How to Use Workflows

A workflow is the path an item follows from start to finish. As your work progresses, you move each item forward through a series of named stages — and include GO keeps track of where everything is, checks that you're allowed to make each move, and handles the bookkeeping behind the scenes.

This article explains how to use workflows day to day: how to see what stage something is in, how to move it forward, and what to do when the system stops you.

Looking to change the stages themselves — add a new stage, decide who can move things, or set up automatic actions? That's covered separately in Settings → Workflows. This article is about using workflows, not configuring them.

What a Workflow Looks Like

Wherever you see a small colored pill with a label — like ● Lead, ● In Progress, or ● Approved — that's a workflow stage (we call it a state). The color and dot make it easy to spot an item's stage at a glance in a list.

The three things you work with every day all run on workflows:

Item	A typical path
Projects	Lead → Estimate → Sold → Production → Substantially Complete → Closed Out
Tasks	Draft → Estimate → Sold → Scheduled → In Progress → Done → Ready to Invoice → Invoiced
Purchase Orders	Draft → Approved → Sent → Received → Invoiced → Paid

Your business's stages may be named differently or have more steps — workflows are tailored to how your company works — but the idea is always the same: an item lives in exactly one state at a time, and you move it forward as the work gets done.

Seeing What State Something Is In

You'll see the state pill in two places:

In a list or grid — each row shows its current state as a colored pill, so you can scan a whole list and immediately see what's where.
Inside an item — open a project, task, or purchase order and the state pill appears in the header, near the top of the detail view.

The label is the current stage. The color is just a visual cue your administrator chose for that stage.

Moving an Item to the Next State

Moving something forward is the same simple action everywhere in include GO:

Click the state pill. A menu drops down listing the stages.
Pick the stage you want to move to. Stages you're allowed to move to are clickable. Stages you can't move to right now appear greyed out. Your current stage is marked Current.
The item moves. You'll see a brief confirmation message — for example, "Task moved to Scheduled." The pill updates to the new stage immediately.

That's it. include GO records the change, updates the pill, and runs any automatic steps tied to that stage (see Automatic Actions below).

Why are some stages greyed out?
A workflow only allows certain moves. You usually move forward one stage at a time rather than skipping ahead — for example, a task in Draft might be allowed to move to Estimate, but not jump straight to Invoiced. Greyed-out stages simply aren't valid next steps from where you are now. (Some workflows also allow moving backward or sideways; whatever your administrator set up is what you'll see as available.)

When the System Stops You

Sometimes you'll try to move an item and include GO won't let you — or it'll warn you first. This is by design. Workflows can have checks (we call them guards) that make sure nothing important gets skipped.

There are two kinds:

Blockers — "you can't do this yet"

A blocker stops the move and tells you why. The message explains exactly what needs to happen first. Common examples:

"This project still has open tasks." — finish or close the remaining tasks before closing out the project.
"A project manager must be assigned." — assign a PM, then try again.
"This project has unpaid invoices." — the outstanding invoices need to be resolved first.
"This purchase order has no line items." — add at least one line before approving.

Read the message, take care of what it asks for, then move the item again. Blockers protect your data — they keep work from advancing past a point where something would be left unfinished or out of balance.

Warnings — "are you sure?"

A warning doesn't stop you. It flags something worth a second look and lets you continue if you're sure. You'll see the warning, and you decide whether to proceed.

The exact checks depend on how your administrator configured each workflow. If a blocker is getting in your way and you don't understand why, your include GO administrator can explain or adjust the rule in Settings → Workflows.

Why Some Fields Are Locked

As an item moves through its workflow, certain fields can become read-only. For example, once a project is Sold, the contract amount might lock so it can't be changed accidentally; once a task is Invoiced, its costs lock so the books stay accurate.

If a field appears greyed out and you can't edit it, that's usually a field lock tied to the item's current state — not a bug. Moving the item to a different state may unlock the field again, depending on how the workflow is set up. If you genuinely need to change a locked field, talk to your administrator.

Automatic Actions (Triggers)

Workflows can do more than track stages — they can also kick off automatic steps when an item enters or leaves a stage. These run for you in the background; you don't have to do anything.

A common example: when a task moves to Done, include GO can automatically send it to Accounts Receivable so it's ready to be invoiced. You'll simply notice the task show up in the AR area without any extra clicks.

Which automatic actions exist (if any) depends on what your administrator has set up for each workflow.

Tasks Have a Second Track: Accounting States

Most items have just one workflow. Tasks are a little different — alongside the workflow state you move them through (Draft, In Progress, Done…), tasks also carry an accounting state that controls the money side:

whether costs can be recorded against the task,
whether existing costs are locked from editing,
whether the task can be billed,
and how it affects your Work-in-Progress (WIP) accounting.

The two tracks run in parallel and are independent: a task can be In Progress (workflow) while its accounting state controls exactly when its costs hit the general ledger. Most of the time the accounting state is managed for you as the task progresses — you rarely need to touch it directly.

A Note on Purchase Orders

Purchase orders move through workflow stages just like projects and tasks, but with one difference: their path is fixed. Instead of a free-form state menu, you'll move a PO forward using its dedicated buttons — Approve, Send, Receive, and so on — in the purchase order screen. The stages and their order are built into include GO and aren't customizable, which keeps purchasing consistent and auditable across your business.

Every Move Is Recorded

include GO keeps a complete history of every state change — what moved, from which stage to which, and when. This audit trail means you can always answer "when did this project go to Production?" or "who moved this task to Invoiced?" Nothing about an item's progress is lost.

Tips

Scan by color. The state pills are color-coded — use them to triage a list quickly.
Read blocker messages carefully. They tell you exactly what to fix; you rarely need to guess.
Move forward as work completes, not in advance. The workflow is meant to mirror reality, so keep states in step with what's actually done.
If a field won't edit, check the item's state before assuming something's broken — it may simply be locked for that stage.
Stuck on a blocker that doesn't make sense? Your administrator can review the rule in Settings → Workflows.

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