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.