What a Document Is
An uploaded file and a document are not the same thing. A document is a file with a life of its own: versions, a state, a type, and a list of the records it belongs to.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Data:
- Documents — every document on the system
- Document Types — the kinds you allow, and the rules each one carries
- Document Library — the screen people use to find them
On a record, documents appear in the Documents pane, which is switched on per datastore.
One document, many records
The point of the object. A lease belongs to the property, the tenancy and the dispute; a survey belongs to two cases that turned out to be the same site. Attaching it in three places uploads it three times and produces three files that drift apart the first time one is corrected.
A document is stored once and linked to as many records as it genuinely belongs to. There is one file, and correcting it corrects it everywhere.
Versions are a chain, not a replacement
Uploading a new version does not overwrite the old one. Every version is kept with its own filename, size, author, date and comment, and the document points at whichever is current.
That is what makes “which version did we send them in March” answerable.
A state, and what it is for
Draft, final, superseded or withdrawn. The state is a statement about the document rather than a permission — it does not decide who may read it — and withdrawn is deliberately one-way. A withdrawn document that could be quietly reinstated is not withdrawn.
A type carries rules
A document type can restrict which file extensions it accepts, give the document a default classification, and require check-out before a new version may be added. Types are how “policies work like this and photographs work like that” stops being a convention people remember.
A reference, if you use one
Documents carry an optional reference alongside the title, so CON-2024-118 and Riverside lease both find the same thing. People search for whichever one they happen to know.
The file is not modified
Adopting an existing attachment as a document leaves the original upload field working exactly as before. The document is an additional way to reach the same bytes, not a migration.
Worked example
A housing team uploads a tenancy agreement against the tenancy record and links it to the property and to a later disrepair case. When the agreement is re-signed they add a version rather than a second file. Three teams see the current agreement, and the disrepair case can still show which version was in force when the complaint was made.
Recommendations
- Define types before you upload in bulk — a type’s rules apply to what comes after it.
- Link rather than re-upload. A second copy is a second answer.
- Use the reference if your organisation already has document numbers.
- Treat withdrawn as final. It cannot be undone.