What do the different task statuses mean and how do transitions work?

A task in ComplyBar is always in exactly one of six statuses:

1. Prep Pending — The task is waiting on its assignee to do the work. This is where every task starts.

2. Pending Review — The assignee has submitted the work and it's waiting on the reviewer.

3. Pending Approval — The reviewer has passed it along and it's waiting on the approver.

4. Complete — The task is signed off and done.

5. Blocked — The task can't be worked yet because a task it depends on isn't finished. ComplyBar sets and clears this automatically as dependencies resolve; you don't move a task into Blocked by hand.

6. Skipped — An admin has marked the task as not applicable this period, with a reason. It counts as done for milestones and dependencies, and is never counted as overdue.

The review chain adapts to who's assigned. If a task has no reviewer, submitting it goes straight to Pending Approval; if it has neither a reviewer nor an approver, the assignee marks it Complete directly.

Moving forward. Use the checkbox on the task row, or pick the option from the status pill in the task drawer. You only see options you're allowed to take: the assignee advances from Prep Pending, the reviewer from Pending Review, the approver from Pending Approval. Admins (Account Owner, Account Admin, Manager) can act at any step.

Moving backward. A reviewer can send a task back to Prep Pending, an approver can send it back to Pending Review, and an admin can reopen a Complete task. All three require a written reason, which is saved to the task's activity log and emailed to whoever the task lands on. See "How do I send a task back for rework?" for detail.

Everything is enforced in the database. The rules above live in a Postgres function and trigger, not just in the UI, so an invalid or unauthorized status change is rejected at the data layer no matter how it's attempted. Once a period is locked, all transitions on its tasks are refused — admins included.