ClickUp Custom Statuses: Workflows for Common Teams

ClickUp custom statuses are the stages a task moves through: To do, In progress, Client review, Complete. They are the columns on a Board and the labels on a List. Get them right once, on the Space, and most Folders should inherit them. A different status set on every List feels flexible for a day and then breaks every report.

The hierarchy those statuses hang on is in how to use ClickUp. The ClickUp hub links views, pricing and use cases.

What are ClickUp custom statuses?

A status is the state of a task. ClickUp gives you To do and Complete so every workflow has a start and an end. You add the stages in between.

You can create statuses at the Space, Folder, Subfolder or List. Owners, members and admins can create, edit and delete them by default. Business Plus and Enterprise can use advanced permissions to limit that, and deleting a status there also needs the Delete Items permission. Guests cannot edit Folder or Subfolder statuses. Folder and Subfolder statuses can be edited on every plan.

You can also save a status template and apply it when you create or edit a location. From the status template menu, choose New template, name it, add the statuses, and apply. When you apply a template onto work that already has other statuses, ClickUp asks you to remap the old names to the new ones. The same remap appears when you move a task into a Folder or List that does not share its status.

From a task, click the status name and pick the next one, or click the arrow to move it forward. Mark Complete sends it to the Closed status. The status picker can show time in status by days, hours, the date it last changed, or not at all.

How do ClickUp status groups work?

Help describes three default groups, plus an optional fourth.

Closed tasks are hidden in List view until you click Show closed. That is why a task you still need on the board should sit in Done, not Closed. ClickUp's own example: engineering is finished, and marketing still needs the task visible. A Done status keeps it on screen. Complete hides it.

Not Started statuses stay visible on views even when no task uses them, so people can create work at the front of the board. Help says multiple Not Started statuses also give dashboards more detail.

Colors belong to the location where you created the status. If you move a task to a List with different colors, it keeps the original List's color. Reorder statuses by the drag handle in the status modal. Board and List views that group by status can also reverse that order for the view only.

How do you create custom statuses?

Set them when you create the Space, or edit them later. Later edits are the same idea.

On a new Space

1. Name the Space and open the Task statuses tab.
2. In the Status template dropdown, select Custom.
3. Under each group, click Add status.
4. Name it, pick a color, and drag it into order.
5. Save.

On a Folder, Subfolder or List you already have

1. In the sidebar, right-click the location, or click the ellipsis.
2. Choose Task statuses, or List statuses for a List.
3. Inherit from the parent, pick a template, or use custom statuses.
4. Add, rename, recolor or delete statuses.
5. Click Apply changes. If names conflict with tasks already in that location, remap them.

Inheritance is the default, and you should keep it unless the workflow is actually different:

• Folders and Lists created in a Space inherit the Space.
• A Subfolder inherits its parent Folder when that Folder uses custom statuses. Otherwise it inherits the Space.
• A List inherits its Folder.
• A List with no Folder inherits the Space.

A Board opened at Folder level shows the statuses of the Lists inside it, even when those Lists disagree. That is useful for spotting drift, and noisy if every List invented its own columns. Everything view is stricter: custom statuses do not appear there unless they exist on all of the hierarchy levels in view. One shared set is what makes Everything readable.

You can also edit statuses from a task whose List inherits them: click the status, open the ellipsis, and choose Edit statuses.

There is a New button path for adding a status quickly. The modal is still the place to check which group it landed in. A "Client review" status in the wrong group will be treated as overdue, or hidden, for a reason nobody remembers.

Which status workflow should you use?

Keep the list short. ClickUp's Kanban guidance, summarized in Kanban vs Scrum, says most teams should start with three to five columns and add a stage only when a real handoff exists. These are setups you create, not built-in templates.

If you do not want the Not Started ClickApp, put the first stage in Active and keep To do as the start. Consulting and agency teams usually need Client review as its own Active status, because that is the handoff, not a separate project. The agency layout is in ClickUp for agencies. A software sprint can use the same Active columns and let the sprint, not the status, define the time box. See ClickUp for software development.

Do not encode facts as statuses. "Urgent" is a priority. "Client name" is a custom field. "Waiting on legal" might be a status if legal is a real queue, and it might be a field if it is only a tag. The field side is in ClickUp custom fields. Help also notes that a dropdown field can act as a secondary status if the main list is already long, with an automation to update it when the task status changes. Prefer a shorter status list first.

What should you avoid?

A few habits cause most status messes.

A unique workflow per client or per person. Reporting and a Folder board assume names match. Override a List only for a workflow that does not share stages, such as support versus a content calendar, and save that override as a template.

Closing work you still discuss. If the client has not accepted it, it is not Closed. Park it in a Done status so it stays visible and stops overdue noise.

Remapping in a hurry. When you move a task, read the remap modal. Sending "Client review" to "Complete" because it was the first option will hide the task.

Using status as a conversation. The comment thread is for the question. The status is for the stage. Remote teams get more from that split, which is the point of ClickUp for remote teams.

Statuses are included on every plan. You do not upgrade to name a column. You upgrade for other limits: storage, guests, time tracking, dashboards. Those prices, checked October 2026, are Free Forever at $0, Unlimited at $7 per user/month billed annually ($10 monthly), and Business at $12 billed annually ($19 monthly). See ClickUp pricing.

Write the meanings down in a short Doc: what each status is for, and who is allowed to move a task to Client review or Complete. New people will follow the list if it is the same everywhere. The ClickUp review covers the rest of the product if you are still choosing a tool.