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This article will discuss the process of creating an External Inbound referral that is associated with an existing Case in Collaborate.


An External Inbound referral is a referral that is coming into your center from an external individual or organization.


To create an External Inbound Referral that is associated with an existing case, start on the case profile of the case, and then click “Create a Referral” under Case Actions.


On the next screen, select the Referral Method of “External Inbound”.


Then, select the appropriate Referral Type from the drop down.


Once you have selected the Referral Type, you must enter either a Sending Organization, or Sending Contact. You may also enter both, if you have that information. The Sending Organization and Sending Contact fields record where the External Inbound Referral is coming from.


Then, you will be able to select a “Next Status” for the Referral.

Setting the Next Status to  “Accepted” indicates that your center is accepting the referral. Choosing this option will prompt you to enter a Receiving Contact, who is the individual that received the Referral.

Set the Next Status to “Declined” when you want to have a record of the Referral, but your center is not accepting the Referral. Choosing this option will prompt you to enter a Receiving Contact, who is the individual that received the Referral.

Set the Next Status to “Incomplete” when the Referral needs more information before it can be considered as complete. Choosing this option will create the referral in an “Incomplete” status, allowing yourself or another individual to come back and add any additional information that may be needed to the referral.


Setting the Next Status to “Submitted” will give you the option of placing the Referral into the Referral Queue, where it can be Reviewed and Updated as needed at a later time. Alternatively, you can choose not to place the referral into the Queue.

Setting the Next Status to “Under Review '' will also give you the option of placing the Referral into the Referral Queue, where it can be Reviewed and Updated as needed at a later time. If you are not seeing the option to place the referral into the Referral Queue, then that means that your Site does not have the Referral Queue enabled.


For more information regarding the Referral Queue, please read the article in this series titled Referral Queue


After you have set the Next status and filled out any fields that are related to the Status you have selected, click “Create Referral”.

The Referral will now be created, and can be found in the Inbound Referrals listview on the Case’s case profile page.

To review an existing Referral on a case, click the View link next to the desired Referral in the Inbound Referral listview.

From this page, you may perform various Actions on the Referral, depending on the Status of the Referral.

If the Status of the Referral is Accepted or Declined, you will be able to Edit and make any desired changes to the Referral and you may also “Unlink” the referral, which results in the referral becoming a Standalone referral, that is not associated with a case. To perform these actions, click either “Edit this Referral” or “Unlink this Referral” in the Referral Actions section in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

If the Status of the Referral is Incomplete, you will be able to Edit the referral, as well as Invalidate the referral. Invalidating the Referral sets the status of the referral to Invalid, which indicates that the referral may have been entered in error, or it simply is not a valid Referral. To perform these actions, click either “Edit this Referral” or “Invalidate this Referral” in the Referral Actions section in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

If the Status of the Referral is Submitted or Under Review, there will be a few more actions available to you. You will still be able to Edit the Referral and Invalidate the Referral. In addition, you will have the option to Accept the Referral, Review and Accept the Referral, Decline the Referral, and Mark the Referral as Under Review. To perform any of the additional actions, click the desired link matching the action you would like to perform.

You may also add any Documents and/or Notes to the Referral here as well by clicking “Add a Referral Document” or “Add a Referral Note”, respectively, in the Referral Actions in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Referral Module Series