Vylan tracks two things about every engagement, and it is worth thirty seconds to separate them, because they answer different questions.

Status: what has happened to it

• Draft: nobody has started it yet.
• In progress: documents are moving.
• Complete: you closed it.
• Canceled: it is not going ahead. It keeps its history and its own tab, and stops counting as live work.

You control the status, and you can change it straight from the Status column on the list — you do not have to open the job first.

A job never says it is waiting for a client to accept it. That belongs to the proposal, which is the thing your client is actually sent and actually agrees to. Your firm's own status list — the one you edit in settings — is what a job's Status column shows.

Stage: where the work has got to

The stage is the six-step pipeline: collecting, in review, in preparation, awaiting signature, awaiting payment, completed. Vylan works it out from what has actually happened. See workflow stages.

Why both

Status answers "is this job open?" Stage answers "what is this job waiting on?" An engagement can be in progress for three weeks and the useful question is never whether it is open. It is whether it is waiting on your client, on you, or on a cheque.

Where you see them

Your engagements list shows the stage, because that is the actionable one. The tabs down the side, Active, Ready to review, Drafts, Completed, Archived, Canceled and Recently deleted, split by status — plus All engagements when you want the lot in one place, and Renewals for work coming up for renewal.