We have previously described the Progressive Barcode, a high-density color barcode that changes over incrementally. This article expands on previously published work [S. J. Simske and A. M. Vans, “Archive-enabling tagging using progressive barcodes,” Proc. of Archiving (Los Angeles, CA, 2015), pp. 130–135]. We describe how the progressive barcode works and its applicability to information workflows and archiving applications. In particular, we tie the progressive, or sequential, aspect of this approach to the temporal relationship of multiple items (including documents in a workflow, items in a supply chain, etc.) We present an inference model that allows for the possibility of the loss of tags (called knockout) that were originally created as part of a sequence of tags, usually in manufacturing or printing as examples. Taken together, the progressive barcode with the inference model is a self-contained mechanism for the support of workflows.