Escalation is the case lifecycle's alarm: it moves the case into the Escalated status, sets a permanent escalated marker, and optionally puts the case in stronger hands — all in one action, all on the record. Cases also escalate without anyone clicking: an SLA breach marks the case escalated automatically. This page covers running the action, what it changes, and what to expect afterwards.
Prerequisites
- Permission to run the Escalate action on cases (granted through your security profile).
- A status that may move to Escalated under your tenant's transition rules — the platform imposes no gate of its own, but transition legality is governed by admin-editable business rules, so a tenant can restrict which statuses escalate.
- If you intend to hand the case over as part of escalating: know who should receive it.
Procedure
Escalation begins with a trustworthy saved case. Before handing work to a new owner or restoring an active SLA clock, make sure the customer, classification, priority, severity and supporting details describe the situation the receiving team will actually inherit.
Step 1 — Confirm escalation is the right move
Escalate when the case needs attention its current handling can't give it — a stalled resolution, a severity discovered mid-work, a customer commitment at risk. If the problem is merely that the case sits with the wrong person, a routing transfer or reassignment is the lighter tool; see Queues and omni-channel routing.
Step 2 — Run Escalate
Open the case and run the Escalate action. Optionally choose a user to reassign the case to as part of the escalation — the case's Assigned To moves to them in the same step. Leaving it empty escalates in place, keeping the current handler.
Step 3 — Verify what changed
On save the case shows the full effect:
- Status is Escalated, and the status change is recorded on the timeline.
- The escalated flag is set. This marker is permanent — it records that the case escalated at some point, and it stays set even after the case moves on to Resolved or Closed, so reporting on escalated cases stays honest.
- If you chose a new assignee, Assigned To now names them, and the assignment is on the timeline.
- The SLA clock runs. Escalated is an active status: if the clock was paused by a waiting status (On Hold, Waiting on Customer, Waiting on Third Party), escalating resumes it. An escalated case is being worked, so its promises count again.
Escalation itself does not change the SLA deadlines — the milestones and due dates continue as computed. What escalation changes is state and attention, and it gives your administrator's automations something to react to: business rules can key off the escalated flag or the SLA status to notify, re-route or enforce whatever your escalation process demands.
Step 4 — Work it to resolution
An escalated case leaves the state the normal way: move it forward to In Progress, Resolved or Closed as work completes — with the resolution summary or close reason those statuses require. The escalated flag remains as history.
Expected result
The case is in Escalated status, its permanent escalated marker is set, and the timeline contains a traceable status event. If an assignee was selected, the same record now names that person without losing the account, contact, classification, priority, severity or evidence that explains the hand-off. The SLA clock is active unless another valid lifecycle rule pauses it, while the existing milestone deadlines remain unchanged. The receiving owner should be able to understand the risk, next action and customer commitment from the case alone; later resolution or closure changes the current status but deliberately preserves the escalated marker for reporting.
Common problems
- The move to Escalated is blocked. A status-transition business rule in your tenant forbids escalating from the case's current status. Ask your administrator which rule fired — the restriction is tenant-authored, not platform-fixed.
- The case shows escalated but nobody escalated it. An SLA milestone breached: a breach automatically marks the case escalated (the flag — the status is left as it was) so breached cases surface in escalation views without human vigilance. Read the case's SLA events for the breach entry.
- Escalated shows on a case that has long been closed. Expected — the flag is a permanent marker of the case's history, not its current state. The status tells you where the case is now.
Common questions
Does escalating change who owns the case?
Only if you choose an assignee while escalating — then Assigned To moves to them. The record owner is untouched by the action itself; ownership transfers happen through routing acceptance or explicit reassignment.
Can escalation be automated?
Two mechanisms exist out of the box: SLA breaches set the escalated flag automatically, and business rules can call the Escalate action or react to the flag with notifications and further changes. A macro can also escalate via its call-server-action step, bundling the escalation with the note and status work around it.
What is the difference between the Escalated status and the escalated flag?
The status is where the case is — it changes again as work proceeds. The flag is what happened — once set, it stays, marking the case for reporting even after resolution. The Escalate action sets both; an SLA breach sets only the flag.