Create unique, color-coded statuses to match your workflow. Whether you manage creative asset approvals or user stories from ideation to completion, statuses keep work organized and progress transparent.
You can create statuses at the Space, Folder, and List levels.
Reuse statuses by creating status templates.
What you'll need
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Owners, members, and admins can create, edit, and delete statuses by default.
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Business Plus and Enterprise Plans can use advanced permissions to control if members and guests can create, edit, and delete statuses.
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You'll need both the Delete Items and Edit Statuses advanced permissions to delete statuses.
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Status types
There are three default status groups.
Not Started is a fourth status group that is enabled through a ClickApp.
The three default status groups are:
- Active: Tasks that are currently being worked on.
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Done: Tasks that are done, but need to remain open. For example, all engineering is complete on a sprint task but marketing and technical writing teams still need access to it.
- Tasks in this status group are not considered overdue.
- Any Dependencies are cleared when this status is applied.
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Closed: Tasks that are totally completed.
- Complete is the default Closed status. You can rename it, but you can't change the color.
- You can't create custom Closed statuses.
Closed tasks in List view are hidden by default. You can unhide them by doing the following:
- Click the Show closed or Hide closed button, located at the top of List view.
- When the button is enabled it's highlighted.
- When the button is enabled it's highlighted.
- Closed tasks display in your List.
- Click the Show closed button to hide these tasks again.
To ensure consistency across your Workspace, To do and Complete statuses are provided to mark the beginning and end of your workflows, and the color of Complete can't be changed.
Create custom statuses
When you create Spaces, you'll be asked to set statuses for the tasks added there.
You can practice how to Create Your Statuses in ClickUp University.
Custom statuses will not appear at the Everything level. The Everything level only shows statuses that exist in all of the hierarchy levels.
Folders and Lists can also each have different statuses for their tasks. By default, their tasks follow the status Hierarchy:
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Folders and Lists created in a Space inherit their Space's statuses.
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Lists inherit their Folder's statuses.
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Lists that don’t belong to Folders inherit their Space's statuses.
You can create custom statuses for any status type except Closed.
Status colors are consistent with location they were created. If you move a task to another List with different status colors, it will retain the color from the original List.
To create custom statuses when you create a Space:
- When you create a Space, you're directed to the What task statuses do you want? modal. From the modal, select Use custom statuses.
- Under each status group, click Add status to create new statuses. Use the drag handle to the left of statuses to move them up or down.
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Name the new status.
Reorder statuses by dragging them up or down using the drag handles to the left.
- You can use the color picker to change the default color. You can click the dropper icon for more colors.
- Click Save.
To create custom statuses when you create a Folder:
- When you create a Folder, you're directed to the Create Folder modal. From the modal, click to open the Task statuses tab.
- You're directed to the What task statuses do you want? modal. Follow the same process as setting statuses for a Space.
You can also create custom workflows for individual Folders when you create a List.
To create custom Folder workflows:
- When you create a List, there's an option to start from scratch or inherit statuses. Click Start from scratch.
- You're directed to the What task statuses do you want? modal. Follow the same process as setting statuses for a Space.
Edit or delete statuses from Sidebar, List view, and Board view
You can rename, change color, or delete all default, custom, and status templates.
You can rename the status, but you can't change the color of the default Closed status.
When deleting a status from a Space, Folder, or List, you'll be prompted to update any tasks and Automations that currently use that status.
To edit or delete statuses from Sidebar:
- Hover over a Space, Folder, or List.
- Click the ellipsis ... icon.
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Select Space, Folder, or List Settings.
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Click List statuses or Task statuses.
- From the statues modal, select Use custom status.
Statuses that are inherited from a Folder or Space cannot be edited from this modal. You can navigate to the Folder or Space's settings to update its statuses or choose to use custom statuses instead.
To update Folder or Space settings:
- To the right of the status, click the ellipsis ... icon.
- Select Rename, Change Color, or Delete Status.
- Click Save.
To edit or delete statuses from List view:
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From List view, hover over the status column and click the ellipsis ... icon.
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From the Group Options menu, select Manage Statuses.
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From the statuses modal, select Use custom statuses.
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To the right of a status, click the ellipsis ... icon.
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Select Rename, Change Color, or Delete Status.
Following are the other selections in the Group Options menu:
- Rename: Rename the status group.
- New status: Opens a modal where you can add a new status. If you’re adding a new status to a List that inherits statuses from a Folder, you'll also have the option to add the status to that Folder.
- Select All: Select all tasks in the List that share the same status. Opens the Multitask Toolbar where you can make bulk changes to those tasks.
- Collapse group: Collapses the group that shares the same status.
- Collapse all groups: Collapses all status groups.
- Hide status: Hides that status in List view.
To edit or delete statuses from Board view:
Make sure your view is arranged by status:
- Under the Views Bar, click Group and select Status.
- Hover in a status column and click the ellipsis ... icon.
- From the dropdown menu, choose from these status options:
- Rename status: Change the status name.
- Only available when you’re viewing a board where tasks have all the same statuses.
- Edit statuses: Make changes to the statuses of the List you’re viewing.
- Only available when you’re viewing a board where tasks have all the same statuses.
- Archive all tasks in this column: Archiving a task removes it from view but allows you to restore it at any time. All tasks are preserved and are still searchable.
- Collapse this column: Collapses the column and pins it to the side of the view.
- Select All: Select all tasks in the List that share the same status. Opens the Multitask Toolbar where you can make bulk changes to those tasks.
See all Space statuses
Owners and admins can see all Space statuses in their settings.
To view all Space statuses:
- In the upper-left corner, click your Workspace avatar.
- Select Settings.
- From the sidebar, click Spaces.
Reorder statuses
To adjust the order of your statuses:
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In the Sidebar, hover over the Space, Folder, or List.
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Click the ellipsis ... icon.
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Select Space, Folder, or List Settings.
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Click List statuses or Task statuses.
- From the statuses modal, click the drag handle to the left of the status to move it.