What refuses to delete
One rule across the product: anything with real work attached does not quietly go.
Why this is enforced so hard
A quiet delete creates two problems: citations pointing at nothing, and reports that changed one morning with nobody knowing why.
Instead the delete is refused, and the answer says exactly what is holding it — all of it at once, rather than one at a time.
Common holders
| What you are deleting | What blocks it |
|---|---|
| A document | Being cited by a spread or as workbench evidence |
| An engagement | Documents, spreads, or stage history |
| A client | Engagements, feed activity, or open tasks |
| A contact | Seats, a feed, tasks, meeting attendance, or an individual-client record |
| A service | An engagement attached to it |
| A service line | Services still under it |
Some things have no delete door at all
Stage history, threshold versions and indicator promotion history only append: no edit, no delete.
Not because they are dangerous, but because their entire value is that they cannot change.
One exception worth knowing
Deleting an indicator takes its measurements and breaches with it — those are readings of that definition.
But the tasks raised from breaches stay, because somebody may be doing one right now.
Read this next
- When something does not workA delete was refusedThe refusal names every holder at once. Start there.
- Contacts & engagementsDelete a contact or a clientWhat blocks a delete, why, and how to clear it in one pass.
- Pipeline & opportunitiesThe stage historyEvery move is one row. It is never edited or deleted — which is what makes it worth having.
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