Handling a requester reply after closure

A requester can still write to you after a request is closed or denied, and often does. Their reply lands on the original request. You then have a choice: answer it where it sits, reopen the request, or start a new one.

What you can do

You can reply. The reply composer stays available on a closed or denied request, with everything it normally has: attachments, canned responses, package delivery and the email toggle. Replying does not change the status.

You can reopen it. The status field stays editable on a closed request, and your agency's transitions decide which statuses are offered. A requester's reply can also reopen a request on its own, depending on how your agency has configured it.

You can raise a new request. Sometimes that is the honest answer, because what they are asking for is not what the original covered.

How to handle one

1. Open the request from Requests. The reply sits at the bottom of the thread.
2. Read what they are actually asking for. There are three common cases, below.
3. Reply on the original request if you are explaining the outcome.
4. Reopen it, or raise a new request, if there is fresh work to do.
5. Record in an internal note which route you took and why.

The three cases

They want an explanation. Answer on the original request and leave the status alone. The conversation belongs with the decision it concerns, and no new work is being done.

They are asking for the records again, or asking for more. There is real work here, so the request needs a live deadline. Reopen it if the ask is the same records revisited. Raise a new request if the ask has genuinely changed, and reference the original in the description so the connection is on the record.

They are challenging the outcome. Answer on the original request, and follow whatever appeal route your statute provides. That process sits outside Govflo, but your reply and your note are part of the record it will draw on.

What reopening does to the clock

Reopening does not revive the original deadline. That one was met, and the record of meeting it stands.

Instead the resolution clock takes a fresh date from your agency's reopen window, set under Settings, then Workflows, then SLA Policies, and counted in business days. You can change that date on the request afterwards if the work genuinely needs longer.

Reopening is visible, so make it explainable

Every status change is written to the activity log with your name against it. A close followed by a reopen is a legible sequence, and it reads perfectly well when the reason is on the record.

What reads badly is a request that was closed, reopened and closed again with nothing explaining why. Put the reason in an internal note at the time, because it is the message most likely to be produced later if the handling of the request is challenged.