Setting Up Job Statuses And Rules
How to control job stages, movement rules and completion checks
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Statuses control how a job moves from one stage to the next. They help your team understand where a job is up to and prevent work from being marked as further along than it really is.
When you set up statuses well, users get a clearer workflow and Mashoom can stop mistakes before they happen.
Choosing a Starting Status
Each job type should have a starting status. This is the status that new jobs begin with when they are created.
In many teams this will be a first-stage status such as a planning or waiting stage, but the exact name depends on how your team has chosen to organise its work.
Pick a starting status that makes sense for every new job of that type. If users often need to change the first status immediately after creating a job, your starting status probably needs adjusting.
Creating the Status Path
After choosing the starting point, decide how a job is allowed to move forwards. Each status can be set up so that it leads to one or more next statuses.
This lets you reflect a real process, for example:
- a job that can move from planning into scheduled work
- a job that can split into different paths depending on what happens next
- a job that ends in a final completed stage
Some teams may also allow jobs to move backwards to an earlier status. This should only be enabled if going backwards is a normal and useful part of your process, because it gives users more freedom to re-open earlier stages.
Adding Rules Before a Status Change
Mashoom can check that important information is in place before allowing a status change. This is useful when a job must not move on until the right details have been filled in.
Depending on your setup, Mashoom can require:
- fields on the job itself
- fields on linked records
- certain linked records to exist before the change is allowed
If a user tries to move a job and one of these checks has not been met, Mashoom will show what still needs attention.
Locking Parts of a Job at Certain Stages
You can also use statuses to stop certain details from being changed once a job reaches a particular stage. For example, you may want some fields or some record links to stay fixed once the work has been approved or completed.
This is helpful when:
- the job has reached a controlled stage
- linked records should no longer be changed
- your team wants a clearer audit trail
If you apply these rules, explain them to users so they understand why an edit option disappears at certain stages.
Once these settings are in place, you can go ahead and create your first job.