Work with queues

Article
11/23/2023

Use queues to organize, prioritize, and monitor the progress of your work. In Dynamics 365 Customer Service, queues are containers used to store anything that needs to be completed or requires an action, such as completing a task or closing a case. To know more about creating and managing queues, see Create and manage queues.

The option for agents to manage their queues and items is also available in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) 9.1. More information: New features in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises)

Find the queue item

Use the view list and queue list to filter and find items in queues.

Go to Service > Queues.
Select a view, and then select a filter to see the items you want.
From the All items dropdown list, select the pin icon to pin the view that you want to appear on your dashboard.

Find all items in queues

To see all cases from a selected queue, in the view list, select All Items in Selected Queues.
In the queue list, choose one of the following options to filter cases based on queues:
- <Individual queues>
- All Queues
- All Public Queues
- Queues I'm a member of

Find cases that are available to work on

To see cases that no one else is working on, in the view list, select Cases Available to Work On.
In the queue list, choose one of the following options to filter cases based on queues:
- <Individual queues>
- All Queues
- All Public Queues
- Queues I'm a member of

Find cases that you're working on

To see only the cases that you're currently working on, in the view list, select Cases I'm Working On.
In the queue list, choose one of the following options to filter cases based on queues:
- <Individual queues>
- All Queues
- All Public Queues
- Queues I'm a member of

Find items available to work on

To see only items (activities and cases) that no one else is working on, in the view list, select Items available to work on.
In the queue list, choose one of the following options to filter cases based on queues:
- <Individual queues>
- All Queues
- All Public Queues
- Queues I'm a member of

Find items that you are working on

To see only items that you're currently working on, in the view list, select Items I am working on.
In the queue list, choose one of the following options to filter cases based on queues:
- <Individual queues>
- All Queues
- All Public Queues
- Queues I'm a member of

Pick an item to work on

Select Service.
Select Queues.
Select a view from the System Views menu.
Select the queues from the menu.
Select the checkbox next to the item title to select the item.
Select Pick from the command menu. The Pick dialog appears.
Optionally, select No to change it to Yes if you want item from the queue.
Select Pick. The item is assigned to you and removed from the queue if you had selected Yes in the previous step. Also, the following updates will happen if the item is in an advanced queue and is tracked through unified routing:
- The Worked By attribute of the queue item will be updated with your user ID. The unified routing system takes this as an indicator of work assignment. To manually add another user or team, select the lookup for the Worked By field from Queue Item details and then select the user. If the queue item is assigned to a private queue, the lookup displays only the members of that queue.
- Your capacity will be updated. If the work item indicated capacity consumed in units, the corresponding units will be reduced from your total available capacity. If capacity profile is configured for the work item, the available units of capacity in that profile for you will be deducted by one.
- Your work schedule, assignment rules, skills, presence, or capacity constraints won't be evaluated during a manual pick. For example, even if you don't have enough capacity available as requested by the work item, you'll still be able to pick the work item and start working on it. This ability to manually override pre-configured capacity is to ensure that you're able to pick up work beyond your normal capacity during contingencies. More information: Capacity profiles
- Your presence will be updated. If you have further capacity left, your presence will be set to "Busy". If you have no capacity left, your presence will be set to "Do not disturb".
Note

Remove the items from the queue can't be set for work items in an advanced queue.

Release an item or case that you’re working on

In the View list, select one of the views that show the items or cases that you’re working on.
Select the case or item that you want to release, and on the command bar select Release.

When you release an item, your name is removed from the Worked By field, and the item is no longer assigned to you; it’s assigned to the queue owner.

Route an activity or case to another queue or assign to a different user or team

Select the case that you want to move to another queue, and on the command bar, select Route.
To move an activity or case to a different queue, select Route, and select a queue.

-OR-

To assign the activity or case to another user or team to work on, select User/Team, and select the user or team. When you assign the activity or case to someone else to work on, the Worked By field is set to that user or team. You also have the option to remove the item from the queue.

After the item is released, the following updates will happen if the item is in an advanced queue and is tracked through unified routing:

Your capacity will be updated based on whether capacity profile or capacity units have been configured.
Your presence will be updated to "Busy" or "Available" based on your available capacity.

Remove a record from a queue

In the View list, select one of the views that show the items you want to remove.
Select the activity or case, and on the command bar, select Remove.

Assign an activity to a user or queue

If you want another person in your organization to work on an activity, you can assign the activity to that person or move it to another queue.

Assign to another user or team

Go to Activities.
Select the activity you want, and on the command bar, select More Commands , and then select Assign.
In the Assign to another user or team field, select Lookup, and select the user or team you want to assign the activity to.

If you don’t see the user or team you're looking for, select Lookup, and then select Look Up More Records. From the Look for dropdown list, select User or Team. In the Search box, type the name, select the search button, select the name, and then select Add.
Select Assign.

Add to a queue

Go to Activities.
Select the activity you want, and then select Add to Queue.
The Queue field displays the queue the activity belongs to. The queue lookup displays only the queues that the activity can be added to.
Select the queue you want to route the activity to, and then select Add.

Pick a view for your queues

Go to Activities.
Select the activity you want, and then select Add to Queue.
In the Queue field, select Search, and then select Advanced lookup.
On the Choose queue dialog, select the Business Queues(default) dropdown menu to see the complete list of queues views available to you.

The table lists the views with their descriptions.

View	Description
Queues Lookup View, All Queues	Lists all queues.
Business Queues	Default view. Lists all the queues that aren't marked as default queues by users or teams.
Private Queues Lookup View, Local User Queues	Lists all the private and active queues.
Entity Queues	Lists all active queues that are created for records, such as case or email.
My Active Queues	Lists active queues owned by the currently signed-in user.
Omnichannel queues	Lists the active queues pertaining to Omnichannel for Customer Service or unified routing.
Omnichannel queues for Entity	Lists the active queues pertaining to Omnichannel for Customer Service or unified routing and are created for records, such as case or email.
Omnichannel queues for messaging	Lists the active queues pertaining to Omnichannel for Customer Service or unified routing and are created for messaging (chat).
Active Queues	Lists the queues that are in the active state.
Inactive Queues	Lists the queues that are in the inactive state.
Queues: Primary Email (Pending Approval)	Lists the queues for which the primary email address is in pending approval state.

You can also select a view for your queues by navigating through Queues. You must select an item and then select Route to add the required view for your queues.