What Happens to Documents When You Restart a Workflow-Based Stage Gate?

If a stage gate is restarted, what happens to the documents that were already synced to the project?

The short answer is simple: nothing is lost.

If documents from the workflow card were already synced to the project, they stay on the project. Restarting the gate does not remove them or roll them back.

What happens next depends on whether the document on the workflow card stays the same or is updated before the gate is approved again.

When a stage gate is restarted (see Restarting Stage Gates), the existing documents on the project are not deleted or changed. However, if the approval action is subsequently modified with new or updated documents and re-submitted through the workflow, the following process occurs:

Step-by-Step: Document Sync After a Gate Restart

1. Gate is restarted — The gate reopens and the associated action returns to its initial state. Documents already synced to the project remain untouched.

2. User updates documents on the action — New files are uploaded or existing files are replaced on the approval action.

3. Action progresses through the workflow again — The updated action moves through the approval process.

4. Document sync is triggered — When the action reaches the sync point, the system compares the action's documents with what already exists on the project.

5. Existing project documents are archived — The system identifies documents on the project that match the re-submitted documents (matched by source property key or filename). These existing documents are archived — not deleted.

6. New versions are created — The updated documents are copied to the project with an incremented version number.

7. Protection is applied — If the Protected Document Workflow feature is enabled, both the new document copies and the source documents on the action are marked as protected.

For PMOs, this means a restarted gate does not break the audit trail.

You do not lose previously approved documents, and you do not need to worry about old versions being overwritten without a trace. If a document changes and is approved again, Fluid keeps both the current version and the history of earlier versions.

That makes it easier to answer questions like:

• What was approved the first time?

• What changed before the second approval?

• Which version is the current approved version?

When documents are synced from a workflow card to a project:

• they are added to a folder named after the workflow board

• the latest approved version stays in the active folder

• older versions move to Archive

• archived versions stay grouped under the same folder name

So the project always shows the current approved document clearly, while still keeping the earlier versions available for reference.

This is worth calling out because it often causes confusion.

If a gate is restarted and approved again, but the document on the workflow card is still the same document as before, Fluid does not create a duplicate copy on the project.

In other words, re-approval on its own does not automatically create a new version. A new version is only created when the document being synced has changed.

Every time a document is synced from an approval action to a project, the system checks whether a previous version already exists:

When a newer version of a document is synced to the project:

• The previous version is marked as archived 📦

• Archived documents are not deleted — they remain in the system

• Archived documents are excluded from active document lists but can still be accessed for audit purposes

• The new version becomes the active document on the project

The system uses two methods to identify whether a synced document is an update to an existing one:

1. Source Property Key matching (primary) — Documents are matched by the custom property field they were uploaded through. This is the most reliable method and handles scenarios where filenames change between submissions.

2. Filename matching (fallback) — If no source property key is available, documents are matched by filename. This supports legacy uploads.

Important: Because matching uses the source property key, you can upload a completely different file (with a different name) through the same upload field, and the system will correctly identify it as a new version of the previous document from that field.

When the Protected Document Workflow feature is enabled, the following rules apply:

• 🔒 Cannot be deleted — Protected documents cannot be removed by any user, including administrators

• 🔒 Cannot be overwritten — Uploading a file with the same name will not replace a protected document

• ✅ Can be viewed and downloaded — All users with appropriate project access can still view and download protected documents

• ✅ Can be archived — The system can archive protected documents when newer versions are synced (archiving is not the same as deletion)

• When the Protected Document Workflow feature is turned off, documents behave normally and are not marked as protected.

• Documents uploaded outside of the approval workflow (e.g., directly on the project) are not automatically protected by this feature.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  1. GATE CLOSED (Approved/Rejected)                 │
│     Documents synced to project (Version 1)         │
│     Documents marked as protected (if feature on)   │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  2. GATE RESTARTED                                  │
│     Gate reopened, action reset                     │
│     ⚡ Existing project documents NOT affected       │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  3. DOCUMENTS UPDATED ON ACTION                     │
│     User uploads new/revised files                  │
└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┘
                       │
                       ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  4. ACTION RE-SUBMITTED & SYNCED                    │
│     Version 1 documents → ARCHIVED 📦               │
│     New documents → Created as Version 2 🆕         │
│     All documents marked PROTECTED 🔒               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘