Using Case Notes

Notes are where the Case-level thinking lives. They are not for chatter on a single Operation — that goes in Comments — and they are not for files — those go in Evidence. Notes are short written entries that belong to the whole Case: working theories, lists of avenues to chase, summaries of where you stand, reminders for yourself or your team.

Where to find Notes

Open any Case from the dashboard and look for the Notes tab in the Case detail view. The tab shows your existing Notes in reverse chronological order, with the newest at the top. Each Note shows its title or first line, the author, and a timestamp.

Adding a Note

Click the add-Note button to open the Note modal. Give the Note a clear title and write the body. Save when you are done. The Note appears in the list immediately and is visible to other investigator-side members of the Case according to the role rules described in Case roles: Owner, Admin, Investigator, Viewer, Client.

There is no character limit you will run into in normal use, but Notes work best when each one is a single coherent thought. If you find yourself writing five paragraphs across three topics, split them into multiple Notes. Search and skim are easier when each Note has a focused subject.

Editing and removing Notes

The author of a Note can edit or remove it. Admins and Owners can also remove Notes when needed — for example, if a Note contains information that should not have been written down. As with most Case actions, edits and removals are recorded in the audit trail.

What Notes are not

• Notes are not Operations. If a Note describes work that needs to happen, create the Operation. The Note can reference it, but the work itself belongs on a real Operation. See Operation types and statuses.
• Notes are not Evidence. Pasting an external link into a Note does not preserve a file or its integrity. If you need to retain the artifact, upload it as Evidence so it gets a SHA-256 hash and an audit trail. See How Evidence upload and integrity work.
• Notes are not Client communication. Anything you want a Client to see should go through Messaging Clients, not into Notes.

Visibility

Notes are an investigator-side surface. Clients on the Case do not see Notes, regardless of any per-Operation visibility settings you may have configured. This is deliberate — Notes are where you are allowed to be unfinished, half-formed, and honest with yourself or your team.

How Notes interact with Reports

Many investigators use Notes as a holding pen for material that eventually becomes part of a Report. Capture the rough thinking in a Note, then refine it into a written deliverable in Report Writer. The Report is the polished output; the Note is where you allowed yourself to be sloppy first.

Best practices

• Title every Note with a phrase you would actually search for later.
• Date-stamp anything time-sensitive in the body — relying on the auto timestamp alone is fragile when the same Note is updated.
• Use Notes for hypotheses you have not confirmed. Move them to Evidence or to a Report once you have proof.
• Periodically prune. Old Notes that no longer reflect the Case create noise and can mislead a future reviewer.

Where Notes appear in the dashboard

Inside the Case, Notes live in their tab. Outside the Case, the Notes you have written are not surfaced on the global calendar or Kanban — those views focus on Operations. See Using the global Cases calendar and Kanban for what does appear cross-case.