Process Lifecycle
A process record walks a nine-state lifecycle grouped into three categories: draft, published and inactive. Movement between states is driven by actions, and three of the states are gated by a quorum rather than by a single person's decision.
The states
| Category | States | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Editing, In Opinion, Returned from Opinion, In Control, Rejected in Control, Rejected in Approval | Being prepared. Editable, depending on the exact state. |
| Published | Published | In force. |
| Inactive | Inactive | Withdrawn or superseded. |
The actions
| Action | From → To |
|---|---|
| Send for opinion | Editing / Returned from Opinion → In Opinion |
| Return from opinion | In Opinion → Returned from Opinion |
| Send for control | Editing / Returned from Opinion / Rejected in Control / Rejected in Approval → In Control |
| Approve control | In Control → Pending Approval |
| Reject control | In Control → Rejected in Control |
| Approve | Pending Approval → Published |
| Reject | Pending Approval → Rejected in Approval |
| Deactivate | Published → Inactive |
| Activate | Inactive → Published |
There is no standalone "send for approval" action. Approve control moves the process straight from control to pending approval — control and approval are a two-stage single submission, not two separate hand-offs.
This is also why Rejected in Approval re-enters through send for control: pending approval is only reachable through the control stage, so a rejection at approval would otherwise be a dead end.
The quorum gate
Three states — In Opinion, In Control and Pending Approval — wait for every routed party rather than the first one:
- One task is created per row in the matching routing matrix.
- Each party completes their own task.
- The state transitions only when the last outstanding task closes.
Calls made before the last task closes are not errors — they simply persist without changing the state.
An empty matrix means zero tasks, so the gate is trivially satisfied and the very first call transitions immediately. If a process is racing through its approval stages, check whether the matrices actually have rows in them.
What is editable when
A plain edit is allowed only while the process is in the draft category and in one of these states: Editing, Returned from Opinion, Rejected in Control, Rejected in Approval.
In other words: while the process is out with reviewers, controllers or approvers, it is frozen. Get it back first.
Rejections
Rejecting requires a reason, and unlike most rejections in the platform, the reason is stored on the state transition itself — so the process history shows not just that it was rejected at a given step, but why.
Publication
Approving from pending approval:
- Sets the first publish date, if this is the first time.
- Increments the version number.
- Stamps the revision approval date.
- Supersedes the chain's previously published row, moving it to inactive.
- Notifies everybody on the information matrix — as notifications, not tasks.
Permissions
The intra-draft progression actions share a single update permission, while Deactivate, Activate, Start revision and Copy detail each require their own dedicated permission. A user who can move a process through its approval pipeline therefore cannot necessarily withdraw a published one.