Overview
Each process is made up of stages that represent individual steps in a workflow. Stages have a type, a status, an optional assignee, and an optional due date. This article explains how each of these works and what actions are available at each point.
Stage Types
Every stage has a type that determines what kind of work it represents and which special actions are available:
- Standard — a general-purpose stage with no special behaviour
- Document Request — linked to document requests. When active, shows a Create Request button to generate a document request, or a View Request button if one already exists
- Email — intended for sending an email (coming soon)
- Portal — intended for publishing content to the client portal (coming soon)
The stage type appears as a badge next to the stage name in the timeline.
Stage Statuses
Each stage moves through the following statuses:
- Pending — the stage is waiting for earlier stages to be completed
- Active — the stage is ready to be worked on. Active stages display a pulsing indicator in the timeline
- Completed — the stage has been marked as done
- Skipped — the stage was bypassed. Skipped stages appear with strikethrough text
Stage Actions
The action buttons that appear depend on the stage's current status.
Active Stages
- Complete — marks the stage as done and activates the next stage in the sequence
- Skip — bypasses the stage without completing it (only available if the stage is marked as skippable in the template)
- Assignee — opens a popover to reassign the stage to a different team member
- Due Date — opens a popover to change the stage's due date
If the stage has a type-specific action (such as Create Request for a Document Request stage), that button also appears.
Skipped Stages
- Unskip — reactivates the stage so it can be worked on again
- Complete — marks the stage as completed directly from the skipped state
Assignment
Stages can be assigned to a specific team member. When a process is created from a template, stage assignments are resolved automatically from the client's manager roles (for example, if a template stage is assigned to the Tax Manager role, the client's tax manager is used). You can change the assignee at any time using the Assignee button on an active stage.
Due Dates
Stage due dates are calculated when the process is created, based on the start date and the due date offset defined in the template. You can override a stage's due date at any time using the Due Date button on an active stage.
Parallel Stages
Stages that share a parallel group run concurrently rather than sequentially. They appear together in a card labelled Parallel Group and can be completed in any order. The next sequential stage only activates once all stages in the parallel group are completed.
What's Next?
- Running a Process — manage an active process and work through its stages
- Creating a Process — start a new process from a template
- Process Templates — configure the templates that define stage sequences