---
schema_version: "1"
id: cb4429f3ea016b73e72b72749b51295e1d89bd684f4db029190383930dee2738
title: Cases and Incidents
collection: admin
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/service/264-0-0/incident_mgmt_case_vs_incident.md
canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.incident_mgmt_case_vs_incident.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5
source_site: help.salesforce.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: cf77011bbd6d703cea09c7f138e8ff46bf7cb2317cc01aa37470276784d6a14e
description: Learn how cases and incidents help your service teams resolve customer issues of different scale.
products:
  - Service Cloud
release: "264"
---
# Cases and Incidents

Learn how cases and incidents help your service teams resolve customer issues of different scale.

### Required Editions

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small edition"><colgroup><col></colgroup><tbody><tr class=""><td class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;"><a href="https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=service.service_editions_reference.htm&amp;language=en_US" target="_blank">View supported editions</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>

![Many customers request support, customer service reps resolve individual cases, many cases add up to an incident](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support-264-0-0-production-enus/dd14551c-a772-4db6-9a1d-d84df8df2980/support/images/incident_management/incident_mgmt_incidents_and_cases.png)

## How Do Cases and Incidents Differ?

<table class="slds-table slds-table_bordered slds-max-medium-table_stacked slds-m-bottom_small ">
        <colgroup>
          <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
          <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
          <col style="width:33.33333333333333%">
        </colgroup>
        <thead class="slds-text-title_caps ">
          <tr class="">
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d175080e77">&nbsp;</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d175080e79">Case</th>
            <th scope="col" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" id="d175080e82">Incident</th>
          </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Definition</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">A case is one-off customer feedback or a question such as an order delay or
              escalation that a customer service rep handles.</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">An incident is a disruption that involves many customers. Incidents often begin as an
              influx of cases related to widespread disruption. Incidents are best used to resolve
              customer issues that require teams to collaborate.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Handled By</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">Customer Service Rep</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Customer Service Rep and Service Operations</li>

                <li>Incident Managers</li>

                <li>IT Support</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Key Difference</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">Cases are resolved by customer service reps through one-on-one customer
              interactions.</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">Incidents are multi-customer issues resolved through cross-team collaboration.
            </td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Relationship</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">Many cases to one incident</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">One incident to many cases</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Life Cycle</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">Use a case to track a customer issue, from request to resolution.</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">Use an incident for a service disruption. To diagnose an issue and resolve it, use
              problems and change requests.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Creation Flow</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">A customer or support rep creates a case via email, chat, or phone.</td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">An support rep or monitoring system creates an incident directly or from a
              case.</td>

          </tr>
          <tr class="">
            <td data-label="" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e77 ">Common Features</td>

            <td data-label="Case" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e79 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Knowledge Management</li>

                <li>SLA Management</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

            <td data-label="Incident" class="slds-cell-wrap" style="vertical-align:top;" headers="d175080e82 ">
              <ul>
                <li>Knowledge Management</li>

                <li>SLA Management</li>

              </ul>
            </td>

          </tr>
        </tbody>
      </table>

## Case Workflow

![Custom requests support, customer service rep creates a case, reviews the case, and resolves it](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support-264-0-0-production-enus/dd14551c-a772-4db6-9a1d-d84df8df2980/support/images/incident_management/incident_mgmt_case_workflow.png)

## Incident Workflow

![Many cases come in. Incident manager identifies similar cases. Incident manager creates incident. DevOps diagnoses and creates problem. DevOps identifies root cause. DevOps creates change request. DevOps resolves issue. Incident Manager informs customers.](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-service-support-264-0-0-production-enus/dd14551c-a772-4db6-9a1d-d84df8df2980/support/images/incident_management/incident_mgmt_incident_workflow.png)