How to set up the stages a record moves through

Stages are how a record shows where it has got to, and each Object sets its own. An Object is a kind of record your team defines, and an admin sets its stages on the Statuses tab of Settings › Objects. If Objects are new to you, read What is an Object? first.

A sample request at Fairgreen Golf Co. might run Requested, With the mill, Shipped, Received, Approved. Once those are saved, everyone working a sample request picks from that list in the Status box on the record.

Stages are one of the parts of an Object you can keep changing. Rename them, add one or reorder them whenever the work changes.

Before you start

You need to be an admin, because Settings only appears for admins. How to work out who can do what in your workspace explains how a person's role decides what they see. The rest of the workspace never needs to come here; they pick a stage on the record.

Where do you set up stages?

On the Object's Statuses tab. Go to Settings › Objects, click the Object, for example Sample requests, and open Statuses. The tab sits between Fields and Form.

An Object with no stages has no Status box on its records at all, which is the right answer for something that is a plain list, like a fabric library. Add the first stage and the box appears on every record.

If you have not created the Object yet, start with How to create an Object and come back.

Where do purchase orders, outreach and special orders keep their stages?

In Settings › Stages. That page lists the records Tideswell ships with that have their own stages: Purchase orders, Outreach, Special orders, Project items and Production orders, each with a count of its stages. Your workspace may use its own word for these; Settings › Terminology shows both.

The same idea applies there: rename a stage, add your own or change the order, and each one keeps a meaning underneath. How to move a purchase order through its stages, How to log and work through outreach and How to take and track a special order cover how those stages are used day to day.

Add your stages in the order the work happens

Work top to bottom in the order a record actually travels, because that order is what people read in the Status box.

1. Press Add status and type the stage name in your own words. "With the mill" is better than "Stage 2" if that is what your team says out loud.
2. Open Means and pick one of the six meanings, described in the next section.
3. Repeat for each stage.
4. Use the up and down arrows on a row to move a stage, and the × to take one off.
5. Press Save statuses to save the whole set at once.

Nothing is saved until you press Save statuses, so you can lay out five stages, change your mind about two of them, and save once. A "Statuses saved" message confirms it.

What does the Means column do?

Every stage carries one of six fixed meanings underneath the name you gave it. The hint under each one says what Tideswell does with it:

• Not started: a draft, not counted as live work anywhere.
• Waiting for approval: someone has to sign it off before it goes any further.
• Approved: signed off, but nothing has happened yet.
• In progress: live and out in the world, the everyday meaning.
• Done: finished, and left out of open-work lists.
• Cancelled: abandoned, and left out of open work and completion rates.

The meaning is what lets you rename a stage safely. As the tab itself puts it, you can rename stages "to your own words without breaking approvals or automations".

Where two stages describe the same phase of work, give them the same meaning. "With the mill" and "In finishing" can both mean In progress. Save statuses stays greyed out until every row has a name and a meaning, and a row still missing its meaning reads "Not chosen yet".

How do you stop a record skipping ahead?

Use Can be entered from on the stage that is being skipped. Tick the stages a record is allowed to arrive from. The button then shows how many you ticked; left empty, it reads From anywhere, which is the default.

At Fairgreen, Received only allows Shipped. On a sample request still sitting in Requested, Received stays in the Status list but is greyed out, with the reason beside its name: only from "Shipped". That one tick stops a record reaching the end with the middle never recorded.

Two habits keep this smooth:

• Leave the starting stage at From anywhere. A new record has no stage until somebody picks one, so the stage your records start in should accept arrivals from anywhere.
• Save before you tick a new stage as a source. A stage added since the last save shows "Save first to use this as a source". Press Save statuses, and it is there to tick.

How do you require a field before a stage?

Use Can only be picked once… on the stage and choose a field. The row then reads as a sentence, for example "Tracking number is filled in", and a record cannot reach that stage until the field has a value. Anyone can pick it clears the requirement.

On the record, a stage that is waiting on a field is greyed out with the reason beside it, such as "needs Tracking number". Two more things to know before you set one:

• It reaches every stage below it. Once a requirement exists, the tab says "A requirement also applies to every status below it". Requiring a tracking number at Shipped means Received and Approved need one too.
• Any field can be the requirement, including a checkbox. An unticked checkbox counts as not filled in, so a checkbox called "Quality checked" works as a sign-off.

The field has to exist before you can require it. How to add a field and pick its type covers adding one, and How to plan your fields before you add them is worth four minutes first if the Object is new.

How do you change stages later?

Rename a stage, add one or move it, then press Save statuses again. Renaming is safe because of the meaning underneath it, and adding or reordering is always allowed.

Two things to handle before you remove a stage:

• Move the records out of it first. Open each record still sitting in that stage and pick its new stage, so nobody later opens a record whose stage is no longer on the list.
• Check your workflows. If a published workflow sets the stage, saving stops and names each one as a link, under a line saying a published automation "sets a status you're removing". Edit those workflows first, then remove the stage.

What are workflows? covers editing a workflow. Once your stages are saved, the people doing the work take over: How to set a record's status and owner covers moving a record along and setting who is accountable for it.

Who can move a record at all comes from the Object's Update row in Settings › Permissions, for example Sample requests · Update. How to set who can see and edit an Object explains it.