Why the status matters
The Status column on the Projects page tells you at a glance which jobs are untouched, which are in progress and which are finished, without opening each one. Estimators use it to find the job they were working on yesterday, and managers use it to see what is still open.
Only Archived is something you set directly. The other three are worked out from the drawings inside the project, so the badge changes on its own as work is done.
The four statuses
| Badge | Meaning | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| New | Nothing has been counted yet | No drawing in the project is In Progress or Completed. An empty project is New. |
| Active | Work is under way | At least one drawing is In Progress or Completed, but not every drawing is Completed. |
| Complete | Every drawing is finished | The project has at least one drawing and every drawing is Completed. |
| Archived | Put away | You archived the project. This overrides the other three and locks the drawings. |
The same badge appears on the project's card in Cards layout, and you can filter the table by it with the Status filter above the table.
How drawing statuses feed the project status
Every drawing carries its own badge in the project view: Uploaded, In Progress or Completed. The project status is a summary of those badges.
- A drawing starts as Uploaded.
- The first count, measurement or other takeoff change on a drawing moves it to In Progress on its own.
- Click a drawing's badge to mark it Completed. Click a Completed badge to put it back to In Progress.
- Further takeoff work on a Completed drawing moves it back to In Progress and shows a toast naming the drawing.
For the detail of each drawing badge see Drawing status.
Deleting a drawing changes the summary too. A project whose only In Progress drawing is deleted drops back to New, and a project drops from Complete to Active as soon as you upload a new drawing, because the new drawing is Uploaded rather than Completed.
Moving a project between statuses
| From | To | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| New | Active | Open any drawing and start a takeoff, or click a drawing badge and mark it Completed. |
| Active | Complete | Mark every drawing in the project Completed. Delete drawings you do not need, since an Uploaded drawing holds the project at Active. |
| Complete | Active | Put any drawing back to In Progress by clicking its badge, or upload another drawing. |
| Any | Archived | Click Archive in the Actions column and confirm. See Archiving and recovering a project. |
| Archived | Previous status | Click Recover and confirm. The project returns to whichever of New, Active or Complete its drawings give it. |
There is no way to type a status in directly, and that is deliberate: a project that reads Complete has every drawing marked Completed by someone, which is a stronger claim than a dropdown value.
Marking drawings Completed does more than change a badge. Drawings marked Completed are skipped by the cross-drawing search and linear takeoff fan-outs, so a finished drawing is never altered by work you do on another one. Mark drawings Completed as you sign them off rather than all at once at the end.
Common issues
Every project reads Active
If every project on the page reads Active regardless of the drawings inside it, your installation is not yet reporting drawing counts to the Projects page. The badges start changing once it is updated. Archived projects still read Archived.
A project stays Active after everything is marked Completed
Check for a drawing you have forgotten. Switch the project view to list layout and look for any Uploaded or In Progress badge, including drawings that sit in more than one Category. Mark it Completed or delete it.
The project went back to Active on its own
Someone did takeoff work on a Completed drawing. The drawing moved to In Progress and showed a toast at the time. Check who is in the project using the presence avatars next to its name, then mark the drawing Completed again once the change is agreed.
Next steps
- Drawing status — the Uploaded, In Progress and Completed badges in detail.
- Archiving and recovering a project — put a finished project away and bring it back.
- Preparing a project for export — what to check before the final Excel export.
- Working with others — how presence avatars and shared projects behave.