A transaction's Workflow tab holds four sections, shown one at a time. The rail on the left, On this tab, lists them. Every section except Activity has a count beside it (the forms in the saved set, the purchase-timeline steps waiting on you, and the transaction's dates), so you can see what's waiting without opening every section:
- Forms this deal needs: the forms the transaction calls for, built from a short questionnaire and the property's address. Its count is the forms in the set; a transaction with no set yet shows, flagged, the forms its address needs that aren't added.
- Purchase timeline: where the transaction sits on a typical California purchase timeline, checked off as your documents prove each step.
- Milestones: every date the transaction turns on.
- Activity: the documents that moved the transaction, in the order they took effect.
Click a section in the rail (on a phone, in the row of buttons across the top), or click the section named beside Next section at the bottom. J and K move down and up through the sections. When Purchase timeline has steps waiting on you, its count is flagged.
On a larger screen, two links beneath the rail, See these dates on the Calendar and View this transaction's activity in the Audit log, open the same dates on the workspace Calendar and this transaction's entries in the Audit log. They aren't shown on a phone: open Calendar or Audit Log from the menu instead.
Forms this deal needs
The Workflow tab opens here. Answer what you know about the deal and you get a suggested set of the forms it may need: the California Association of REALTORS® (C.A.R.) forms, the government forms that ride along, and the county, city and district forms the property's address calls for, each one with the reason it's on the list. LetterScript names the forms and counts the copies. It doesn't fill them in, and the set may be incomplete: check it against your broker's requirements. The form set covers the questionnaire, the questions about the property, suggested answers, marking forms collected, the CSV export, and the government and local forms. Once a set is saved, Export as CSV in the section header downloads it as it stands, and Review first… beside it opens the forms list on a review screen, to leave rows off before you download it or attach it to an email (see Send and share from a transaction).
Purchase timeline
Purchase timeline is the transaction's checklist: every step on a typical California purchase timeline (built around the C.A.R. purchase agreement's default schedule), phase by phase, checked off automatically as your documents prove them. It's there from the start. A transaction with no documents yet shows every step still ahead, and its first step (uploading the purchase agreement, or the listing agreement on the seller side) is the next one.
- Next: the banner at the top says what to do next and when: by a date, or was due once that date has passed. Click Mark done once it's handled, and the next step takes its place.
- Proven steps: a step a document proved shows that document's icon. Click it to open the document. A proven step can't be unticked, because the document is the reason it's done. A step the transaction's dates or status settled can't be unticked here either. Hover its circle to see which. To reopen one the dates settled, mark that date not done in the Milestones section.
- Contingencies and notices: a contingency a signed contingency removal took out is checked off, the same as it shows Done on the transaction's dates. So is the investigation contingency once a request for repair is agreed, because the agreed request removes it by its own terms, unless the form keeps part of it back or leaves the removal to a separate contingency removal. A removal made on a request for repair waits until that repair is agreed. Remove contingencies is checked off only once the removals, between them, take out every contingency the buyer has. A removal that keeps one back, such as ALL … EXCEPT the loan, stays linked on the step while the step stays open, dated by the contingencies still outstanding. A Notice to perform step stays open until a removal signed after the notice does what it demanded, the same as the transaction's status and its cure date. Once that date passes, the step says the period has ended. If the notice gives less time than the contract requires, the step says it may be void and asks you to confirm it. When the notice is a notice to seller to perform (NSP), the step names the seller as the one to act: the seller performs by the cure date, and once it passes, the buyer who served the notice may cancel in writing (CC) or the parties can agree an extension, if the seller hasn't performed. LetterScript can't see a seller's performance, such as a delivery or a repair, so mark the step done once it happens. Removals and notices LetterScript read before these checks existed keep the earlier rule until they're read again: a signed removal on file checks both steps off. A transaction you marked at risk yourself keeps the notice step open, whatever removal is on file, until you change its status. Marking the notice step done answers the notice it was dated by: when a later notice is served, or is already on file, the step moves on to it, opens again and says your mark was for the earlier one. Reopen in its ⋯ menu takes that mark back and puts the earlier notice's cure date back on the calendar. If the later notice is then cured by a signed removal, or deleted, the step goes back to the earlier notice and reads done again, the same as its cure date. When the notice dating the step is a demand to close escrow (DCE), the step says closing is the only cure, since no removal answers a demand to close, and once its date passes it says a party who has performed may cancel, or the parties can extend the close. An extension both sides sign after the demand, moving the close past its date, ends the demand, and the step moves on, the same as its cure date.
- Offer on file: on the seller side, a purchase agreement or counter offer on file checks off the listing step. An addendum or amendment both sides signed shows the offer was accepted, so it checks off the acceptance step (and, on the seller side, the listing step) even before the contract it amends is uploaded. A purchase agreement the seller signed only subject to a counter offer, or a counter offer only one side signed, doesn't check off the acceptance step. Until an offer is accepted, the seller side doesn't ask you to issue a notice to buyer to perform. The acceptance step takes its date from the contract paper: the purchase agreement, a counter offer, an addendum or an amendment. A listing addendum's or an extension's date never dates it. Under the C.A.R. forms, acceptance happens when the signed acceptance is delivered to the other side or their agent, which can be later than the date read (the Confirmation of Acceptance date, or the seller's signature date when that line is blank); if it was, correct the acceptance date under Milestones. While the document behind that date is still being classified, the step keeps the date.
- Earnest money: no document proves a deposit landed, so mark the step done once escrow confirms it.
- Overdue: a step whose date has passed with nothing to prove it is flagged, including the next step itself.
- Marking steps yourself: click a step's circle to mark it done, or use its ⋯ menu for Mark done, Not applicable, or Reopen. A step settled by hand carries the first name of whoever settled it (You for your own), or N/A; hover over it to see who and when. When finishing a step is its date, such as the deposit, a delivery, the walk-through or close, marking it done also marks the date done, and Not applicable marks the date N/A, so it comes off your connected calendar, Follow Up Boss tasks and deadline alerts. A step only dated by a contingency, such as Inspections or Appraisal, doesn't touch the contingency's removal date: that takes a signed removal. Reopen puts back what the step changed, and reopening the date itself reopens the step.
- Yours: steps marked Yours are your own custom milestones, placed among the standard steps by date. No document can prove them, so they're only ever checked off by hand.
- Side: the checklist follows the side you represent, read from the transaction's deal type. If that's wrong, pick Buyer-side, Seller-side, or Both sides (double-end) from the side button. Use the deal type puts it back.
- Filters: Hide done hides finished steps, and All parties narrows the list to the steps owned by the parties you choose.
A date marked est. is an estimate; confirm it. The steps and dates are projected from your documents. They're informational, not legal advice, and the written dates in your contract always control.
Also needed on this transaction
Beneath the checklist, Also needed on this transaction lists what this deal's facts and this property's address call for that the standard timeline doesn't, such as the addendum a loan type requires or a local requirement at sale. Each item is tagged Required, Recommended, Optional, Check, or Local, with the rule behind it. An item drops off by itself once the transaction carries what it asks for: the tenant occupied property addendum, both the FHA amendatory clause and the inspection notice, the septic inspection addendum, or a contingency removal that takes out every buyer contingency on an all-cash deal. The FHA item says when the clause is owed (the buyer signed before the lender's statement of appraised value, which is nearly every resale offer) and when it isn't: a sale of a HUD-owned or lender-owned (REO) home, a sale at foreclosure, a sale by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the VA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture or another government agency, an FHA 203(k) rehabilitation loan, or a buyer who won't live there. The app can't see those, so choose Not needed on this deal when one applies. The inspection notice is the lender's; keep its copy in the file. The VA clause has no seller exemption. On a short sale or a seller's replacement property, the item's note says what the agreement's time periods and the deposit wait for: the lenders' written consent, or the seller's written removal of the replacement-property contingency (CR-S). Those are both parties' periods that run from acceptance, the seller's disclosure deliveries included, not just the buyer's. On a short sale, keep every lender's consent letter in the file: for an individual seller whose loan is secured only by a home of up to four units, protection from a deficiency turns on it (Code of Civil Procedure §580e). On a building of three or more units, the balcony item says what the law actually requires: not the C.A.R. balcony addendum (WBSA), which splits no cost and only has the seller deliver the report from the last 6 years, but the owner's own inspection of balconies, decks, stairs and walkways that rest on wood, every 6 years for an apartment building (Health and Safety Code §17973) and at least every 9 years by a condominium association (Civil Code §5551). The owner of an apartment building keeps the reports and delivers copies to the buyer at a sale, and a sale doesn't trigger a new inspection, so ask for the most recent report. In a condominium, from January 1, 2026 the seller's homeowners association resale packet must include the most recent balcony inspection report (Civil Code §4525(a)(11)). A seller staying 30 days or more stays on the list while only the shorter-stay license (SIP) is on file, and names the lease after sale (RLAS), because the purchase agreement calls for the lease at that length (the 30-day line picks the form, not whether the law sees a tenancy); a buyer moving in 30 days or more before close names the interim occupancy agreement (IOA) the same way. A lease for the property itself counts as evidence of a tenant, while a lease for a different address doesn't. A notice to perform is running is listed for each notice to buyer or seller to perform still waiting to be cured, and names it with the day it was served. Only the noticed party's own performance of what the notice demanded cures it. When that is a contingency removal, the item goes away by itself once the party the notice names signs one after it that removes what it demanded: a removal by the other side, or one signed before the notice, doesn't count, and nothing a buyer removes answers a notice to the seller. When the notice demanded something else, such as the seller's documents or repairs, or the buyer's deposit, the app can't see it done: once it is, choose Not needed on this deal on the item, which covers the notices it lists then, or mark the timeline's cure step done for the notice it's dated by. A notice served later lists the item again. A blank notice form isn't counted. A demand to close escrow is its own item, A demand to close escrow is running, with the contract's three-day rule (RPA ¶14G): closing answers it, and no removal does; an extension both sides sign after it that moves the close past its date ends it too. Removals and notices read before these checks existed keep the earlier rule here as well, the same as on the timeline's notice step. The Mello-Roos item names whose notice of special tax it is, reading it the way the form set does. On a resale it's the seller's good-faith notice (Civil Code §1102.6b). When the seller is the subdivider, by your answer to the subdivider question under About this property in the form set, or a public-report answer there, it's the subdivider's notice (Government Code §53341.5), whichever purchase agreement is used, the RPA included: the buyer receives and signs it before signing the purchase contract, and may cancel within 3 days of getting it in person or 5 days after it was mailed. The resale notice is then not owed, and it never applies to a sale under a public report; a 1915 Act assessment alone keeps the seller's notice only on a sale that owes the Transfer Disclosure Statement. A questionnaire answer that calls the sale a resale outranks a public-report answer left over from earlier, as it does in the form set. On a new-home deal where that question is still open, the item explains both. On a New Construction Purchase Agreement (NCPA) only, New construction — watch for the seller's certificate of occupancy notice says the close is the earlier of the contract's date and 10 days after the buyer gets that notice (NCPA ¶1D); the notice of completion form (NCNC) on file answers it. The fire-hardening item is Required in a high or very high fire zone, but Optional when the form set's answers put the sale under a Transfer Disclosure Statement exemption, such as an executor's or a lender's resale, since the fire disclosures are in the same law, unless the address carries a local fire ordinance (a city, county or fire district inspection), which applies whoever sells. When someone signs in a representative capacity, the representative capacity item says a completed entity paragraph in the purchase agreement (RPA ¶32B for a buyer, ¶33B for a seller) takes the disclosure form's place, so choose Not needed on this deal once it is filled in; and Evidence of the signer's authority is due 3 Days after acceptance gives the due date and what to collect for a trustee, an attorney-in-fact, an estate or an entity. A representative capacity signature disclosure (RCSD) on file doesn't answer that one: choose Not needed on this deal once the evidence is delivered. Leased or liened items appears only when something points at one: the TDS lists solar, a propane tank, a water softener or an alarm system, or the parcel's tax roll carries a PACE assessment. Leased solar the TDS doesn't list isn't caught here, so the timeline's Leased & liened items step is still the reminder. Not needed on this deal stops suggesting an item on this transaction. It doesn't mark anything done. On a Local item it also marks that requirement N/A on the Files tab, the same as choosing Not applicable from its Override… menu there. Open What the engine read from this deal to see the facts the suggestions came from.
On a manufactured home or mobilehome, the county's year built dates the lot (in a park, the park's), not the home. So the panel reads Built before 1978: unknown (manufactured home) until you give the home's own year, and the lead-based paint item waits for it. Meanwhile a Check item, Manufactured home — get the home's own build year, asks for it: read the year off the home's data plate, its federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) label or its registration card from the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), and answer the year question under About this property in the form set. Ticking Built before 1978 in the questionnaire counts too.
When a court confirms the sale, Court-confirmed sale — escrow waits for the order confirming it is listed as soon as the court confirmation addendum (CCA) or the court's report of sale (DE-260/GC-060) is on the transaction. Title doesn't pass until the court confirms the sale, another buyer can overbid at the confirmation hearing, and escrow closes on the order confirming the sale (DE-265/GC-065), so the item goes away once that order is on file. A receiver's or a bankruptcy trustee's sale is approved on that court's own order instead: choose Not needed on this deal once you have it. On a purchase agreement for five or more units, a commercial property, vacant land or a business, the item saying the timeline doesn't fit also names the statewide duties that don't depend on the property being a home of one to four units, such as the water-heater bracing certification, the fixture disclosure for a building built on or before January 1, 1994, and the hazard-zone disclosures, and, on non-residential property only, the owner's written notice of a known or suspected hazardous-substance release (Health and Safety Code §78700). The assumed-loan item says that taking title subject to the seller's loan isn't an assumption, and that a seller who is personally liable on the loan stays liable until the lender releases them in writing; the seller carry-back item says that, where California withholding applies, the buyer withholds on each later installment and files a Form 593 with each payment.
Milestones and Activity
- Milestones is where you review and edit the transaction's dates: those derived from the contract, and those you add. Dates sheet at the top downloads them as a one-page PDF, and Review first… beside it opens the sheet on a review screen, to check or correct the dates before you download it or attach it to an email. See Deadlines and the timeline. Nothing here emails anyone: the only deadline nudges are the push alerts the mobile app can send to the transaction's creator.
- Activity shows the transaction's current status and the document that set it (or, for a status someone set by hand, who set it and when, with a pin), then, under Documents on the timeline, every document in the order it took effect, not the order it was uploaded. Each is labelled by what it did (Establishes, Amends, Settles, Lifecycle, or Context) and links to the document.
If the transaction is shared with you as view-only, you see every section, but the controls that change it are hidden or greyed out. See Share a transaction with collaborators.