Start and manage cycles

Start a cycle to put an item in front of its reviewers, approvers, endorsers, or acknowledgers, then track who has acted and remind the rest. You can start a cycle on a single item or on many at once, run it now, and — for review, approval, and endorsement cycles — set it to run on a schedule.

Prerequisites

• The item permission to manage the cycle type — Manage Review Cycle, Manage Approval Cycle, Manage Endorsement Cycle, or Manage Acknowledgement Cycle — and a license that includes cycle management; see the License capability matrix.
• A cycle group for the cycle type.
• For endorsement and acknowledgement cycles: the item must have an approved version.
• An approval cycle can't start while the item is checked out.

Steps

Start a cycle

1. Select the item in the repository tree and open the Manage Cycles tab.
2. Expand the cycle type you want to run.
3. Review the start options:
   • Remind users of pending actions every n days — automatic reminder emails. Reminders require email notifications to be configured for the repository.
   • Approval only: When approved, increment the version to … offers the next major version numbers allowed by the repository's version policy, and When the cycle completes, make this the current approved version controls when the approval takes effect — Immediately, Never, or a date.
   • Approval only, when a version is already approved: Set the Approved version to None clears the item's approved version when the cycle starts, so no version shows as approved while the new approval runs. Readers who can only see approved content lose access to the item until the new approval completes.
   • Acknowledgement only: Each user has n days to acknowledge before considered overdue, and Run cycle on shows the approved version the cycle uses.
   • Comments — optional guidance shown to cycle participants.
4. Click Start Cycle Now.

The section's status changes to In-Progress, and participants are notified through their to-do list and by email when configured. For an approval cycle, the item shows an orange hourglass in the repository tree while voting runs.

Start a cycle on multiple items

1. Above the repository tree, select the full-screen icon (tooltip Expand) to open the Full Screen Tree View. Check the box next to each item — or check items in the Contains section of a folder.
2. Select Manage Cycles.
3. Continue as for a single item.

Only cycle types that every selected item supports are offered. For example, enterprise objects such as a Resource can't run approval cycles, so a mixed selection hides the Approval Cycle section.

The same multi-select manages running cycles in bulk — for example, changing the reminder interval on many items at once. A change you make to one item's cycle (such as turning its reminders off) applies only to that item, not to the rest of the batch.

Bulk cycle actions require every selected item to be in the same cycle state. If the selection mixes states — some items have a running cycle and others don't — the platform reports One or more items have states which prevent a cycle start (or …prevent multiple selection cycle changes). Deselect the items in the different state and retry.

For a bulk approval cycle, the version-increment option works by version part rather than a single target version, because the selected items can be at different versions. It appears when the repository uses more than one version part:

• With a two-part version policy, When approved, increment the version number increments the first part.
• With a three-part version policy, When approved, increment the First Part or Second Part of the version number adds a dropdown to choose which part. The last part is never offered, because it rolls when an item is checked in.

Each item increments from its own current version — incrementing the first part of a three-part version number changes 1.1.0 to 2.0.0.

Monitor a running cycle

Open the item's Manage Cycles tab and expand the In-Progress cycle:

• A progress gauge shows how many participants have completed, with counts per status (Acted, Pending, Blocked, and more). View Cycle Users opens a pageable, filterable list of participants.
• The following users can take action next lists who the cycle is waiting on; the cycle log below records every action with user, date, and comment.
• Send Reminders Now emails everyone with a pending action; Change Interval adjusts the automatic reminder cadence. A participant who has already acted stops receiving reminders for that item.

The Cycles entry in the user menu (select your name in the upper right) lists the cycles you have started or scheduled, with a count of active ones.

Update participants in a running cycle

For review, approval, and endorsement cycles, membership is locked in at start. To pull in changes made to the underlying group since then:

• On the in-progress cycle, select Update next to Users Last Updated On.
• To update several running cycles at once, open Repository → Cycle Groups, choose the Group Assignments tab, expand the cycle group, check the in-progress cycles to update, and select Update Users.

Acknowledgement cycle membership updates automatically and never needs this.

Schedule a cycle

Review, approval, and endorsement cycles can run on a schedule; acknowledgement cycles can't.

1. On the cycle type's section, turn on the Schedule Cycles switch.
2. Choose a Schedule Type:
   • After a set amount of time — repeat a number of days, weeks, or years after the previous cycle completes. The first cycle must be started manually.
   • On a specific date — run once.
   • On a calendar cycle — recur on a monthly or yearly Recurrence Pattern: every n months or years, on a day of the month (for example the 15th) or a weekday (for example the first Monday), between a start date and an optional end date.
3. Under Cycle start, choose Send notice to scheduler to manually start cycle or Automatically start cycle. Automatic starts can also remind pending users on an interval and notify you when the cycle starts.
4. Optionally check Notify scheduling user of upcoming cycle and set how many days in advance.
5. For a scheduled approval cycle, Set the Approved version to None is also available as a schedule setting — each time the schedule starts a cycle, the item's approved version is cleared first. The upcoming-cycle notice reminds you of this.
6. Click Save Schedule Settings.

Pause and resume an acknowledgement cycle

Acknowledgement cycles run until you stop them, and they pause automatically when the item's current approved version changes. On the in-progress cycle, use Pause Cycle and Resume Cycle Now. When resuming, Advance With offers four options:

Version	Option	Effect
Same version	Resume	Continue the cycle as it was.
Same version	Reset	Clear all acknowledgements so everyone re-acknowledges — useful for recurring, calendar-based re-acceptance.
New version	Restart	Run the same cycle against the new version; everyone acknowledges again.
New version	Rollover	Carry existing acknowledgements over to the new version — for minor edits that don't change the item's meaning.

Cancel a cycle

1. On the Manage Cycles tab, expand the in-progress cycle.
2. Click Cancel In-Progress Cycle.
3. Enter a Reason if the repository policy requires one, then click End Cycle.

Check past cycles

Open the item's History tab and select View Cycle on a cycle entry to see its full log.

Limitations

• An item in a running approval cycle can't be checked out or get a new version until the cycle ends. Deleting it is still allowed, and cancels the cycle.
• A review, approval, or endorsement cycle started with an empty cycle group completes immediately. Acknowledgement cycles never complete on their own.
• Very large cycles cap the detail shown for pending participants; the counts and the View Cycle Users report remain available.

Related

• Cycles — cycle types, approved versions, and state icons
• Set up a cycle group
• Act on your to-do items
• Setting repository policies — comment and signature requirements for cycle actions