MerusCase users who have previously used other case management systems (we call them "legacy systems" here) are often used to entering and retrieving case information in a certain way. These legacy systems usually have a per-case overview like MerusCase, but accessing information across multiple cases often requires one-off queries and reports, such as an "contacts by type" report or an "open cases by attorney" report. Since these text file and spreadsheet reports are generated once, even a single change in case information means the report is out-of-date and has to be run again.

The ability to assign tasks and create events for a wide range of activities can go a long way to managing your workflow in Merus, but there are times that, without automation, the same task would need to be entered repeatedly by hand. The workflow automation tool allows you to set up automatically generated tasks and events tied to activity tags. Each time a tag is used in a given case, the workflow automation tool can spawn a series of items tied to that case, and assigned to the appropriate staff.

One way to implement an automated workflow in Merus is to create a series of tasks and events that are automatically generated every time a new case file is opened. Every case which gets created in Merus is assigned an activity indicating when the case file was opened, and that activity is tagged Case Created. Actions can be set in your firm's workflow settings to assign a task to have the attorney handling the case to prepare for an upcoming deposition, or to prompt a specific staff member to schedule a medical appointment.