When to reopen an Action
Once an Action is in one of the locked statuses (Resolved, Closed, or Rejected), it's a historical record. You can read it, see the closure details, and look at its history — but you can't change the type, priority, or project, and you can't push it back into In Progress.
That's usually what you want. But sometimes things change:
- The "fixed" snag has come back — the operative signed it off last week, but the client has just spotted the same issue again
- New information has come to light — the Action was closed as "Cannot reproduce" but you've now got a photo showing exactly what the problem was
- It was closed by mistake — someone dragged the wrong card to
Resolvedon the Kanban board - The work needs redoing — the first attempt at the fix didn't hold and you need to track the second attempt on the same Action
In each of these cases, reopening the Action is the right move. It puts the Action back into the working statuses and lets you update, reassign, or close it again once the work is done.
How to reopen
When an Action is locked, the status dropdown is replaced with a Reopen button in the header.
- 1
Open the Action you want to reopen.
- 2
Click the Reopen button at the top of the detail page.
- 3
The status changes back to
Openand the Action becomes editable again.
Anyone else looking at the Action sees the change straight away — no refresh needed.
What the reopen changes
When you reopen an Action, some things reset and others stay put.
Gets reset:
- Status — moves back to
Open - Type, priority, and project — unlocked so you can edit them again
- Closure resolution — cleared
- Closure notes — cleared from the active record
- Closure signature — cleared from the active record
Stays put:
- Comments and attachments — all preserved
- Activity history — preserved, and gains a new entry recording the reopen
- Linked records — still linked
- Assignees and watchers — still on the Action
The activity feed logs the reopen as a separate event, so even though the active closure details are cleared, the audit trail still shows the Action was closed and then reopened.
Closing a reopened Action again
Once you've reopened an Action, it behaves just like any other Action in the working statuses. When the work is done, follow the normal close-out flow — the Close Issue dialog appears, you capture a fresh resolution, notes, and signature, and the Action moves back into a locked status.
You can reopen and re-close an Action as many times as you need to. Every cycle is logged, so the chain of events stays traceable.
If you find yourself reopening Actions often just to make small text edits, it's worth asking whether they should have been closed in the first place. Locked statuses are for "the work is done, and here's the evidence" — if you're still tinkering, leave the Action in In Progress.
Real-world examples
- Defects period — a snag marked
Resolvedat handover has cracked again three months later. Reopen it, assign it to the subbie, and close it properly once the remedial work is done - Mistaken close — the site manager drops the wrong card into
Resolvedduring a Monday stand-up. Reopen it, move it back toIn Progress, and carry on - New evidence — an RFI was rejected as "Cannot reproduce" but the site team has since captured a photo showing the problem. Reopen it, add the photo, and get the design team to look again
Next steps
- Closing an Action off properly — for the close-out dialog that runs again when you're ready to re-close.
- Tracking what's happened on an Action — to see reopens alongside every other change in the audit trail.
- Getting started with Actions — for the wider status workflow overview.