Visual Space manual, Goals, Finish And Review Goals

Finishing a goal has two stages. First, a goal editor moves the goal into a column whose category is `Done`. Later, a space owner or goal manager can clear that whole column from the active board into Done Goals history. This walkthrough takes you through both stages and helps you check the result before the completed work becomes a lasting read-only record.

Finishing a goal has two stages. First, a goal editor moves the goal into a column whose category is Done. Later, a space owner or goal manager can clear that whole column from the active board into Done Goals history. This walkthrough takes you through both stages and helps you check the result before the completed work becomes a lasting read-only record.

Before You Finish The Work

You must be signed in and have access to the space, subspace, or activity that owns the goal. A goal's reporter, its direct assignee, current members of an assigned role, space owners, and goal managers can change that goal's status when their access permits it. Only space owners and goal managers can clear a Done-category column.

A column can have a community-specific name such as Approved or Shipped while still belonging to the Done category. The category, rather than the visible name, determines whether moving a goal there marks it complete and whether the column offers Clear Done.

Before changing the status, decide whether the article tells the finished story clearly. The title may be enough for a small result, but substantial work benefits from a final note, supporting context, or discussion that members can understand later.

Mark A Goal Complete

•

Open the owning Goals area - Go to the board for the space, subspace, or activity where the goal belongs. Check the area name before making the change, especially when similarly named goals appear on wider boards.

•

Review the goal - Select its card to open the article beside the board. Confirm that the outcome, useful links, and final context are in place before completion.

•

Choose a Done status - In the article details, open Status and select a column in the Done category. From a board card, you can instead open its menu, choose Change Status, and select the same column.

•

Use direct movement when useful - On a board that is not narrowed by search or filters, a permitted editor can also drag the card into the intended Done-category column. The status menu is the clearer choice when the board is filtered or dragging is inconvenient.

•

Verify completion - Close the article panel if needed and find the card in the intended column. It should remain visible on the active board. At this point the goal is complete, but it has not yet entered Done Goals history.

Leaving completed cards on the board for a short review period gives members time to verify the result or add missing context. Moving a goal back to an active category before the column is cleared makes it active again.

Done 1 keeps VS-27 visible on the active board, while View Done leads to the distinct history of goals that were already cleared.

Prepare The Whole Column For Clearing

Clear Done is a column-level action, not a one-goal action. It clears every active goal in the selected Done-category column within the current Goals area, including cards hidden by search or filters.

•

Confirm the area - Check whether you are viewing the intended space, subspace, or activity. Clearing follows that current scope.

•

Reveal the complete column - Clear any search term, assignee filter, and color-tag filter. Filters do not limit what Clear Done affects, so use the full view to inspect everything that will move.

•

Keep unfinished work active - Move any goal that still needs changes, review, or visible follow-up into an appropriate active column before clearing.

•

Open important articles - Revisit any goal whose preserved explanation matters. Clearing keeps the article, but the goal's workflow will no longer be editable or movable from the completed history.

•

Check the column count - Compare the visible cards and the column total so the scope feels intentional before you continue.

Clearing is lasting in the current release. Cleared goals cannot return to the active board. They are not deleted—their references, articles, and available context remain in Done Goals—but there is no restore or undo action.

Clear The Done Column

•

Open column actions - In the header of the intended Done-category column, open More actions. The menu is available to the space owner and goal managers.

•

Choose Clear Done - Select Clear Done. The action takes effect immediately; there is no separate confirmation screen, so the review above is your safety check.

•

Verify the board - The goals should leave the column while the column itself remains in the workflow. New goals can enter it later and stay on the board until the next clear.

If the clear cannot be saved, Visual Space restores the goals to the board and reports that the server may be offline. Do not assume the archive changed; resolve the connection problem, recheck the column, and retry only when its full contents are still ready.

Review Done Goals

Any signed-in member who can access the current Goals area can review its completed history.

•

Open the history - Select View Done in a Done-category column header. You can also open the Goals activity options and choose Done Goals.

•

Check the newest results - The ungrouped history shows cleared goals from newest to oldest. Confirm that the goals you just cleared appear near the start of the list.

•

Open a completed goal - Select a row to open its article beside the history. Review the preserved objective, explanation, discussion, and other context available to you.

•

Close the article panel - Return to the same place in the Done Goals list. The history remains read-only, so its rows do not offer status, assignment, tag, ordering, or board-placement actions.

Older completed goals load as you continue through the history. The view follows the current area and its access rules, so an activity-level history can be smaller than the space-wide history.

Group The History By Time

Grouping helps you review progress at the scale that fits the conversation. It changes only the presentation of completed work.

•

Open Done Goals options - Use the options menu in the Done Goals header.

•

Choose a time scale - Select Group by Days for a detailed review, Group by Months for a broader progress view, or Group by Years for a long-running record. Choose No grouping to return to one newest-first list.

•

Read the group summary - Each group shows its completion period and the number of completed goals currently loaded for it. When participant information is available, it can also show leading contributors for that period.

•

Verify the change - The history returns to its beginning when you switch grouping. Open a row and confirm that the same article context remains available regardless of the chosen time scale.

The groups use each goal's recorded completion time. Older goals without that information appear under Earlier rather than being left out.

Return To Active Planning

•

Choose Board - Select Board in the Done Goals header. As an alternative, open Done Goals options and choose Goals.

•

Confirm the result - You should be back in the same Goals area. The cleared column remains available for new completed work, while its previous goals remain only in Done Goals history.

The active board is now easier to scan, and the community still has a readable record of what was accomplished.

Common Problems

I can move a goal to Done but cannot see Clear Done.

Editing one goal does not grant control of the whole board. Only the space owner or a goal manager can clear a column, and the option appears only when that column belongs to the Done category.

The column has a completed-sounding name but no clear action.

Its underlying category may be To Do or In Progress. Ask a goal manager to review the workflow category instead of relying on the column name.

I want to clear only the cards shown by a filter.

Do not use Clear Done for that result. It affects the whole selected column in the current area, including hidden cards. Clear the filters and move goals that should remain active before proceeding.

The goals reappeared after I cleared the column.

The clear may not have been saved. If Visual Space reports that the server may be offline, the restored cards are the safety result. Recheck connectivity and the column contents before trying again.

I cannot edit a completed row.

Done Goals is a read-only history. You can open the article to review its context, but you cannot change its workflow fields or return it to the board in the current release.

The history is empty or missing goals I expected.

Confirm that you opened Done Goals from the correct space area and that the column was actually cleared, rather than only moved into a Done status. Private-area membership also controls which completed goals you can see.

Related Guidance

Read Completed Goals for the difference between Done, cleared, and deleted work. See Board And Workflow for status categories and editing boundaries, or return to Goals for the complete planning model.