Project statuses and phases - set up your workflow
Statuses are the steps a task moves through, such as “To do” or “In review”. Phases are the larger stages of a project, such as “Design” or “Launch”. Both live in the project settings dialog, under the Configuration group, and both save the moment you change them.
At a glance
| What it is | Task statuses (grouped in three categories) and project phases |
| Where to find it | Open a project, click the gear icon in the header, then choose Statuses or Phases under Configuration |
| Who can use it | Owners, Admins, Project Managers and Team Leads. Members see the dialog read-only |
| Saving | Automatic for everything, except the Auto-assign parent phase to subtasks switch, which waits for Update |
| Plan | No plan gate in this dialog |
For how to open the dialog and what the other sections do, see project settings.
How do statuses work?
Statuses are grouped into three categories: To do, Doing and Done. Every project gets all three. A status always belongs to one category, and the category tells Worklenz whether work has not started, is under way, or is finished.
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Add a status | Click Add Status inside a category, type a name (up to 50 characters), then click Create. Cancel backs out |
| Rename a status | Edit its name in place (up to 50 characters) |
| Change its colour | Open the colour picker on the status and click Apply |
| Reorder | Drag a status up or down inside its category |
| Move to another category | Drag it onto another category. A hint reads “Drop here to move to” followed by the category name |
| Delete | Use the delete action and confirm Delete Status |
An empty category shows “No statuses in this category”.
The at-least-one-per-category rule
Each category must always keep one status. If you try to drag the last status out of a category, a message titled “Cannot Move Status” appears and nothing moves. Add a replacement first, then move the old one.
What happens to tasks when you delete a status?
The tasks are moved to another status before the delete goes through. You do not get to choose the new status: Worklenz picks the first other status in the list. It is not guaranteed to be in the same category.
If the status you are deleting is the last one in its category, the delete is refused with “At least one status should exists under each category.” The confirmation reads “Are you sure you want to delete this status? This action cannot be undone.”
Other people with the project open see status changes live.
How do phases work?
Phases group tasks into stages. The Phases section opens with the heading “Phases” and the line “Pipeline phases used to group and progress tasks in this project.”
Rename the word “Phase”
Phase Label is a text box at the top (up to 50 characters, with a counter). Whatever you type replaces the word “Phase” across this project, so a team that works in stages can call them “Stage”. It saves when you press Enter or click out of the field. An empty value is rejected without a message, so the old label stays.
Add and manage phases
| What you want | How |
|---|---|
| Add a phase | Click Add Option, type a name (up to 50 characters), press Enter or click Create. Esc or Cancel backs out |
| Rename | Edit the name in place (up to 50 characters) |
| Change its colour | Open the colour picker and click Apply |
| Reorder | Drag the handle. Worklenz warns you about tasks already in flight |
| Delete | Confirm Delete Phase: “Are you sure you want to delete this phase? This action cannot be undone.” |
With no phases yet, the list says “No Phase found” with an Add Option link. Plain general projects take a name only. Date pickers on phases appear for roadmap and software projects.
Default assignee for each phase
Turn on Enable Phase Assignees under Advanced Settings (see advanced project settings) and click Update. Back on Phases, each phase gets an assignee picker, with the note “Phase Assignees is enabled. Set a default assignee for each phase below…”
With it on and a default assignee set:
- Only that assignee, or an Owner or Admin, can move a task of that phase to a Done status.
- When the task is marked done, it moves to the next phase and gets that phase’s default assignee.
- The last phase means the pipeline is complete.
Auto-assign parent phase to subtasks
This switch makes new subtasks inherit the phase of their parent task, and keeps them in step when the parent’s phase changes. It stays disabled until the project has at least one phase (“Add phases to this project to use auto-assignment”). It is the one control on this page saved with Update, which also reloads the page.
Example
A marketing team runs campaigns. In Statuses they add “Client review” to Doing and “Published” to Done. In Phases they set the label to “Stage” and add Brief, Production and Launch. Before deleting an old “Waiting” status, they move its three tasks to “Client review” themselves.
Best practices
- Put each new status in the category that matches its meaning, because the category decides whether work counts as not started, in progress or finished.
- Move tasks off a status before deleting it, because Worklenz chooses the replacement for you.
- Keep a spare status in each category when you reorganise, because the last status in a category cannot be moved or deleted.
- Order phases before tasks are in flight, because reordering warns you about tasks already moving through them.
- Set default assignees only after you pick the people, because they gate who can mark tasks done in that phase.