# Enabling Study, Study Country, & Study Site Lifecycles

You can manage your _Study_, _Study Country_, and _Study Site_ records with an object lifecycle. When you manage TMF objects with lifecycles, you'll need to configure lifecycle state user actions for users to change records' states. You can also [configure workflows](/en/lr/33550/) for your _Study Site_ records to auto-fill fields with the parent record's values.

## How to Enable Lifecycles for TMF Objects {#enable}

From **Admin > Settings > Application Settings**, select the **Enable Lifecycle for Study, Study Country, and Site** checkbox. After you click **Save**, the enablement process may take a minute.

Once you enable this feature, you cannot disable it. You also cannot stop using the standard lifecycles on your TMF objects without deleting all object records and related object workflows. Carefully plan prior to enabling this feature and check that this won't break any of your integrations.

We recommend removing the _Status_ (`status__v`) and _Site Status_ (`site_status__v`) object fields from the [object page layout](/en/lr/26387/) to avoid confusion with the status as lifecycle state.

## Standard Lifecycles for TMF Objects

Enabling lifecycles for TMF objects provisions standard lifecycles. You cannot associate TMF objects with custom lifecycles, but you can make [configuration changes](/en/lr/30683/) to the standard lifecycles as needed.

  * _Study Lifecycle_
  * _Study Country Lifecycle_
  * _Site Lifecycle_

The standard lifecycle states correspond to the _Status_ field on your TMF objects. When using lifecycles, changing the _Status_ of a study object no longer cascades changes to country and site records. You must initiate a user action on each record to change its state.

When you create a new state or edit an existing state in one of these three lifecycles, choose a _Status_ to associate with the state from the **Set Record Status to** picklist.

## Archiving Study Records with Lifecycles

You can [configure your Vault so that users with the appropriate access can archive a study](/en/lr/66651/). When configured, Vault moves all study documents into the [Vault archive](/en/lr/34126/) and moves the study, its countries, and its sites to the _Archived_ lifecycle state. Archiving a study will also move EDLs and certain study-related records to _Inactive_ status.

## Licensing Enforcement

The number of sites for licensing purposes includes all sites in states not associated with the _Inactive_ lifecycle state. The number of inactive sites includes only sites in the _Inactive_ state.