Attaching an Existing Document
A document that already exists can be attached to another record rather than uploaded again. The picker only offers documents you can already read.
Where to find it
On a record, the Documents pane → Attach existing. Search by title or reference, then choose a role.
Attaching is an access decision
The thing to understand before pressing it. Everybody who can read this record will be able to read this document, because that is exactly how document access works.
So the picker never lists a document you cannot read yourself, and the confirmation says plainly what attaching will do. It says it twice on purpose: once on the panel and once in the confirm.
A role, in your own words
“Evidence”, “correspondence”, “signed copy”. There is no fixed vocabulary, because what a document is on a case is your language rather than the platform’s.
The picker offers the roles this datastore has used before, which is what stops one datastore accumulating “evidence”, “Evidence” and “evidnce”.
Documents already here are marked, not hidden
Somebody searching for a document they attached last week needs to see that it is already on the record, not to find it missing and attach it twice.
Attaching twice is harmless
The link is checked both ways and is idempotent under the same role, so a repeated attach does nothing rather than producing a duplicate.
Detaching is reversible
Removing a document from a record does not delete it, and Recently removed on the same pane puts it back. See Putting Back a Removed Document.
Worked example
A site survey is already filed against a planning application. A later enforcement case on the same site attaches the existing survey as “background” rather than asking the surveyor for another copy. One file, two cases, and everybody working the enforcement case can read it.
Recommendations
- Read the consequence before attaching to a case with a restricted audience.
- Reuse an existing role name rather than inventing a synonym.
- Attach rather than re-upload whenever the file is genuinely the same one.