How do I delete a sequence?

How do I delete a sequence?

You can delete a sequence yourself, at any status, and you decide whether the people in it keep what they submitted.

Deleting used to mean asking us. It no longer does. A sequence can now be deleted from its own options menu whether it is a draft, active or archived, and the confirmation tells you exactly what the deletion will cost before you agree to it. Documents people already submitted are kept by default, and there is a separate option if you genuinely want those gone too.

Caution
Deleting a sequence cannot be undone. There is no recycle bin for sequences and our team cannot restore one afterwards. If any of the progress or reporting matters to you, export it before you delete. Archiving is the reversible option.

1. Where do I find Delete?

On the sequence options menu, in the same place as Archive.

Go to Sequences, find the sequence, and open its options menu. You will see:

  1. Delete on a draft, as before. A draft has nobody in it, so it is removed after a simple confirmation.
  2. Archive and Delete on an active sequence. Archive retires it reversibly, Delete removes it for good.
  3. Unarchive and Delete on an archived sequence.

Choosing Delete on an active or archived sequence opens the Delete sequence window rather than deleting anything straight away.

2. What does that window tell me?

What the deletion would actually cost, counted from your real data before you decide.

It shows three figures:

  1. People assigned, everyone who was ever put into this sequence.
  2. People finished, how many of them completed it.
  3. Records to be deleted, which stays at zero unless you tick the option in the next question.

It also warns you if rules elsewhere in Vome point at this sequence, for example an announcement audience, a visibility rule or an automation that checks whether someone finished it. Those rules are left exactly as they are, so they simply stop matching anyone until you edit them.

3. What happens if I just delete it?

The sequence goes. What people submitted stays on their profiles.

This is the important part, and it is the opposite of what many people expect. A signed waiver, an uploaded file, a completed course or a fillable PDF belongs to the person and to the item they completed, not to the sequence that asked for it. Removing the sequence does not remove those.

What is removed is the sequence itself and everyone's journey through it:

  1. The sequence, its steps and its settings
  2. Each person's assignment, their status and which steps they had reached
  3. The sequence's completion reporting and its history in your onboarding analytics

So people keep their documents. You lose the record of how they moved through this particular sequence.

4. What is the "Also delete these people's records for this sequence" option?

A separate tick box, off by default, for when you want the submissions gone as well.

Tick it and the deletion also removes the waivers, signatures, uploads, videos, checklists and course progress people completed for this sequence. This is the option to use when you have been testing, or when a sequence was built by mistake and the submissions against it are not real.

The moment you tick it, the Records to be deleted figure changes to the real number, and a line appears telling you how many records are being kept and why. Read that line before you continue.

5. How does Vome decide which records to keep?

It checks every single record against the rest of your account, one person at a time.

Entries like a waiver or a signature document are shared. The same waiver can sit on several sequences and on an opportunity. So before removing anyone's copy, Vome asks whether that person still owes it some other way. A record is kept if either of these is true:

  1. The person is still assigned to another sequence, draft or active, that uses the same entry.
  2. The person is enrolled in an opportunity that requires the same entry.

If neither is true, nothing else in your account is asking that person for it, and the record is removed. This is why you can clear up a test sequence without stripping a waiver off somebody who genuinely still needs it elsewhere.

Info
Archived sequences do not count as a reason to keep. If the only other sequence using an entry is one you have already archived, the record is treated as no longer needed and will be removed. Unarchive that sequence first if you want its requirements to protect the records.

6. Is anything never deleted?

Yes. Three things are protected no matter what you tick.

  1. Background check results. These come from an outside provider and are a compliance record, so they are never removed by a sequence deletion.
  2. Booked shifts. A shift someone reserved through a sequence step is a real commitment on your schedule. It stays booked.
  3. Form submissions. The answers someone filled in on a form live in the Forms module with their own statuses and reporting, and are reachable without any sequence, so they are untouched.

The window tells you when any of these were protected, so you are never left guessing whether something survived.

7. Why am I being asked to type the sequence title?

Because somebody is assigned to it.

When a sequence has people in it, the window asks you to type its title exactly before the Delete button becomes available. Sequence rows sit close together in the list, nothing here can be undone, and typing the title makes it impossible to remove the wrong one by a misclick.

A sequence nobody is assigned to does not ask for this, because there is nothing to lose and the extra step would only teach people to type titles without reading them.

8. Should I archive instead?

Usually, yes. Archive is the right answer whenever you might want the sequence or its reporting again.

Archiving retires the sequence without erasing anything. Everyone in it whose status is Active or Paused is marked Inactive, they are not notified, and the sequence disappears from their homepage. You can bring it back at any time with Unarchive, with all of its steps and history intact.

Delete is for the sequences that should never have existed: practice runs, duplicates and tests. Use archive for everything that was real.

Notes
Want a fresh version rather than the end of this one? Copy the sequence instead. A copy is created as a draft with all the steps and settings of the original, so you can revise and publish it without touching the live one.

9. Can I delete a sequence field I no longer want?

Only if nothing is using it. Otherwise archive it.

The entries you build steps from, your file uploads, e-signature documents, videos, checklists, interviews and the rest, live in All fields. Each row now has a Delete entry option next to Archive.

Deleting checks first. If any sequence, any opportunity or any person's submission is attached to that entry, the deletion is refused and you are shown exactly what is using it and how many. You then archive it instead. If nothing at all points at the entry, which is the normal case for something you created while practising, it is removed.

There is deliberately no way to force this. An entry someone has submitted cannot be deleted, because deleting it would take their submission with it.

10. Can I delete a file from someone's profile?

Yes, one file at a time, from the Files section of their profile.

Open the profile, expand Files, and each file now offers Delete alongside Preview and Download. This is the quickest way to clear test submissions off a profile you were experimenting with.

Two things to know before you use it:

  1. For a file that belongs to a sequence step, deleting it removes the submission as well, so that step goes back to incomplete and the person will be asked for it again. The confirmation says so.
  2. For a file attached to a note, only the file is removed. The note itself is kept.

11. Who is allowed to do any of this?

Account owners and full administrators. For custom roles, both abilities are switched off until you grant them.

In Manage admins, open the role and you will find:

  1. Delete sequences, in the sequence permissions, separate from "Create, edit & archive sequences". A role that can tidy up your sequence list does not automatically get the power to destroy records.
  2. Can this admin permanently delete a file from a profile?, in the profile permissions, which only appears once the role can view the Files section.

Neither is included when you tick Select all, and no role created before this release has either of them. You have to grant them on purpose.

Summary

  1. Delete now sits beside Archive on the sequence options menu, at any status.
  2. By default, deleting removes the sequence and everyone's progress through it, and leaves their submitted documents on their profiles.
  3. Tick the extra option to remove those submissions too. Anything a person still needs for another live sequence or an opportunity is kept automatically.
  4. Background check results, booked shifts and form submissions are never removed.
  5. You will be asked to type the sequence title whenever somebody is assigned.
  6. Deletion cannot be undone. Archive whenever you might want the sequence or its reporting back.
  7. Entries in All fields can be deleted only when nothing uses them, and profile files can be deleted one at a time.
  8. Both abilities are off by default for custom admin roles.

Related reading: How do I archive or copy a sequence on Vome?