Automatically create a case from an email

Reduce the need for manually creating cases from incoming emails and increase the efficiency of customer service agents by creating automatic case creation rules in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The conditions in these rules automatically convert emails to support cases.

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Note

For Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online organizations, this feature is available if you've applied product updates for CRM Online Spring '14, or if you've installed the CRM Online 2015 Update.

For on-premises CRM organizations, this feature is available if you've installed CRM 2013 Service Pack 1, or if you've updated to CRM 2015.
Interested in getting this feature? More information: Find your CRM administrator or support person

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Use rules to create cases automatically

Create automatic case-creation rules

1. Make sure that you have the Customer Service Manager, System Administrator, or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions.
   When a case creation rule is activated, a corresponding workflow is created automatically. If you create or assign a rule, you must have permissions to perform the same action on workflows. The case creation rule is applied and a case is created in context to the permissions that the owner of the case creation rule has.
   Check your security role
   • Follow the steps in View your user profile.
   • Don't have the correct permissions? Contact your system administrator.
2. Follow the steps for the app you're using:
   If using the Microsoft Dynamics CRM web application
   1. On the nav bar, choose Microsoft Dynamics CRM > Settings.
   2. Choose Settings > Service Management > Automatic Case Creation Rules.
   If using Microsoft Dynamics CRM for Outlook
   1. In the Navigation Pane, expand your organization, and then choose Settings > Business >Service Management.
   2. Choose Automatic Case Creation Rules.
3. To create a new case creation rule, choose New.
   -OR-
   To edit an existing rule, in the list of rules, select a rule, and then on the command bar, choose Edit.
4. Type or modify information in the fields.
   Hover over the field labels to see what to enter.
   • Name. Type the name of the queue the rule is defined for.
   • Source Type. Select Email to indicate that cases will be created automatically from email messages.
   • Queue. Select the queue that the rule applies to. For example, if you want to convert email messages and then send them to the Support queue, select that queue here.

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     Note

     You can associate only one rule per source type to a specific queue. If you're creating a rule to convert an email to a case, make sure you specify an email address for this queue. Otherwise, automatic case creation for email won't work. More information: Create or edit a queue

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5. In the Specify Conditions for Case Creation section, select the conditions for creating the case automatically. You can add multiple conditions here and arrange them in the desired order. The conditions are considered in the same order. Only one item that has conditions matching the incoming email is applied.
   Specify conditions for email to case creation
   1. Create cases for email from unknown senders. If you select this check box, all email messages from unknown senders (a sender whose email address is not present in any CRM records) are converted to cases. A contact record is also created for this unknown sender.

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      Note

      If this option is not selected, cases are created only for email messages that have a CRM contact or account as the senders. Email messages from sender that are present as other record types in CRM won't be converted to cases.

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      This option, in conjunction with the Automatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM option in the rule owner's Personal Options, determines whether a case and contact record is created (see Set personal options):
      This table shows if a contact and case record is created based on the values set for theAutomatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM field in Personal Options and theCreate cases for email from unknown senders check box in the automatic case creation rule:

      “Automatically create records in Microsoft Dynamics CRM” option is set to:	If “Create case from unknown sender” option in this rule is set to:	Contact or case created?
      Create Lead	Selected	Both, contact and case, created
      Create Lead	Not selected	None
      Create Contact	Selected	Both, contact and case, created
      Create Contact	Not selected	Only contact created
      None	Selected	Both, contact and case, created
      None	Not selected	None

   2. Create case if a valid entitlement exists for the customer. If you select this check box, Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a case only if an active entitlement exists for the customer.
      If the sender of the email is a contact with a parent account, Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a case if the contact's parent account has a valid entitlement, and the contact is listed in theContacts section of the entitlement or if the Contacts section is empty (which means the entitlement is applicable to all contacts for the customer).
   3. Create cases for activities associated with a resolved case. If you select this check box, Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a case if the email is related to a resolved case. If the email is related to an active case, a new case won't be created.
   4. Create case when the case associated with the activity is resolved since. If you select theCreate cases for activities associated with a resolved case check box, select the duration here. Microsoft Dynamics CRM creates a case only if the case is resolved earlier than the duration you specify. If the incoming email is related to a case resolved later than the specified duration, Microsoft Dynamics CRM only associates the incoming email with the existing resolved case; a new case won't be created.
   5. Under Specify Autoresponse Settings, select the Send automatic email response to customer on case creation check box if you want to automatically send email responses to the sender of the email after a case for the email is created.
      Select email template to respond to customer. If you select the Send automatic email response to customer on case creation check box, select an email template (global email template or email template of case entity type). If you don't select a template, an automatic response won't be sent.
6. Choose Save.
7. In the Specify Case Details section, define the conditions for creating a case and specify the case properties.
   By default, the Title field of the new case is set to the subject of the email and the Customer field is set to the sender of the email. If the sender of the email is a contact with a parent account, the Customer field is set to the parent account, and the Contact field is set to the sender of the email.
   Specify case details
   1. In the Specify Case Details section, choose +, and define the conditions for creating a case and specify the case properties.
   2. In the Conditions section, specify when the case should be created.
      Here's how:
      
   3. In the Case Properties section, set the properties for the case. The following example shows how to set the priority of all the automatically created cases to High:
      

Once a case is created, the incoming email is removed from the queue.

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Note

If there's no routing rule to route the newly created case to another user or queue, the user who's the owner of the case creation rule will be set as the owner of the case, too.

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Activate or deactivate the case creation rule

Cases are created automatically only when the case creation rule is active. To activate a rule, open the rule, and on the command bar, choose Activate.

Once the rule is active, you can't change it. To change a rule, open the rule and on the command bar, choose Deactivate.

Manage automatic case creation from a queue form

You can create or manage an automatic case creation rule from a queue form, too. To do this, open the queue record, and on the command bar, choose Email to Case Settings.

Applies To

CRM Online

CRM 2015 on-prem

CRM 2013 on-prem

See Also

Create rules to automatically route cases

Create or edit a queue

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