Projects and their statuses

The statuses a project moves through, what causes each change, how to cancel or delete a project, what you can still edit, and how projects count toward your plan.

A project is one piece of work for one account. It holds the invoices you bill for that work, and it can hold an offer, which is the proposal you send your client.

The offer is optional. A project without one is a simple project: it keeps your invoices together, and nothing is sent to your client. You choose the kind when you create the project, and you can add an offer to a simple project later.

Project statuses

Status	What it means
Draft	You are building the offer. Nothing has been sent, and everything is editable.
Offer Pending	You sent the offer and are waiting for your client to respond.
Active	The work is under way. On a project with an offer, it means your client accepted.
Completed	You marked the work as finished.
Rejected	Your client declined the offer.
Cancelled	You stopped the work yourself.

Draft, Offer Pending and Rejected only apply to a project with an offer. A simple project starts Active and only moves between Active, Completed and Cancelled.

On the project page and in the project list, an Offer Pending project shows as Pending. Once the offer’s Offer Valid Until date has passed, it shows as Expired instead.

The offer has no status of its own. It always shows the project’s status, so an accepted offer and an Active project mean the same thing.

How a project changes status

Change	What causes it
Draft → Offer Pending	You send the offer.
Offer Pending → Active	Your client accepts the offer on the share link.
Offer Pending → Rejected	Your client declines the offer on the share link.
Active → Completed	You complete the project.
Active or Offer Pending → Cancelled	You cancel the project.
Offer Pending or Rejected → Draft	You withdraw the offer, or invalidate a signed contract.
Completed or Cancelled → an open status	You reopen the project.
Active → Draft	You add an offer to a simple project.

Rejected and Cancelled both close a project without completing it. Rejected only ever comes from your client declining on the share link. Cancelled is always your decision.

When you withdraw an offer to Draft, the link your client has stops working. When you send the offer again, your client gets a new link and a new code.

Billow asks you to confirm before adding an offer to a simple project moves it to Draft. See Simple projects.

Cancel a project

You can cancel a project that is Active or Offer Pending, including a simple project.

Open the project.
Click Cancel Project at the bottom of the page.
Click Cancel Project in the dialog to confirm.

Billow shows “Project cancelled.” and the status changes to Cancelled.

Cancelled projects

The offer number, the share link and both signatures stay as they were.
Your client’s view of the offer turns into a receipt that shows how the offer ended.
A cancelled project with an offer cannot be edited, and Edit Project is hidden.
Cancelled projects cannot be invoiced.

Reopening a cancelled project returns it to the status it had before. It becomes Active if it was a simple project or your client had already accepted the offer, and Offer Pending if the offer was still waiting for your client. Like reopening a completed project, this needs a free slot in your plan. See Completing and reopening a project.

What you can edit

Status	What you can change
Draft	Everything, including Offer Date and Offer Valid Until.
Offer Pending or Rejected	Nothing in place. Editing the offer first asks you to withdraw it (Offer Pending) or revert it (Rejected) to Draft. After that, everything is editable again, including Offer Date and Offer Valid Until.
Active, Completed or Cancelled	Nothing. Edit Project is hidden, so the offer, the project name, the contact and the summary all stay as they are.

A simple project stays editable at every status.

You can only create invoices while a project is Active. Invoices you already created are not affected by the offer being locked.

Every saved edit that changes something appears in the project’s activity feed as “[name] edited this project” or “[name] edited this offer”.

Changing the account

The account on a project locks earlier than the rest. Once the project has an invoice, including one you have deleted, or once its offer has been sent, the Account field is greyed out and tells you why:

This project has invoices, so its client can no longer change.

This project’s offer has been sent, so its client can no longer change.

A project in Draft or Rejected with no invoices keeps its account editable.

Delete a project

Only workspace owners and admins can delete a project.

Open the project.
Click Delete Project at the bottom of the page.
Click Delete in the dialog to confirm.

If the project cannot be deleted, the Delete Project button is disabled and shows the reason.

When a project can’t be deleted

A project with a live invoice can never be deleted. Invoices you have already deleted do not block it.

A simple project can be deleted at any status. A project with an offer must also be Draft, Offer Pending, Rejected or Cancelled.

Reason	Message
The project has a live invoice	Projects with invoices cannot be deleted.
The project with an offer is Active or Completed	Active or completed projects cannot be deleted.
The project was cancelled after your client accepted the offer	This project has a client-accepted offer and cannot be deleted.