Statuses

The Statuses tab defines the program’s status workflow. The status catalog provides your organization’s status names (“Intake”, “Eligibility Review”, “Disbursement”, …); here you choose which of those statuses this program uses, order them, and — the important part — map each one to a system status.

The system status is what tells Buoyancy which rules to apply while an item (a form submission, pickup, or internal action) sits in that status. Two program statuses with different names but the same system status behave identically; a status mapped to None is display-only and applies no rules at all.

One thing this tab does not control: which status an item starts in. Each Wayfinder-enabled form picks its own starting status — see Forms & Surveys → Initial Status. This tab only defines what each status means once an item is in it.

The ⚡ symbol marks the system statuses that record against program budgets and limits: Issued, Completed, and Rejected.

System status reference

System status	What it does
None	Display-only. No approval, budget, or completion rules.
Pending	The item is waiting on an approval decision (see Approvals).
Approved	An Approver/Manager authorized the request. For budgeted items the amount is earmarked against the program budget but not yet counted as spent.
Issued ⚡	The money or item has gone out the door. Records the amount against the program budget and any program limits.
In Progress	Work is underway. No budget effect; the item stays open.
Completed ⚡	Finished successfully. Finalizes the budget record and closes the item.
Cancelled	Closed without an outcome. No new budget activity.
Rejected ⚡	Declined by an Approver/Manager. Requires a rejection reason; reverses anything already earmarked or disbursed. Closes the item.

Closed items (Completed, Cancelled, Rejected) can be reopened — reopening requires the Manager program role.

Approvals

When an item’s current status maps to Pending, it is flagged as awaiting an approval decision:

1. The item appears under Requires Action in the Wayfinder for the program’s Approvers and Managers — these roles are assigned per program on the Staff tab (or via Bulk Assign Staff).
2. An Approver or Manager opens the item and sees Approve and Reject buttons.
   • Approve records the approval (who and when). For pickups and internal actions it also earmarks the amount for budgeted items and moves the item to the program status mapped to Approved; a form submission keeps its current program status until someone changes it.
   • Reject records the decision and closes the item, reversing any budget activity. For pickups a rejection reason is required.

Pending is not a hard lock, though. For pickups and internal actions, the system enforces that only an Approver or Manager can move an item into Approved, Rejected, or Issued — whether via the buttons or by picking a status from the dropdown that maps to one of those system statuses. For form submissions, the Approve/Reject buttons are shown only to Approvers and Managers, but status changes themselves are not otherwise restricted. Staff with any program role can move items between the remaining statuses — for example to In Progress, Cancelled, or Completed.

In short: Pending routes the item to the approvers; it relies on staff following the workflow rather than hard-blocking every move.

Common questions

“Why is this form submission asking for Approve/Reject?” Its current status maps to Pending. Either the form’s Initial Status points at a Pending-mapped status, or no Initial Status was chosen (which defaults to Pending). Change the form’s Initial Status, or remap the status here.

“This program shouldn’t need approvals at all.” Don’t map any of the program’s statuses to Pending, and set each form’s Initial Status to a non-Pending status. Items will then flow through without waiting on anyone.

“Who can approve?” Only staff assigned as Approver or Manager for that specific program on the Staff tab. Being an Org Admin does not by itself grant approval rights for a program.

“Which statuses touch the budget?” Only the ⚡ ones — Issued (records the spend against budget and limits), Completed (finalizes it), and Rejected (reverses it). Approved earmarks funds but doesn’t record spending.