The observation listing looks like this. Observation filter is on the right hand side. An observation can have 4 different kind of status.

When creating a new observation you can select if the observation will require follow up actions. If Follow-up actions needed option is selected, assignees can be added and a deadline can be set to the observation. It will also create the observation with an open status. Otherwise if No follow-up actions needed is selected the observation will be created with no status.

Some observations always require follow-up actions. Those observations do not provide the user with this choice, it is automatically set to Follow-up actions needed.
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If a deadline is set, it later determines when the observation changes status from open to overdue. If no deadline is set, the observation will be set as open until it becomes closed, it never becomes overdue.

After submitting the observation with Follow-up actions needed, the observation is open. An observation can be closed by pressing the Mark as closed button on the bottom of the page. If there are mandatory questions in the follow-up section, these need to be answered before closing the observation.

Wether follow-up actions are needed or not can later be edited by clicking the status box in the middle of the observation page, provided that follow-up actions are not always required for this type of observation.

Selecting No follow-up actions needed  to an observation that already has had follow-up actions removes the deadline and any assignees. A warning will appear regarding this upon saving changes.

If follow-up actions are always required for this observation type, it will not be possible to change this to No follow-up actions needed. The requirement can be removed from the Categories settings in the Administration menu.