Outcomes

Outcomes lists each “ending” of the version, with the choices a person picks from when work ends there, such as Success or Bid Lost. Each choice is an “outcome”. The template only gives the choices; which one applies is picked when a project finishes. Every ending needs at least one outcome before the version can be published.

In the template editor, select Outcomes in the left menu. It comes after Stages.

Under How work can end, one box per ending, with its name and how many outcomes it has. In the box, one line per outcome, a trash icon to delete it, and a box with Add for a new one. Only stages marked as an ending show here. When there are none yet, the section says “No stage is marked as an ending yet. Mark one on the Stages page and it will appear here.”

An ending with no outcomes also offers a button that adds, in one go, the reasons RealAdvice already reports on. Which set it offers depends on where the ending sits in the work:

• Add an outcome: type its name in the empty box under an ending, and select Add.
• Rename an outcome: type over its name, then select somewhere else.
• Delete an outcome: select the trash icon beside it.
• Add the usual reasons to an ending that has none, with the button above its empty box.

A department manager or a company administrator changes the outcomes of a draft. Anyone with a role in the department can read them. On a published or retired version, the lines are grayed out and nothing can be added.

• While an ending has no outcomes, a message names it, for example “Filed has no outcomes, so publishing will be refused. Give each one at least one way it can end.”
• Deleting an outcome asks first: “If it is the last one on this ending, publishing will be refused until another is added.”
• One ending cannot offer two outcomes with the same name: “This stage already offers an outcome with that name.”