Set a deadline and follow-up for a report

A deadline records the relevant processing date of a report; a follow-up makes sure the case reappears on your desk in good time. You set both directly in the quick access area of the report.

The Whistleblower Protection Act requires an acknowledgement of receipt within seven days and feedback within three months – the deadline and the follow-up make these dates visible to everyone involved.

Prerequisites

• You have permission to edit the report (edit permission).
• You are on the report’s detail page.

Set a deadline

1. Open the report’s detail page.
2. In the quick access area, click the menu icon next to the “Deadline” entry. The “Deadline” side panel opens.
3. In the “Deadline” field, choose a date.
4. Click “Save”, or click “Cancel” to close without changes.

Schedule a follow-up

1. In the quick access area, click the menu icon next to the “Follow-up” entry. The “Follow-up” side panel opens.
2. In the “Follow-up” field, choose a date. Only dates from today onwards can be selected.
3. Click “Save”, or click “Cancel” to close without changes.

How this differs from automatic deadline setting

The dates described above apply only to the one report you have open. This is different from the organisation-wide default “Automatic deadline setting”, which you maintain as an administrator on the detail page of an organisation in the “Incoming reports” tab:

• On the “Incoming reports” tab, in the “Incoming reports” section, click “Edit” and use the “Automatic deadline setting” field to define whether – and after what period – a deadline is set automatically for new reports. Confirm with “Save”.
• Automatic deadline setting only applies to new reports of that organisation. You continue to handle existing cases individually via the “Deadline” side panel.
• A follow-up is never assigned automatically – it is always a deliberate decision by the case handler.

What happens next

• The change is recorded as an entry in the report’s “Activities and Messages” tab, for example Follow-up changed from 'No follow-up' to '25.09.2025'.
• The deadline and the follow-up date then appear in the quick access area of the report.

From practice: set the deadline to the statutory feedback date and deliberately place the follow-up before it – that leaves time to prepare the response to the whistleblower instead of improvising it on the day the deadline expires.