the referral subform for the recipient you wish to remove and click the REVOKE action in the referral's action menu.

Once you have revoked a referral, that referral's recipient will no longer have access to the Case. The referral's status changes from In Progress to Done to indicate that the referral has been closed and the recipient no longer has Case access.

Relinquishing a Referral

If you have received a Case referral, you can relinquish the referral and give up access to the Case at any time by marking the referral as Done. Go to the case record, click on the Referrals form in the Record Information form group. Click the DONE action in the Actions menu of the appropriate referral. Primero will then ask you to confirm your decision in a modal. Once you have marked the referral as Done, the referred Case will be removed from your Case List and you will no longer have access to it.

Create Incident

The Create Incident action on the Case Show page allows you to link an incident to a Case. When you finish entering data for the new linked Incident, select “Save and Return” to return to the View Case page. The “Associated Case” ID link also enables you to view and navigate to the Incident’s linked Case record.  

Once you have saved the Incident, there are two possible ways to view/edit the Incident.

  1. From the View Case page: You can access any Incidents linked to a Case by navigating to the Incidents form in the Record Information form group. The linked Incidents will appear as collapsed subforms, from which you can choose to either View or Edit the incident.

  1. From the Incidents List: The Incident will also appear on the Incidents record list. From this page, you can also choose to View or Edit the incident.

To link an Incident to a Case is to first create the Case, and then select the “Link Incident to Case” action.

Once selected, you will be able to search for the case you would like to link the incident to. You are able to search by the long ID, incident code, survivor code, name, incident ID IR, incident ID, and account of incident to find the case.

Once the case is retrieved, select “Link” and the incident will then be linked to the case selected.

You can “Link” an incident to another case by following the above process at any time. You will not be able to “unlink” an incident from a case. Users who have this permission also can “Link Incidents to Cases” from the Incident List and can Link up to 100 incidents at 1 time to a case.

An alternative method of creating a linked Incident is to navigate to the Incidents form within the Record Information form group. Then, click the +NEW button at the top right of the Incidents form to create a new linked Incident. The rest of the Incident workflow is the same as described above.

NOTE: When a Case with linked incidents is referred, transferred, or assigned to another user, any linked Incident records are moved along with the Case record.

Close / Reopen

The Close / Reopen action allows you to change a Case's "Case Status" field. Only certain users have the ability to perform this action.

When a Case is open, this action appears as Close in the Actions menu. Clicking this action will change the Case Status field to "Closed", and the Workflow Status to "Closed". NOTE: Once a Case is closed, it will not appear by default on the Case List page. For information on how to find closed Cases, please see the Filtering section.

When a Case is closed, the action appears as Reopen in the Actions menu. clicking this action will change the Case Status field to "Open" and set the "Case Reopened?" field on the Individual Details form. It will also set the Case's Workflow Status to "Reopened".

Approvals

Requesting Approval for a Form

Case workers can request a manager's approval on the following Case forms:

To request approval for one of these forms, click the Request Approval action in the Actions menu.

The below modal will appear. Select the form for which you would like to request approval, then click "OK." In the example here, the user has selected approval for the Case Plan form.

Once you have requested approval, you will notice that an alert appears on the link to the corresponding form on your Case's Form Navigation Menu (in our example, this would be the "Case Plan" form). Click into this form. Note that there is an alert message at the top of the form. Also, note that the "Approval Status" field is set to "Pending." This means that you are still waiting for your manager to either approve or reject the form.

Now, click into the "Record Information" section of the Form Navigation Menu. Click "Approvals". Here, you will see a list of all approval requests and approvals made on your Case. The approval request you just submitted should appear here.

Now, go to your dashboard. In the "Approvals" section, your case will now be counted as "Pending" in the column for the form where you requested approval (in our example, this is "Case Plan").

Approving or Rejecting a Form

Managers will also have the ability to approve or reject certain Case forms. Once again, these are:

A manager can check for pending approvals in the "Approvals" section of their dashboard.

The numbers here represent the number of Cases with pending approvals for each approvable form.

Using our previous example, if a manager clicks on the number for "Case Plan," they will arrive at a list of Cases with pending Case Plan approval requests. Clicking into one of these Cases, they will see an alert on the Case Plan form in the Form Navigation Menu. The manager can then click into the Case Plan form, read through the Case Plan that the case worker has recorded, and decide whether to approve or reject it.

To approve or reject the Case Plan, the manager clicks the Approvals action in the Action Menu.

In the modal that appears, the manager can select "Approve" to approve the Case Plan, or "Not Approve" to reject it. Note that the manager can also use the "The form for" dropdown to select a different form to approve. The manager can also leave a comment on their decision, which will appear both on the approved / rejected form and in the Approvals form.

Once a manager has approved or rejected the Case Plan, the "Approval Status" on that form will update to be either "Approved" or "Rejected." The alert will also disappear from the "Case Plan" form. For both the case worker and the manager, the "Approvals" section of the dashboard will show one less pending Case Plan approval. In the "Approvals" section of the case worker's dashboard, the number for "Approved" or "Rejected" Case Plans will have increased by one, depending on how the manager responded.

Add Notes

Case workers are able to add notes to a case record. Managers overseeing a team of case workers may want to add notes to a particular Case so that they can give the case worker guidance on case management.

NOTE: This action is particularly useful for managers who do not have the ability to edit Cases. If managers do have the ability to edit Cases, they can always add a note by editing the case, going to the Notes form, and adding a subform entry.

To add a note, in the Actions menu, click the Add Notes action.

A modal will appear. Here, you can write the subject of your note, as well as its full text. Click SAVE to add the note to the case.

When the case worker logs in and views this case, an alert will appear on the link for the Notes form in the Form Navigation Menu.

If the case worker then clicks on the form, they will be able to see the manager's note, including the subject, full text, the manager's username, and the date the note was added.

The alert will disappear once the record owner edits the case.

Exporting Information on Records

Primero allows users to export information about records in a number of formats. Users can export information from the View Record or Record List pages. In order to print information, you must use the export option which will download to your device.

Format

Description

Fields Included

Excel

Exports to a standard .xls file. Each form gets its own tab in the file.

All fields to which the user’s role has access.

CSV

Exports to a standard CSV file. Note: if there is a language being used and it does not use Latin characters (e.g. Arabic, Kurdish, Thai) then you will need to convert the file to UTF-8 format. Follow instructions found here: https://community.primero.org/t/export-csv-does-not-format-data/471 

All fields to which the user’s role has access.

PDF

PDF file which displays data as it appears in Primero. Not available from the list view. Does not support encryption.

Fields on all forms specified by the user, to which the user's role has access.

Duplicate

The duplicates are identified if a “national ID” type of field has the same values. Note: the search can be configured to not be duplicate based on National ID but another ID such as a household number, etc.

National ID No, Child Name, ProGres ID (UNHCR Number), Age, Family Size, Case ID. Note: The duplicate report presents these other data points for validation, but the report does not compare these data points.

Custom

(Only for managers)

Excel file containing all the fields specified by the user.

All fields specified by the user, to which the user’s role has access.

To export one or more records, in the Actions menu, click Export. A modal will appear. You will see a dropdown labelled "Type of export." Click into this dropdown and select an export format.

Depending on the format you choose, you may then be able to select forms and fields to export, specify a file name, and choose a password to encrypt your export file.

PDF Exports

If you choose a PDF export, you can also add in a header, logo or signature to appear on the PDF. Your administrator will be able to change the type of headers that you see and these headers will appear at the top of the PDF export:

For instance, if PDF Header 1 is selected it will appear at the top of the PDF. You can create a title of the PDF which will appear under the header:

You can also make a custom header by entering the text of the header you want to appear at the top of the PDF:

You can also include signature lines for the case worker, client or recipient which will appear at the bottom of the PDF export:

Once selected this will appear at the bottom of the PDF:

Custom Exports

If you are a manager, you will be able to generate a custom export. Select Custom as your export type, you will see the below fields appear in the Export modal.

There two formats for the Custom export are:

If you select "Form" as your format, a checkbox appears with the label "Would you like to choose individual fields for a form?"

Duplicate Exports

The duplicates are identified if a “national ID” type of field has the same values. Once the export is generated, the export will list: National ID No, Child Name, ProGres ID (UNHCR Number), Age, Family Size, Case ID. The duplicate report presents these other data points for validation, but the report does not compare these data points.

Note: the search can be configured to not be duplicate based on National ID but another ID such as a household number, etc.

Downloading Exports

To create the export file, click Export. A notification will appear with a link to the Exports page. Click on this.

You will now arrive at the Exports page. You can always access the Exports page by clicking the Exports link in the Navigation Menu. Here you will see a list of all of the exports you have created. When Primero is still loading an export, you will see a "loading circle" spinning next to it. If an export is ready to download, you will see a "download" icon next to it. Click on an export in the list to download the file.

NOTE: PDF exports do not appear on the Exports page. Instead, these download automatically once you submit your export.

Services

Case workers can plan, document, and refer for services using the Services form.

Services Form

To add a service to a Case, go to the Services form, and click the "Add" button. A modal will appear. configuration. 

The first two fields on the subform provide information about the type of service you are providing, and in which part of the case management workflow it belongs.

Setting a Due Date - Each service has a due date, which will appear on your service's Task in the Tasks list page. The below two fields will set the service's due date:

Referral information (internal) - If another user in Primero will be providing this service, fill out the below fields to start the process of referring your Case to that user.

Referral information (external) - If an individual or organization who does not use Primero will be providing the service, fill out the below fields.

Marking a service as implemented - The two fields below indicate whether and when the service was implemented.

Referring from Services Form

Once you have saved the case with this new service, go to the Services form and the service you just added. A Refer button will appear on your service if:

Note that, if you have already referred a service, the Refer button will allow you to refer the service a second time, and will read Refer Again.

Click on the Refer button, and a modal will appear. Note that the information you have already entered about the Type of Service, Implementing Agency, Service delivery location and Service Provider Name are already filled in for you. Remember to ensure that your case has provided consent for the referral.

If you selected the Is this a referral to an external system / user? checkbox, the values you entered for Service Provider, Service Provider, and Service Location will appear in the referral modal.

Notification Emails

Users may receive notification emails that either welcome them to the application, or alert them to changes to their cases. The following users will receive emails in the following circumstances:

Welcome emails will look something like the below message. If the new user clicks the "Primero" link in the message, they will be sent to the system login screen. Once again, users will only receive welcome emails if the system has been configured to send them, and if the user in question has been set up to receive them.

For more information on how turn welcome and notification emails on or off in the system's configuration, please see the Primero Administration and Configuration Guide.

Tracing Requests

Tracing Requests

If your user is configured for tracing activities, you should have access to Tracing Requests, and you should see the "Tracing Requests" link in the navigation bar at all times.

If you click on this link, you will see a list of all the tracing requests you have access to. Click "New" to begin tracing.

First, you will fill out the "Inquirer" form. This contains information on the parent or guardian who has initiated tracing. Primero will use much of the information in this form to search against information recorded about family members in each case's "Family Details" subform entries. So, for instance, if a child's mother, named "Yasmin," is the inquirer, Primero will search for cases with a family member whose relationship to the child is recorded as "Mother", and whose name is "Yasmin."

Next, you will fill out information on the child by filling out a subform entry in the "Tracing Request" form. Primero will use the information here to search for cases with similar attributes. So, for instance, if the father mentioned above is looking for a daughter named "Nadia," who is 15 years old, Primero will search for cases with the name "Nadia" and an age of 15.

Matches

Once you have saved the tracing request and you are in Edit mode, you can click on “Nadia” and will see a "Find Match" link at the top of your "Tracing Request" slider.

If you click on this link, you arrive at a page which displays a number of cases which are potential matches for your tracing request. This list will contain the case's ID, the record owner's user name, the record owner's agency, the approximate likelihood of the case being the right match (either "Possible" or "Likely"), and (depending on your user's configured permissions) a link which displays the View Details modal (See "Viewing Record Details" section above).

The records provided as potential matches are based a scoring system that weight many attributes as detailed in the scoring section below.

Scoring

Primero gives potential matches a score based on how similar they are to the tracing request compared to other potential matches Primero has found. This means that, if scoring were done on a 1-10 scale, the lowest potential match in a list would get a score of 1, the highest would get a 10, and the median match would get a 5. A high scoring match Primero will record as "Likely" and a medium-to-low scoring match, Primero will record as "Possible."

When looking at the potential matches for your tracing request, you can see which case attributes matched your tracing request by clicking on the score label (Likely or Possible). This will reveal a modal which compares a number of case attributes side-by-side with the attributes you gave your tracing request. Attributes which are the same get a '✔', attributes which are different get a red 'X', and attributes which were left blank on both the case and the tracing request get a '-'.

Linking Tracing Requests with Cases

Once you have identified a match which you think is the correct one, you can link this case to your tracing request, provided your user is configured to be able to see the case record in its entirety. At the top of the page, you should see a button that says "Match."

Click on this button to link the case to your tracing request. You should then see a notification at the top of the screen, indicating that your match succeeded.

Now, if you return to your tracing request's list of matches by hitting the back button, you will see that the entry for the case you just linked to your tracing request now has the label “Has Match”.

Similarly, when the user responsible for the case goes to the case's "Tracing and Separation Details" form, they will see a label marked "Matched tracing request," and to the right of this, a link to the tracing request which you created.

At this stage in the tracing process, the user who initiated the tracing request would manually contact the user and/or agency responsible for the case to initiate the verification and reunification process.

Initiating Tracing From a Case

Depending on the system's configuration, some users may also be able to search for matching tracing requests from the View Case page. A case must have indicated consent for tracing in order for a user to have access to this feature. This field will be found on the Consent / Data Confidentiality form.

Once you indicate that the child has given consent to share information for tracing and save the case, you should see a button marked FIND MATCH at the top of the Summary page, under the Tracing form group.

If you click on this button, you will arrive at a list of potentially matching tracing requests for your case.

Registry

The registry feature is a type of complex lookup where users are able to search for a specific option which has multiple attributes linked to it.

For example, a look up of foster care providers could be “Hussein Nabulsi, Rania Hussein, Rabab and Hafar al-Tal, Raed and Nadia Osmani, Zahra and Muhammed Shatnawi, Nasim and Yasmin Nassir, Hussam and Zara Ashrafi”.

Each foster care provider is located in different parts of the city and has their own address and ID number. For example, “Hussein Nabulsi” is in 92 Sharia al-Qahira, Erbil, Iraq and has an ID number wya-2489192.

The registry tool allows programmes to manage lookups, such as the foster care providers who have various fields that further define the providers, linked together. This also allows users to search for a specific lookup.

In order to add a foster care provider, you will find the foster care subform:

Select “Add New” and a slider will appear where you can search for the foster care provider you would like to add:

You will be prompted to select the variable you want to search by. You will then fill your search query. Current location will also appear and you can search by location. The search will return results linked to the names entered:

When you click search, you should see some results appear. Click the one you want. In this case, if the user selects “Hussein Nabulsi” they will be able to see additional details about Hussein:

Click “Select” if this is the option you would like to select. Once selected, the case is now linked to the foster care provider:

If you want to deselect the provider and start over, click the foster care provider, then click the “Deselect” button.

Registry features work offline if you select the registry records and “mark for offline”:

The registry feature is configurable to store any amount of information. This feature can be useful for national registries, family case management, alternative care providers, non-primero service providers and non-service provider organizations. It is currently not linked to reports or exports.

Families

The families feature is a way to link family members within the system and update their information across case records in a centralized way. On the navigation, you can now see “Families” records.

Families can be created, viewed in a list, updated, exported, marked for offline, and searched for. In order to create a Family record, users can create from the Case or the Families. Users can create a case record for a sibling from a Child’s Case record, and can also create a case for a sibling from the Families record. These can be linked and unlinked as necessary using the instructions below. Family information is captured under the “Family Details” form within a Case record.

Creating a Case for a child’s sibling

Create a Case and add an entry representing a sibling in the “Family Details” subform. Save the Case. Now, in the Family Details subform, click into the sibling’s subform entry. Note that you can create a Case for the sibling.

Once you do this, the following will happen:

Viewing information for a child’s Family Record

In the form navigation menu, click into the form group “Registration,” then click into the form called “Family Record.” You will see that a row appears for the new family which was created when you created the Case for your child’s sibling.

Click into the row, and a slider will appear. Click the “Family ID” link to go to the Family Record.

Viewing all a Family’s Family Members

Once you click into the Family, take a look at the Family Members form. Notice how there are already two entries for the two Cases you created. Click into each Family Member. Note that each one has a link to that Family Member’s Case.

Updating information on the Family, adding Family Members

You can edit a Family Record the same way you would edit a Case.

Create a Case for a Family Member

Edit the Family Record and go into the Family Members form. Add a new Family Member subform entry to represent another member of the family. Fill out all the fields, then save the Family Record. Now, click into the Family Member you just added, you will notice that there is a “Create Case” button.

Click this, then click “Create” in the confirmation modal. Primero will now create a Case for this family member.

Some fields are copied over from the Case to the Family on creation, but are not synced between Family and Case records. This includes:

If an update is made on a Family record for the following fields, they will appear in all linked Family records and will be tracked in the change log:

Reports

Reports allow users to see a high-level, aggregate view of data, helping them to understand trends and coming challenges in their work. Administrators will be able to navigate to the Reports section of the application and view existing reports but not edit them or create new ones, while managers will have the ability to view, create, and edit reports.

Creating a Report

To create a report, first click on Reports in the Navigation Menu. You will see that there are already a number of pre-built reports which you can view at any time. To start your own, click the NEW button at the top of the screen. Complete all of the fields as detailed below, and then click SAVE to generate and view your report.

Name and Description: Type in a title for the report, so you can find it on the Reports List later.

Module and Record Type: Specify the module and type of records you want to draw the records from for your report. Below, we have chosen the Child Protection module, and the Case record type.

Rows and Columns: Group your data by row and by column by selecting one or multiple fields from a dropdown menu. The options in the menu depend on the type of record and module you selected above. For instance, if you selected Case records, you will only see the fields that would appear on a Case record form, as opposed to an Incident record.

It is possible to select more than one attribute per row or column, for further subdivision of data. Then the first item you choose in each field will be the outer grouping layer, with each successive item acting as a sub-categorization.

In the example below, the rows are divided by sex and the columns by marital status.

Age and Date Ranges: Select the tickboxes for age and date ranges to group these large data sets into a smaller, more manageable set of ranges. Note: you must have “Age” selected as a variable in rows or columns to be able to have the data grouped by age ranges.

The two images below exemplify the usefulness of this feature. The first image shows part of a sprawling report showing every age. The second shows the same report with age ranges enabled.

Generate a Graph: Select this tickbox to generate a bar graph of your data in addition to a table report.

Filters: Put filters on the records you are using to eliminate irrelevant data. The two default filters are set to ensure that reports include only "Open" and "Valid" records. You can create a filter on any field, as well as specify which values are acceptable for records being included into the report.

Reporting Do’s and Don’ts:

We have built helpful reporting functionality to be flexible for your programming and to enable administrators and coordinators to be able to see aggregate, anonymized data in a safe manner rather than exporting the data from the case lists themselves. Below is guidance to consider when you are making reports.

Viewing a Report

If you click SAVE on your report, and it saves successfully, you will arrive at the view page for your report. If you did not select the "Generate a graph" tickbox, you will see a data table representing your report. If you specified that your report should generate a graph, you will see the graph followed by the table report.

Note that the columns of your report contain a “Total” column, which shows the aggregate for each row. The numbers in each of your columns may not add up to the number in your total column, since many fields will go undefined by the workers doing registration. For instance, in the example above, there were a total of 30 female cases, but only 5 in which the marital status field was filled out.

If you wish to view only the cases that contain relevant data, you can select EDIT to go back into the case. Then, create a new report filter and select the "Is not blank?" tick box. Once saved again, the report generated with this criteria has a Total column that only calculates based on the completed fields.

Note: “Incomplete Data” field values show the number of cases where the field is not filled out on the case.

Insights

Insights allow users to see a high-level, aggregate view of data, helping them to understand trends and coming challenges in their work. All users will be able to navigate to the Insights section of the application and view existing insights but not edit them or create new ones as the insights are based on pre-defined variables. Users will be able to filter by date, status, and other reportable fields. This feature is currently enabled for the TSFV instance of Primero where the insights are specific to incidents. CPIMS+ specific insights are currently under development.

Audit Logs

Some administrative users and team managers may have access to the Audit Logs. To access this feature, click the Settings link in the Navigation Menu. Once you are in Settings, click "Audit Logs" in the Settings Navigation Menu.

The Audit Logs page shows you a list of all actions which users have committed in the system. Each row represents a different action, including the username of the user, the type of action, the type (and sometimes the ID) of the record on which the action was performed, and the date and time of the action. Using the filters menu to the right of the list, you can limit which audit log entries are displayed. You can filter by date and time or username. To apply a set of filters, click "Apply," and to clear out all filters, click "Clear."

NOTE: The Audit Logs do not contain identifiable information from records. For instance, an audit log entry might tell you that the user "john-case-worker" edited a case with the ID "abcd123" at 10:15 on October 1, 2020. However, it will not tell you what specific information was added to the case.

Below is an explanation of the various audit log messages you may see in Primero.

Message

What does it mean?

Login User

User has logged in

You will also see “Viewing User”, “List Form”, “List Permission”, “List all Alert”, “Listing Records Lookup”, “Listing Records settings” and these are automatic

List: Dashboard

User has viewed the dashboard

List: Form

User has logged in or refreshed the screen and is able to see forms within the system

List: Permission

User has logged in or refreshed the screen and is able to see their own permissions within the system

List: Report

User has viewed the list of reports

List: Role

 User has viewed the list of roles

List: User group

User has viewed the list of user groups

Show: Viewing Child

User has viewed an individual child record

Show: Viewing Report

User has viewed a report

Show: Viewing User

User has viewed a user profile

Show alerts: View alerts for Child

This is automatic when a user views a case and system displays yellow alerts on the case

Refer to: search for referral recipient User

User is making a referral to another user who can receive referrals for a specific service or agency

Index: Listing Records [missing "en.logger.resources.flag" translation]

User is viewing the flagged cases dashboard

Index: Listing Records Agency

User has viewed the agency list

Index: Listing Records Audit log

 User has viewed the audit log

Index: Listing Records Bulk export

 User has viewed the exports list

Index: Listing Records Child

 User has viewed the case list

Index: Listing Records Lookup

User has logged in or refreshed the screen and is able to see lookups within the forms within the system

Index: Listing Records Primero configuration

 User has viewed the configurations in the settings

Index: Listing Records System settings

This is automatic when a user logs in

Index: Listing Records User

 User has viewed the “users” under the settings

Bulk index: List all Alert

This is automatic when system displays yellow alerts on all records that the user has access to

Create: Create child

User has created a new record

Update: Updating child

User has edited a case record

Enable disable record: Enable / disable Child

User has disabled a case

primero_configuration

User has promoted the configuration

code_of_conduct

User has updated the code of conduct

task

User has created a task

If “Performed by” and “Record Owner” appear blank, with Login User as one of the messages (as shown in the image below), this is a failed login where a user attempted to log in but was not able to successfully log into the system.

[1] Disabling a case equivalent to deleting a case in the sense that it will no longer be visible for the case worker but remains in Primero for recording purposes.

[2] Disabling a case equivalent to deleting a case in the sense that it will no longer be visible for the case worker but remains in Primero for recording purposes.