---
title: "Adding, editing, and deleting checklists"
description: "Checklists in Talkspirit track recurring role and circle actions with a set recurrence, ticked off from the role or circle page or during a meeting."
category: structure-governance
section: policies-and-publications
type: Tutorial
lastUpdated: 2026-08-04
locale: en
canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists
---

# Adding, editing, and deleting checklists


## Adding, editing, and deleting checklists
Add a checklist from the **Checklists** tab of any role or circle with **Add checklist**, edit it by opening its card, and delete it in two stages: archive it first, then delete it. Checklists track recurring role and circle actions with a set recurrence, so a Finance role can see whether the Sales role has sent its invoices to customers.

**Note:** this article covers governance checklists on roles and circles. For the to-do list you can add to a newsfeed post, see [Using the checklist feature](/communication/checklist).

## What do I need before I start?

Checklists are part of the **Holacracy add-on**. If your organisation has not enabled it, roles and circles have no **Checklists** tab at all, see [Holacracy Add-on Overview in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/holacracy-add-on-overview).

Any member of a circle can create a checklist. Editing, archiving and deleting are limited to the member who created the checklist, or to an administrator.

**Note:** your organisation can rename *checklist*, so the tab on your screen may use a different word.

## How do I add a checklist?

1. Open the **Checklists** tab of a role or circle.
2. Click **Add checklist**.
3. Add a **Title**.
4. Add a **Description** if you need one. It is a plain text box.
5. Choose the **Recurrence**: Daily, Weekly, Twice a month, Monthly, Every 2 months, Quarterly, Every 6 months, or Yearly.
6. Under **Assign to**, choose **All circle members** or **A role**.
7. If you chose **A role**, pick the **Role**. A **Members** section, shown for both choices, lets you adjust who reports on the checklist. A role with no members cannot be used: the dialog asks you to assign members to the role first.

To attach a document, save the checklist first, open it, and add the file from its **Files** tab.

![The Create checklist dialog for a circle, with a Title and Description filled in, the Recurrence set to Weekly, and the Assign to choice between All circle members and A role](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/01-create-checklist-dialog.png)

**Note:** the **Checklists** step of a meeting opens this same dialog. When the meeting covers two or more circles, it asks which **Circle** the checklist belongs to first.

![The Checklists step of a live tactical meeting, with two checklist rows, the checkbox at the start of each row, and the Add checklist button in the step toolbar](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/02-meeting-checklists-step.png)

## How do I edit a checklist?

Open the checklist from the role or circle page and click **Edit** next to **Information**. In a meeting, clicking the checklist row opens the same **Edit checklist** dialog directly. If you did not create the checklist and you are not an administrator, it opens read-only.

![A checklist detail panel, with the Information section showing an Edit button, Recurrence, Assigned to and Description, and the Checks section with its Mark as checked button](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/03-checklist-detail-panel.png)

## How do I delete a checklist?

Deleting happens in two stages. You archive the checklist first, then delete it from the archive.

1. Click the three-dot menu to the right of the checklist, select **Archive**, and confirm.
2. Click **Filter** and select the **Archived** quick filter.
3. Click the three-dot menu on the archived checklist and select **Delete**.

**Important:** deleting a checklist cannot be undone, and its record of past checks goes with it. Archiving is the reversible step: an archived checklist can be brought back at any time with **Unarchive**.

![The three-dot menu on an active checklist, open on Edit, Copy URL, Bring to a meeting and Archive](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/04-archive-menu.png)

![The same list with the Archived filter on, and the archived checklist's three-dot menu open on Unarchive and Delete](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/05-archived-unarchive-delete.png)

## How do I review and validate checklists in a meeting?

Open a tactical meeting, or any meeting whose template includes the **Checklists** step. Any member of the parent circle can tick a checklist off there, including on another member's behalf: hover over the row and tick the checkbox at the start of it.

You can also do this outside a meeting: on the role or circle page the list has a **Status** column that reads **Checked** or **Not checked**, and opening the checklist gives you a **Mark as checked** button, which becomes **Uncheck** once the checklist is ticked.

**Note:** on the circle page you can group checklists by **Recurrence** or leave them ungrouped. Inside a meeting you can also group them by **Circle**.

![The Checklists step of a live meeting with one row's checkbox ticked and the other empty, annotated Checked and Not checked](/images/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-checklists/06-meeting-checklists-checked.png)

## What's Next?

- [Adding, editing, and deleting metrics](/structure-governance/how-to-add-edit-and-delete-metrics), the same mechanics, for the numbers a circle tracks.
- [Tactical Meetings Overview](/structure-governance/introducing-tactical-meetings), what else happens in the meeting where checklists are reviewed.
- [Adding a role or a circle](/structure-governance/how-to-add-a-role-or-a-circle)
- [Governance Overview in Talkspirit](/structure-governance/governance-overview)