An Area groups processes. That is all it does, and this chapter is short because of it. Do it once here, properly, and you will never have to think about Areas again.
Create one
- Open Areas in the left menu.
- Click New area, top right.
- You are in a three-step wizard.
Step 1 — Details
| Field | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | What appears in lists, cards and pickers. The only field the form insists on. |
| Status | No | Active or Inactive. Leave it Active. |
| Description | No | One line, shown under the name. Write it for a colleague who joins in six months and does not know what belongs in here. |
Type Claims as the name, and for the description something like Motor, property and liability claims,
from first notice to settlement.
The Next button stays disabled until the name has something in it. That is the only validation on this step.
Step 2 — Visual identity
Two fields, and one of them is not what it looks like.
| Field | Required | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Icon | No | The picture on the card — and the Area's classification. Read the next section before choosing. |
| Accent colour | No | The card's highlight colour. Purely decorative. |
Choose the gear icon (settings).
Step 3 — Review
No fields. It shows what will be saved. Click Create area.
You land on the new Area's page, with its address in the browser bar.
The thing nobody guesses: the icon sets the Type
Back on the Areas list there is a column called TYPE, showing words like Operations, Finance, Compliance. It looks like a field you forgot to fill in. It is not a field at all — it is derived from the icon you picked.
| Icon | Type shown |
|---|---|
| Bank | Finance |
| Tree | Process |
| Document | Document |
| Check | Review |
| Gavel | Legal |
| People | People |
| Quote | Commercial |
| Gear | Operations |
| Cart | Purchasing |
| Shield | Compliance |
| anything else, or none | Area |
So an Area created without touching the icon shows as Area, which tells a reader nothing. If you want your claims department to read as Operations, the way to do it is to pick the gear — there is no other control.
This is the single most common "where is that setting?" question about this screen, and the answer is that the setting is the icon.
Deactivating, and the delete that does not exist
The row menu (…) offers Edit, Manage processes and Deactivate.
Deactivating marks the Area Inactive. It stays in the list.
There is no delete. Not in the interface, not in the API. An Area created by mistake stays, inactive, forever. This is deliberate — an Area may have processes under it and cases under those, and a delete button next to a live case history is a bad idea — but it means the name is worth getting right the first time.
If you are experimenting, experiment with names you can live with.
Now build the six
Repeat the three steps for each row. The icon column is the one to get right, for the reason above.
| Name | Icon | Type it becomes | Description to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claims | Gear | Operations | Motor, property and liability claims, from first notice to settlement. |
| Underwriting | Check | Review | Risk assessment and pricing for new and renewed policies. |
| Policy administration | Document | Document | Endorsements, renewals, cancellations and policy documents. |
| Broker & partner management | Quote | Commercial | Appointment, due diligence and commission agreements for intermediaries. |
| Compliance & regulatory | Shield | Compliance | Regulatory filings, audits, complaints and data protection records. |
| Procurement | Cart | Purchasing | Supplier onboarding, contracts and service reviews. |
Six areas, roughly ten minutes. When you are done the list shows six rows with six different Types, and that variety is the point — a colleague scanning the list can tell an operational area from a compliance one without opening either.
What you should have now
- Six Areas, all Active.
- Each with a distinct icon and therefore a distinct Type.
- Each with a description that explains itself to a newcomer.
- Zero processes, so far. That is the next chapter, and it is the long one.
If you are automating this
DOK Genius runs on Blazor Server, which means the form only accepts input once the page's connection to the server is live. A script that types into the fields immediately after navigating does not get an error — the fields just stay empty and the step does not advance. Wait for the first interactive render and read the field value back before moving on.