Lifecycles & Statuses

Define custom statuses and enforce transition workflows across your organization's records.

Quickstart

Configure Lifecycles in Settings > Lifecycles to govern allowed statuses, transition paths, and approval rules for records like engagements and quotes.

In-Depth

A Lifecycle defines the workflow states and transition rules for records in mapped collections.

Core Components

Applied Collections: The record types governed by the lifecycle.
Statuses: Allowed states (e.g., “Draft”, “Active”). Exactly one status is the default. Statuses can configure Record Lock Behavior to lock records (read-only), unlock them, or preserve state.
Transitions: Allowed paths between statuses.
Approval Rules: Policy gates requiring reviewer sign-off before a transition completes.

When records are created in a mapped collection, they automatically receive the default status. Users move records between states using valid transition actions rather than editing status fields directly.

Approval Workflows

Transitions can be governed by Approval Rules requiring consensus (“all” or “any”). Rules can evaluate a Condition Formula (e.g., quote.discount > 0.15).

Approvers are assigned automatically by role or selected manually by the submitter. While an approval is pending, the record locks, moves to an in-flight status, and displays an interactive Approval Banner directly below the top header bar across parent and child workspaces.

The banner queries pending approval requests directly from live database state rather than matching status text. When no approval requests exist, the banner collapses automatically.

Configuring Approval Choices

Approval rules support custom decision choices with dynamic button styles and automated field updates.

Navigate to Settings > Lifecycles and open a lifecycle.
Under Approval Rules, click an existing rule or click Add Approval Rule.
In the Approval Choices field, click Add Choice (or Reset to Defaults).
Set the Choice Label (e.g., “Fast Track”) and Choice ID slug (e.g., fast_track).
Choose a Button Style (Primary, Secondary, or Destructive) and an optional Target Status. Leaving the target status blank unlocks the document directly without changing its status.
Toggle Require Reviewer Comment if reviewer feedback is mandatory.
Under Field Updates, click Add Field Update to set target fields and formula expressions (e.g., =NOW(), =user.email) evaluated upon consensus. Protected system fields like ownership or organization context cannot be overwritten.
Click Apply and drag choice handles to reorder reviewer banner buttons.

When reviewers submit a decision on the Approval Banner, the engine evaluates choice formulas, updates target fields, and executes status transitions or unlocks the document directly. Destructive choices (such as rejections) trigger an immediate veto in consensus workflows without waiting for remaining approvers. Choices configured without a target status apply field updates and unlock the record while preserving its current status state. Rejections or change requests persist comments on the banner until dismissed. Past decisions are logged in the Approval History pop-out.

Automations

Automation rules dynamically transition record statuses based on data changes.

Under Automation Rules, click Add Automation Rule:

Trigger Field: The field to monitor (e.g., percentDone).
Operator & Value: The condition to meet (e.g., >= 100).
Target Status: The status applied when met.

Transition Formulas

Configure On Enter Formulas and On Exit Formulas on individual statuses to calculate values (e.g., setting completedDate to NOW()) when entering or exiting a state.

Cascading Status Updates

Transitioning a parent record can automatically update child records. Configure target child collections and prerequisite statuses directly on a status node.