> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/clubs/managing-releases/how-releases-work.md).

# How Releases Work

A release is a scheduled shipment of its own products, dates and price rules. The pipeline behind one, and the statuses and phases you'll see.

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#### The pipeline: release → release orders → Shopify orders

A release itself is a container. The actual shipments come from **release orders** — one per member, generated from the release's dates and products. Each release order becomes a Shopify subscription contract, and on the **Release Date** that contract is billed and turned into a real Shopify order.

1. Members who customize their order generate a release order immediately, as soon as they confirm.
2. Everyone else — members who never open the customization flow — is picked up in a bulk pass shortly after the **Customization Deadline**, and receives the release's default products.
3. Subscription contracts are generated for release orders in batches, starting 24 hours before the **Release Date**.
4. On the **Release Date**, contracts are billed and Shopify orders are created for each member.

Full detail on that pipeline, including what to do when an order gets stuck, is in [Managing Release Orders](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/clubs/managing-releases/managing-release-orders).

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#### Draft, published, archived — the only real statuses

A release has exactly one of three statuses: **draft**, **published**, or **archived**. You set these yourself — nothing else changes a release's status.

* **Draft** — visible only to you. Members can't see it, and none of the automated processing (contracts, billing, inventory) runs.
* **Published** — live. Members can see it in their account from its **Publish Date**, and the automated pipeline above runs against it on schedule.
* **Archived** — retired and read-only.

#### The four phases you see on a published release

Once a release is published, CrushSuite shows it moving through four phases. These aren't settings you choose, and they don't track whether inventory has actually been reserved — they're computed purely from where today falls among the release's own dates. The same phase carries different labels depending on where you're looking:

| Phase       | When it starts                                                                 | Label on the releases list                                       | Label on the release itself            |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------- |
| Scheduled   | Before the **Publish Date**, or once the **Customization Deadline** has passed | **Scheduled**                                                    | **Published**, before the publish date |
| Customizing | The **Publish Date**                                                           | **Customizing**                                                  | **Customizing**                        |
| Allocating  | The **Inventory Allocation Date**                                              | **Allocating** — but the filter pill for it reads **Processing** | **Allocating**                         |
| Completed   | The **Release Date**                                                           | **Completed**                                                    | **Released**                           |

You can't set a release to allocating — you get there by setting an **Inventory Allocation Date** that has arrived. If a phase looks wrong, check the underlying date rather than looking for a status to change. See [Understanding Release Dates](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/clubs/managing-releases/understanding-release-dates) for the full detail.

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#### Only one active release at a time

Your club can only have one **published** release with a **Release Date** in the future at any time. While one exists, CrushSuite blocks both creating and publishing another — you can't even start a draft. Finish or archive the current release first.

You create every release yourself, one at a time — see [Creating a Release](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/clubs/managing-releases/creating-a-release). Once the current release completes or is archived, **Create Release** becomes available again for the next one.

***

#### If you archive a release, or the whole club

{% hint style="warning" %}
Archiving a release is permanent — there is no undo. CrushSuite also won't let you archive one with outstanding release orders: every order on the release must be billed or skipped first.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="warning" %}
The same outstanding-orders check applies if you archive the whole club, and it's worth knowing before you get there: archiving a club is also permanent. Every active or paused membership contract is expired and cannot be reactivated — members would need to sign up again as new members.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
For the five dates that drive publishing and phases, see [Understanding Release Dates](https://crushsuite.gitbook.io/docs/clubs/managing-releases/understanding-release-dates).
{% endhint %}