Setting up status workflows – custom statuses and allowed transitions

Status workflows let you map your review and approval path directly in the document, for example “Review by DPO” or “Approved by management”. You create custom statuses for each document type and decide which other statuses a document may switch to from a given status.

Each status belongs to exactly one of the four fixed categories New, In progress, Approved and Archived. The category still controls approval, revisions and the archive. Within a category, you can create any number of statuses.

Prerequisites

• You are logged in as an administrator.
• Only the document types licensed for your team are displayed.

Open status workflows

1. Click Settings in the left sidebar.
2. Click Workflows and then Status workflows. Under Document types, you see all document types with statuses, for example Processing activities or Technical and organisational measures.
3. Click a document type. At the top right, you switch between List (one table per category with the columns Status and Use) and Flow (all statuses and paths as a diagram).

Create a custom status

1. Click New at the top right. The Add status panel opens.
2. Under Name (German), enter the designation, for example “Review by DPO”. The name can be maintained for every document language.
3. Select the Category. “In progress” means the document is not yet approved.
4. Adjust Font colour and Background colour. The Preview shows how the status appears in lists and on documents.
5. Under Description, explain when the status applies.
6. Click Save. The new status appears in the list with the use Manual.

To change the order within a category, drag a status into position. Statuses appear in this order in lists and selection fields as well.

Define allowed transitions

Each status card under Transitions has an Input at the top and an Output at the bottom. By default, both are open, so every switch is allowed. A switch from status A to status B is possible if the output of A and the input of B are open, or if an individual path is defined between them.

1. Open the status, for example “Approved by management”, and click Edit.
2. Under Transitions, clear the Input checkbox.
3. The section Individual path appears on the other status cards. Select it on the statuses from which documents may switch here, for example “Review by DPO”.
4. Click Save. The path is drawn in the diagram, and each card shows under “Switch possible to” where it can switch.

You close the Output the same way if documents should leave a status only along specific paths.

Define the automatically used status

When a document moves into a category through an application process, for example when it is created, approved or archived, it receives the automatically used status of that category.

1. Open the status.
2. Click Actions and then Use automatically.

A category always has at least one automatically used status.

Work with statuses day to day

• The table of the document type shows the statuses in colour.
• When editing a document, you select the new status in the Status field, grouped by category. Switches the workflow does not allow are greyed out.
• When you Approve, you choose the matching approved status in the dialog. As usual, the approval creates a revision.
• The status filter of the table is grouped by category. This shows you, for example, which processing activities are currently with the data protection officer.
• Dashboard cards count by status and show your statuses in the legend.

Replace and delete a status

1. Open the status and click Actions and then Delete.
2. If the status is not in use, confirm with Yes, delete.
3. If it is still in use, Replace and delete status opens. Under Replace with, select a status of the same category and confirm with Yes, replace and delete. Documents, workflow actions, dashboard cards and saved views receive the new status; revisions remain unchanged.

Practical tip

Only create the intermediate steps your organisation actually uses. Every additional status is another option that assignees must choose correctly when changing a document.