---
title: Getting Started
description: "AP Casework Manager runs the client side of a genealogy practice on your own WordPress site. Every piece of client work is an **engagement**, from the first enquiry to the day it closes, and everything about it stays in your…"
url: "https://www.ancestorpress.com/docs/cw-getting-started-guide/"
updated: "2026-10-05"
category: AncestorPress Casework Manager
---

# Getting Started

AP Casework Manager runs the client side of a genealogy practice on your own WordPress site. Every piece of client work is an **engagement**, from the first enquiry to the day it closes, and everything about it stays in your own database.

## First run

1. Install and activate from **Plugins → Add New** - search for "AP Casework Manager". It needs WordPress 6.2 or later and PHP 8.0 or later. Activation creates the plugin's own tables and gives administrators access.
2. Open **Casework → Settings** and add your practice name, logo and accent colour - they appear on every page your clients see. Check the address your notifications go to.
3. On the same screen, look at **Client files on the web** under Keeping records. If it says your server hands out casework files, follow the instructions there before you collect any uploads - see the "Client Uploads and File Security" article.
4. Add a client under **Casework → Clients**. Only a name is required.
5. Under **Casework → Engagements**, use **New engagement**: choose the client, give the work a title and, if you know it, the research question. A new engagement starts at Enquiry.
6. Open the engagement's **Intake** tab and create an intake link. Copy it straight away and send it to your client in your own email - see "The Intake Form".

## The Casework menu

- **Dashboard** - new enquiries, engagements in scoping, what needs your attention, and every engagement grouped by stage.
- **Engagements** - the list, filtered by stage, and the form for a new one. Open an engagement for its tabs.
- **Clients** - contact details, your private notes, the consent record, and the privacy tools.
- **Settings** - branding, notifications, uploads and how long records are kept.
- **Support** - the settings for the Help button. See "The Help Button".

Pro adds an **Offers** screen and, on each engagement, the tabs from the plan and quote through to delivery.

## Who can use it

Every Casework screen checks its own permission, `manage_apcwm`, which activation gives to administrators. To let a member of staff work on casework without making them an administrator of the whole site, give their role that permission with a role-editor plugin.

## The free edition and Pro

The free edition handles the start of every job: enquiries, clients, the intake form sent as a private link, secure uploads, your branding on the client pages, and the privacy tools. It has no limit on clients or engagements and nothing in it stops working after a time. Pro carries the engagement on from the intake to delivery - the plan and quote your client agrees to, their own client page, the research log, reports and GEDCOM files, family links, questions after delivery, and AI first drafts.