Configuring Lifecycle Stages

When moving a document or object record through a lifecycle, it can be hard to understand which steps are complete and which steps are still remaining. Lifecycle Stages allow organizations to group document and object lifecycle states into ordered collections of stages. Vault then visually represents a document or object record’s current stage in the Doc Info page and object record detail page through the Lifecycle Stages Chevron panel.

Note: Admins should not configure workflows, entry criteria, or other business logic based on Lifecycle Stages, but should instead configure Lifecycle Stages to reflect business logic.

Accessing Lifecycle Stage Configurations

To view and edit lifecycle stage configurations, navigate to Admin > Configuration > Lifecycle Stage Groups.

Configuration Overview

The following list is an overview of how to configure lifecycle stages:

If the relevant lifecycles are not already configured, we recommend setting up both the lifecycle and the lifecycle states before you begin configuring lifecycle stages.
Create a new Lifecycle Stage Group. For object lifecycles, each lifecycle stage group applies to a single object and object type. (If the object does not use object types, the lifecycle stage group applies to the base object type.) For documents, each lifecycle stage group applies to a single document lifecycle.
Create Stages within the Lifecycle Stage Group. Click into each stage to define the specific lifecycle states that belong to the stage.
Reorder the stages to reflect the process that an object record or document follows.
Verify that the default field-level security for the Lifecycle Stage (stage__sys) and Lifecycle State Stage ID (state_stage_id__sys) fields are not set to Hidden. If the default field-level security is Hidden and there are no overrides to make these fields at least Read Only to users, the lifecycle stages will not appear as expected.

Note: Vault updates the Lifecycle Stage (stage__sys) and Lifecycle State Stage ID (state_stage_id__sys) fields on existing documents and object records when you configure lifecycle stages. Adding these fields to any object page layout may result in a Vault Compare difference.

How to Create Object Lifecycle Stage Groups

To create a new lifecycle stage group:

From the Lifecycle Stage Groups page, click Create.
Select Object Stage Group in the drop-down.
Enter a Label for the Lifecycle Stage Group. This only appears in the configuration screens to help Admins manage the various groups. It does not appear to users.
Select the related Object Lifecycle.
Select an Object Type.
Optional: Enter a Description. This only appears in the configuration screens to help Admins manage the various groups. It does not appear to users.
Click Save

How to Create Document Lifecycle Stage Groups

To create a new lifecycle stage group:

From the Lifecycle Stage Groups page, click Create.
Select Document Stage Group in the drop-down.
Enter a Label for the lifecycle stage group. This only appears in the configuration screens to help Admins manage the various groups. It does not appear to users.
Select the related Document Lifecycle.
Optional: Enter a Description. This only appears in the configuration screens to help Admins manage the various groups. It does not appear to users.
Click Save.

How to Create Stages

When using this feature, the stages are what appears for users on the Doc Info and object record details pages. To create stages within a document or object lifecycle stage group:

From the Lifecycle Stage Groups page, click into the specific lifecycle stage group.
Under Stages, click Create.
Enter a Label for the stage. This will display in the Lifecycle Stages Chevron Panel for users.
Optional: Enter a Description for the stage. This only appears in the configuration screens to help Admins manage the various stages. It does not appear to users.
Click Save.
From the list of stages, click into the new stage and click Add in the States section.
A pop-up window displays available states in the related lifecycle. If a state is associated with another stage, it does not show here. Click the green plus (+) icon to associate a state with the current lifecycle stage. Click OK to close the window when done.

How to Order Stages

The order of stages in the Lifecycle Stage Group page is the order that Vault displays in the Doc Info page or object record detail page. Changes to the order are effective immediately, although users who loaded a Doc Info page or object record detail page before the change will need to refresh.

To change the order of lifecycle stages:

From the Lifecycle Stage Groups page, click into the specific lifecycle stage group.
Under Stages, click Reorder.
Drag the triangle icons for each row to reorder.

Click Save when the order is correct.