Statuses and lifecycle
How a project moves from draft to archived, and what locks at each step.
Every project has a status. The status controls how freely the project can be edited and whether changes need to carry a written reason.
The four statuses
Draft
The default for a new project. Edit freely; nothing is locked.
In review
Customer is reviewing decisions. Still freely editable; the status mostly signals intent.
Finalised
Project is closed. Edits to any sheet now require a change reason.
Archived
Out of active rotation. Hidden from the default project list. Edits still require a reason.
Transitions
You can move a project between statuses in any direction:
Draft ⇄ In review ⇄ Finalised ⇄ ArchivedThere's no enforced linear progression, you can move a Finalised project back to Draft, or Archive a Draft. The only universal rule:
Moving away from Finalised or Archived requires a reason. The reason is recorded in the audit log.
What "locked" actually means
When a project is Finalised or Archived, every sheet in it is implicitly locked. When a sheet is marked complete, just that sheet is locked. In both cases, "locked" means:
- Every edit to an item, group, sheet header, or attachment will pop a small dialog asking for a change reason.
- The reason is required (non-empty) and gets recorded in the audit log along with what changed.
- Reads, exports, share links, none of those are affected.
See change reasons for the rationale.
Two kinds of "complete"
Don't confuse:
- Sheet-level "Mark complete", applies to one sheet. Customer signed off on Plumbing? Mark Plumbing complete.
- Project-level Finalised, applies to every sheet at once. Customer signed off on the entire project? Finalise it.
You typically mark sheets complete one at a time as decisions are made, then finalise the whole project at the end.
Archived vs deleted
Archived is a soft-hide. The project is still queryable, audit log intact, exports preserved, it just doesn't appear in the default project list. You can unarchive (with a reason) and the project comes back exactly as it was.
There's also a soft delete, see soft delete, which is a deeper hide intended for projects you wanted to remove entirely. Both are recoverable by an admin; neither destroys data.