Creating Requests

This guide walks you through creating a new request in AccessPoint.

Starting a New Request

1. Navigate to the Requests dashboard.
2. Click New.

Filling In Request Details

The new request form collects the essential information needed to begin processing.

Required Fields

Selecting a Request Type

The Request Type determines which jurisdiction rules, deadline calculations, and workflow settings apply to the request. Your administrator configures the available request types under Administration. Choose the type that matches the legislation or regulation under which the request was received.

New From Email (Inbox to Intake)

The New button is a split button — its dropdown offers New from email…, which turns an email sitting in a mailbox into a request without retyping:

1. Pick the mailbox: My mailbox, one of your tenant's configured intake mailboxes (set up under Settings > Organization), or Other mailbox… to find any shared mailbox by name or address. Opening a shared mailbox requires that Exchange has already granted you Full Access to it — otherwise a clear access message appears.
2. Browse to the message and choose Use this email.
3. The create-request form opens pre-filled: the subject becomes the title, the message date the received date, and the sender is matched against your requestor contacts — an exact email match links automatically; otherwise the inline "create new requestor" block opens pre-filled with the sender's name and address.
4. On create, the email is logged as the request's first inbound correspondence. It is the original request, not a responsive record, so it belongs with the correspondence rather than in the Documents workspace. The entry carries the email's facts: the method Email (when your Communication methods list has an option with the key Email, as the universal baseline pack provides; otherwise the method is left empty), the date it was received, its subject, the sender, the To and Cc recipients and its Message-ID. The original message is attached to the entry and rendered to PDF like any captured email, and the attachment is classified Correspondence, so it never goes into a response package.
5. The original is never lost. If the correspondence entry cannot be created, the email is still saved to the request's Documents, and a message says it was saved there but not logged as correspondence. If the email cannot be saved at all, a message says so and you can add it by hand.

The saved email shows Intake email as its source. Creating a case from an email is not adding records from Microsoft 365, so it is saved even when your administrator has turned that off for the register (Settings → Features). The exception is narrow: it covers only the email the request is being created from, saved by the person who created it within 30 minutes. Every other email or Microsoft 365 capture is still refused while that setting is off.

Saving and Draft Status

Choose how to save:

• Create request activates the request immediately: a request number is assigned, the statutory clock starts, and intake flow-control runs.
• Save as draft keeps the request unnumbered with the clock stopped, so you can finish intake later. While in Draft you can edit any field, including the received date, and delete the request from the … menu (Delete draft request, for people who may delete requests).

If the requestor is at their active-request limit, an activated request may land on an intake hold instead of going live; the panel tells you the requestor, their count and limit, and the queue position.

Requests That Arrive Through the Portal

Requests can also come from the public: requestors fill in the intake form on your web site and verify it with an e-mailed code, and the submission waits in the Portal inbox until someone promotes it into a request, merges it into an existing one or rejects it. A promoted request opens in this same panel, filled in from the submission. Once it is registered, the request's Origin row (Details tab, under the received date) says it Arrived through the public portal with the submission reference. See Portal Inbox.

Automatic Deadline Calculation

The due date is always calculated, never typed. Once the request is active, AccessPoint calculates the statutory deadline from:

• Jurisdiction rules configured for the selected request type
• Received date entered on the request (it cannot be in the future; once the request is active it changes only through Correct received date)
• Business day calendars that exclude weekends and statutory holidays

It then adds every extension and resumed clock pause. The request's How this date was calculated button explains each step; see Request Details.

Next Steps

After creating and saving your request, you can:

• Review and update request details on the Overview tab
• Enter requestor contact information on the Requestor tab
• Begin creating Assignments for custodians