# Working with Checklists Checklists are a data entry method that allows you to respond to a series of questions in a form-filling UI. Users can also review the answered checklist in the same UI. There are two ways to start a checklist: through a configured user action or as a lifecycle state entry action on an object record. Starting a checklist creates a task and assigns it to one or more respondents. To respond to the checklist, the assigned user can open it through a link on the task. ## Starting Checklists {#start} Depending on your configuration, you can start a checklist through either a lifecycle state change (with configured entry action) or a user action on the object record. When you start a checklist through a user action, Vault automatically assigns the workflow owner as the checklist respondent. When starting through an entry action, Vault relies on the entry action configuration to determine the respondents. During configuration, an Admin chooses a role from the object. Any users in that role at the time when the lifecycle state change occurs will see the checklist task as an available task. ### Checklist Creation Processing Time Checklist creation occurs "asynchronously," meaning that there may be a delay before you see the task and checklist record, particularly on vaults with a lot of activity. Once you start a checklist, Vault puts the action in a queue with other asynchronous tasks. To prevent duplicate checklists, Vault does not allow you to create a new checklist for the same object record during this delay. ## Responding to Checklists {#responding} You can see any checklists that you need to respond to from **Home > My Tasks**. If a task is not yet assigned but is available to you, you can see it in **Home >** [**Available Tasks**](/en/lr/972/) for you to accept. If you navigate directly to the checklist, you can also accept the available task in the checklist respondent UI from the workflow task banner.
### How to Respond {#respond} To open and respond to the checklist, click the link within the task description. Each section in the checklist appears as a separate page in the checklist respondent UI. Respond to each question within a section and click **Next** when finished. You can return to a previous section using the navigation panel on the left. If your Admin provided guidance for how to answer a question, you can hover over the question to see the question mark icon (**?**) in the top right corner of the question. Click the question mark icon (**?**) to display the guidance text. Checklist responses are saved by batch. This means that some responses may not be immediately available in the audit trail until they are batch saved to the record. The **Comments** field allows the following character limits based on the comment type configured by your Admin: Text (1,500), Long Text (32,000), Rich Text (32,000). The Rich Text formatting toolbar is not available on [mobile devices][0]. In the 25R2 release, the **Comments (Rich Text)** field is used to store the respondent's comments instead of the **Comments** field.
### How to Add Questions {#ad-hoc} If configured, you can add questions to a checklist instance on an ad hoc basis. This may be useful if you want to submit responses that are not otherwise captured in the checklist. Click on the **Create** button and select **Question** to add a question to the checklist. In the dialog, enter the **Question Text**. Click **Continue** to add the question to the end of the section you are currently viewing. Then, enter your response as you would for any other question. You can click the **Pencil** icon to edit the question text or the delete icon to remove the question from the checklist.
### How to Add Documents Depending on the way a question was configured, you may be allowed or required to attach one or more documents related to your number, text, date, or multiple choice answer. Beginning in 20R1, documents can also be allowed or required based on an answer choice for multiple choice questions when configured by an Admin using the **Documents Allowed** and **Documents Required** fields. If attaching documents is allowed when configured by an Admin using the **Attachment Allowed (Document)** field, the _Related Document_ label appears in the response UI. If attaching documents is required when configured by an Admin using the **Attachment Required (Document)** field, the _Related Document\*_ label appears in the response UI with an asterisk. To attach one or more related documents, click **+Add**, then select the appropriate documents. If the question is configured to allow a single document, the _Select Document_ dialog closes after you select a document. If you are allowed or required to select multiple documents, the _Select Document_ dialog remains in view until you select the appropriate number of documents, and then click **Close**. The selected document or documents displays in the _Related Document_ section.
### How to Add Sections If configured, you can add sections to a checklist instance. Click the **Create** button and select **Section** to add a section to the checklist. In the dialog, enter a **Name** and optional **Description**. Click **Continue** to add the section to the end of the checklist instance. From there, you can add new questions to the section. You can click the **Pencil** icon to edit the section name and description or the **X** icon to remove it from the checklist. You can only delete a section you've added if there are no questions in it. ### How to Complete a Checklist On the final section, click **Review** to see a summary of all responses. On the review page, you'll also see dependent questions that did not appear for you. These will be greyed out. Dependent questions are those that can appear or not, depending on the answer given for another question. If all responses are correct, click **Complete** to open the _Complete Checklist_ dialog. Provide any required information, and then click **Complete**. This final step also marks the task as complete. ## Reviewing Checklist Responses {#review} You can access a completed checklist from **Business Admin > Objects > Checklists** (with Business Admin permissions), or from a _Related Records_ section on an object record page. When you click into the checklist, Vault displays the same UI as you use to give responses, but without options for editing responses. You can click through each section using the **Next** and **Back** buttons, or jump directly to a specific section using the navigation panel on the left. If you added any related documents as part of a response to a question, the documents are listed on the review page. You can hover over the link to view a thumbnail for each related document. ## Canceling and Deleting Checklists {#canceling-deleting-checklists} Depending on the way a checklist was configured and as long as the Checklist is not in the completed lifecycle state, you may be able to cancel a checklist response using the _Cancel Workflow_ user action. After canceling the checklist, you can delete the checklist and its related records by clicking the **Actions** menu and selecting the **Delete** action. You can also delete a _Checklist_ in the _Not Started_ lifecycle state.
## Accessing Checklists from Mobile Devices {#mobile-checklists} A mobile-optimized version of the UI allows you to respond to checklists from your mobile device's web browser. With the few exceptions listed below, you can answer questions, upload attachments, add related Vault documents, review your answers, and complete checklists. The following types of checklists currently do not support the mobile-optimized view: * QualityOne: * Quality Event Checklists * Audit Checklists * Quizzes * Quality: * Audit Checklists with Findings
[0]: #mobile-checklists