Thanks very much, that should get me going.

>Here is how you can re-write the ClaimItemStatus function to be inline table-valued
>

>create function dbo.ClaimItemStatus
>( 
>   @ClaimItemPk int,
>    @Start Date,
>    @End Date,
>    @DayLimit Int
>) 
>RETURNS TABLE
>AS 
>
>with cte as (select case when @Start IS NOT NULL and @End IS NOT NULL 
>          THEN 'Settled'
>         WHEN @Start IS NOT NULL 
>                  case when @DayLimit > (select count(*) .... ) -- here we can either use direct query or your scalar function - I prefer direct count
>                      THEN 'OverDue'
>                  else
>                       'Pending' 
>               END
>        ELSE -- what else is not covered ?
>           'Unknown'
>      END as StatusDescr)
>
>select StatusDescr, case StatusDescr WHEN 'Settled' then 2 when 'Pending' then 4 when 'OverDue' then 3 when 'Unknown' then 5 end as [Status]
>from cte
>
>GO
>

>You can re-write your other functions in a similar way to become inline table-valued functions.
>
>Note, that you will not be able to re-write them using the same name without dropping them first. For now you can use different names for these functions.
>
>To test for now
>

>select * from dbo.ClaimItemStatus(1, '20100101','20110101',5)
>
>--Or
>
>select CI.*, S.*
>from ClaimItems CI
>CROSS APPLY dbo.ClaimItemStatus(CI.ClaimID, CI.ClaimStartDate, CI.ClaimEndDate, CI.ClaimDayLimit) S

>----------------
>
>
> Your original:
>

>BEGIN
>	DECLARE @Status INT
>	DECLARE @LapsedDays INT
>    SET @Status = 1
>
>    /* if no date forwarded then Pending */
>    IF NOT @Start IS NULL
>    
>		/* if end date present, then Settled */
>		IF NOT @End IS NULL
>			SET @Status = 2 /* Settled */
>		ELSE
>			/* otherwise check if exceeded company limit of days lapsed */
>			BEGIN
>				SET @LapsedDays = dbo.GetWorkingDays(@Start, GETDATE())
>				IF @LapsedDays > @DayLimit
>					SET @Status = 3
>			END
>
>    RETURN @Status 
>END
>