Requestor flow control — the tenant default active-request limit, hold reason, activation policy, and stale-hold threshold

Last updated: July 12, 2026 by Steve

Requestor Flow Control

Flow control is AccessPoint's intake-governance setting. It caps how many requests a single requestor may have active at once and automatically holds the rest, so a burst of filings from one person or organization doesn't swamp your office. This panel sets the tenant defaults; individual contacts and institutions can override them on their own records.

Requestor flow control settings (screenshot placeholder — capture: the Flow control panel showing the default active-request limit, hold reason, activation policy, and stale-hold days)

Where to Find It

Open Settings from the app toolbar and choose Flow control in the Requesters group.

Settings Reference

Setting What it does
Default active-request limit The number of simultaneously active requests allowed per requestor before new ones are held. Contacts and institutions set to Inherit use this value.
Hold reason The clock-pause extension reason applied to a request held over the cap — the legal basis that justifies pausing the request clock while it waits.
Activation policy How held requests are released: Immediate auto-activates the next held request when a slot frees up; Manual leaves a coordinator to release them from the Intake queue.
Stale-hold days The threshold after which a request that has waited too long on hold is flagged stale — the Intake queue shows a stale badge with the days-held count.

How Contacts and Institutions Use the Default

On a contact or institution, the Limit mode is a tri-state: Inherit (use this tenant default), Custom (set an explicit number, with its own hold reason and activation policy), or None (no cap). A request must clear both the contact's cap and the institution's cap before it activates.

How the Intake Queue Uses It

Requests held by a limit collect in the Intake queue tab of the Requestors workspace, grouped by requestor with capacity used vs. limit. Each held request shows an Auto/Manual badge (whether it will self-activate, per the activation policy) and a stale badge once it passes the stale-hold threshold. Coordinators can reorder a requestor's queue, activate a single request, or Activate to limit to fill all free slots at once. Every release is audited, moving the request from On Hold to Active.

Behavioral Effects

  • Immediate policy: freeing a slot (a request closes or the limit is raised) auto-activates the next held request in rank order.
  • Raising a limit on save auto-releases any held requests that now fit, and a confirmation message reports how many were released.
  • The hold reason must be a valid clock-pause extension reason — this is what gives the pause its legal basis on the request timeline.

Tips

  • Set the default conservatively; use per-contact Custom limits for the small number of high-volume requestors who need a different cap.
  • Choose Manual activation if you want a coordinator to review priority before a held request goes live; choose Immediate to keep the queue self-draining.