Inbox & follow-ups·Setup5 min read

Understanding case status

The seven statuses (Needs reply, Awaiting customer, Follow-up due, On hold, Won, Lost, Archived), when they change automatically vs by hand, and how to run your inbox by status.

In this guide

The seven statuses
What changes on its own
What you change by hand
Using status to run your inbox
See also

Every conversation in your inbox carries a status. It is the single most useful signal in Yesoma: it tells you, at a glance, whose move it is and what needs your attention next. This guide explains the seven statuses, when they change on their own, and when you change them by hand.

The seven statuses

Status	What it means	Whose move
Needs reply	A new or unanswered message is waiting	Yours
Awaiting customer	You replied; the ball is in their court	Theirs
Follow-up due	They went quiet and a nudge is owed	Yours
On hold	Paused on purpose (waiting on something)	Nobody, for now
Won	Booked or paid	Done, happily
Lost	Not interested, or they ghosted	Done
Archived	Closed with no clear outcome	Done

The first three are the ones that drive your day. "Needs reply" and "Follow-up due" are your to-do list; "Awaiting customer" is everything you are correctly waiting on.

What changes on its own

You will rarely set most of these by hand, because Yesoma moves them for you:

A new inbound message (email, WhatsApp, SMS, website form, or a portal reply) puts active work in Needs reply. If the most recent Case closed less than 72 hours ago, it reopens; at 72 hours or later, Yesoma starts a new linked Case.
When you send a reply, the case flips to Awaiting customer.
When a customer has gone quiet long enough that a follow-up is due, it surfaces as Follow-up due.
When a deposit is paid through an invoice, or you mark an inquiry Won, it becomes Won.

What you change by hand

Open any case and use the Move to control to set the status yourself. The common manual moves are:

On hold when you are waiting on a supplier, a date, or the customer to gather something, and you do not want it nagging you in the meantime.
Won or Lost to record the outcome (you can also mark these from the inbox preview).
Archived to clear something that has no real outcome (spam, a wrong number, a duplicate).

Marking a case Lost or Archived does not delete it. A customer reply inside 72 hours reopens it to Needs reply; a later reply creates a new linked Case.

Using status to run your inbox

The Inbox separates Ownership (Everyone, My cases, Unassigned) from Queue (Active, Needs review, Closed), so you can combine them—for example, My cases + Closed. Use the Next-action shortcuts to narrow Active work to Needs reply or Follow-up due. Leave Awaiting customer alone: that is work you have already done.

Understanding case status

The seven statuses

What changes on its own

What you change by hand

Using status to run your inbox

See also