Document stages explained

What Draft, Review, Signing, Signed and Done mean, how a document moves between them, and how to change the stage yourself.

Written By Sebastian

Last updated About 1 hour ago

Every document in fynk has a stage. The stage shows where the contract is in its life, and decides what you and the other party can do with it.

Available on all plans

The stages

Stage	What happens	Who can edit
Draft	You prepare the document internally.	Your team
Review	The document is shared with the other party to comment and propose changes. Optional.	Your team; the other party can comment and propose changes
Signing	Signatories sign. The content is locked.	Nobody. To change it, stop signing first.
Signed	All signatories have signed in fynk. The document is finished and can be tracked with dates and reminders.	Nobody. Metadata can still be edited.
Done	The document was marked as finished without a signing process in fynk, for example an imported contract. It can be tracked with dates and reminders.	Nobody. Metadata can still be edited.

Signed and Done are separate stages. Both are treated as finished.

Imported contracts (Import without signing) go straight to Done.

Draft → Review: happens automatically when you share the document with an external party. See Share a document with external parties.
Draft or Review → Signing: click Start signing. You can skip Review and start signing straight from Draft, unless the document has checkpoints.
Signing → Signed: happens automatically when the last signatory signs.

If the template has checkpoints, the document only moves on once the approvers have approved. See Internal approvals with checkpoints.

Open the document actions menu and choose Change stage [CHECK: label]. You can, for example:

move a document back to Draft to make internal changes
mark a document as Done without signing in fynk, for example because it was signed on paper

The stage is shown in the document header and as a column in the document list, including how many signatures are in (for example "1/2").
To stop signing, an internal Collaborator opens ⋯ and selects Reset to Review, or Reset to Checkpoint if a checkpoint preceded signing. This removes signatures that were already made, and all signatories are notified.
Some actions are only possible in certain stages. For example, the other party can only propose changes in Review.
Filter the document list or dashboards by stage to see what's waiting for whom.
Stages are separate from tasks and approvals. A document can stay in Review while people work through discussions, tasks or checkpoints.
You can't add your own stages.

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