Question:
How can the state of a document be changed, without it going through a workflow?
Answer:
This can be easily & quickly done in Vault by creating a User Action.
- Go to Admin --> Configuration --> Document Lifecycles --> States --> {Current state that the document is in}.

- After clicking the State, click the User Action tab.

- Click Edit.
- In the drop-down, choose Change State to.
- In the next drop-down, choose the desired document state.

Related Documentation:
Vault Document Lifecycle Documentation: User Action Help