Uploading and organising documents

You can upload documents to a contact, property or tenancy record from the Documents tab, and group them into folders so the right files are easy to find. Every record has a Documents tab where files are stored against that record, grouped under folders you can expand or collapse.

This keeps important files - compliance certificates, signed agreements, identification, inventories, notices and more - stored centrally against the record, where your team can find, search and manage them in one place.

The Documents tab works the same way on a contact, a property and a tenancy, with one difference: on a tenancy you can also share documents with the tenant and landlord. For more information, see Sharing documents with landlords and tenants.

Note

For compliance certificates on a property, such as a gas safety certificate or EPC, uploading the document is the first step to tracking its renewal. Once it is on the property record, you can add an associated event date to flag the upcoming expiry. See Adding a date to a property and Property Management Dashboard - Event Dates widget

Uploading documents

You can upload files from your computer or network to store them against the record. New documents arrive unfiled, ready for you to add to a folder.

To upload documents, open the record you want, then select the Documents tab on the side menu. The route is the same for each record type:

Click Properties on the main navigation bar, select the relevant property from Recent & Favourite Properties or by using the Search Properties bar in the top right. Click Documents on the side menu
Click Contacts on the main navigation bar, select the relevant contact from Recent & Favourite Contacts or by using the Search Contacts bar in the top right. Click Documents on the side menu
Click Tenancies on the main navigation bar, select the relevant tenancy from Recent & Favourite Tenancies or by using the Search Tenancies bar in the top right. Click Documents on the side menu

Note

On a property, documents you upload here also appear in the Other Files top tab (within Media on the side menu), so you can work with them from either place

Click Upload Documents
Click Add Files and Click, drag and drop documents into the panel to upload them, or, select choose from folder to locate the stored document(s) on your computer or network
Click Start Upload

When it finishes, the panel closes and the new documents appear under Not in a folder, ready to be filed.

'Upload Documents' opens the uploader above the documents list.

Note

You can upload .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf, .txt, .xls, .xlsx, .xlw, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif and .msg files, up to 50MB each. Any other file type is declined as you select it, so you will know before you start the upload

Renaming a document

You can rename a document to something your colleagues will recognise. The file type cannot change, so a rename is always safe.

Hover over the document name and click the pencil
Type the new name
Press Enter, or click away, to save it

To leave the name as it was, press Escape. The file type at the end of the name (.pdf, .docx and so on) stays as it is and cannot be edited.

The pencil renames a document in place. The extension is fixed, so the file type cannot change.

Deleting documents

You can delete a document to remove it from the record for good.

Tick the documents you want to remove
Click Delete Selected
Confirm when asked

Warning

Deleting a document removes it from the record permanently. To take a document out of a folder without deleting it, use Remove from folder instead

Reading your documents list

There are four controls above the documents list that can help you narrow down a long record of documents. You can use them to jump to one folder, search by name, or reorder what you see.

Filter by folder - Shows only the folders you tick. Tick as many as you need; the button then tells you how many are selected, and Clear filter appears to reset it

'Filter by folder' narrows the list. Tick as many folders as you need.
Search document name - Narrows the list to documents whose name matches what you type, across all folders
Expand all - Opens every folder at once so you can see everything on the record. It then becomes Collapse all
Column headings - Click Document name or Date added to sort. Click again to reverse the order; an arrow shows which column is sorting

Sorting applies within each folder, so the most recent sits at the top of each.

Documents are grouped under folder headings. Each folder is a heading you can expand or collapse, the number on the right tells you how many documents it holds, and the coloured marker beside the name helps you pick the same folder out each time.

Any document you haven't filed appears under Not in a folder, so nothing is ever hidden. Only folders containing documents appear as headings here; an empty folder still shows in the folder list when you are filing a document, but not as a heading on the record.

Documents grouped by folder. Each heading shows how many files it holds; collapsed folders start closed.

Inside a folder, each document shows:

Document name - click the document to open or download the file. The pencil beside it renames the document
Date added - the date when the document was attached to the record
Folder - the folder the document is in, or the option to click + Add to folder if it hasn't yet been filed
Shared with - tenancies only; whether the document is shared with the tenant (T) or landlord (L)
(For more information, see Sharing documents with landlords and tenants)

'Expand all' opens every folder at once. The button then becomes 'Collapse all'.

The two types of document folder

There are two kinds of folder: a standard set Alto provides for each record type, and folders you create yourself.

Both types of folder are shared, so the folder list is the same on every record of that type. The documents filed inside them, however, are specific to each record.

Folders Alto provides

These are set up for you and cannot be renamed or removed, so they mean the same thing on every record and for every agency. They differ by record type:

On a property: Title Documents, EPC, Owner Questionnaire & Proof of Ownership, Planning & Building Regulations, EICR, Gas Safety Certificate, Terms of Business, Insurance Documents, Leasehold Documents, Other
On a contact: ID Documentation, AML & Compliance, HMRC Documentation, Right to Rent Checks, Reference Documentation, Guarantor Documentation, Insurance Documentation, Compliance Documentation, Other
On a tenancy: Tenancy Agreements, Prescribed Information, Deposit Documentation, How to Rent Guide, Inventory & Check out, Inspection Reports, Legal Notices, Property Documentation, Other

Folders you create

You can add folders of your own for anything your agency files that the standard Alto folders don't cover.

A folder you create on a property/contact/tenancy becomes available on all your properties/contacts/tenancies.

Only folders you create can be deleted.

Best practice

Folders you create are shared across your whole team, so give them names your colleagues will recognise. Filing the same documents in the same place on every record makes handovers and compliance audits far quicker

Putting a document into a folder

Filing a document keeps busy records tidy and lets you jump straight to the files you need. A document sits in one folder at a time, so filing it moves it rather than copying it.

Find the document in the list
In the Folder column, click + Add to folder
Select a folder from the list

The document moves into the folder straight away.

Clicking “+ Add to folder” opens the folder list. The box at the bottom creates a new folder without leaving the page.

To move it elsewhere, click the folder name in the Folder column and select a different folder.

To take it out altogether, click Remove from folder - the document returns to Not in a folder and is not deleted.

For a document already in a folder the menu is headed “Move to folder”, and adds “Remove from folder”.

Creating your own folder

You can create your own folder when your agency files something the standard Alto folder set doesn't cover. A new folder becomes available on every record of that type once created.

In the Folder column of any document, click + Add to folder, or, the folder name, to open the folder list
Type the new folder name into the Create new folder field at the bottom of the list. Folder names can be up to 255 characters
Click Add, or press Enter

The folder is created and the document you started from is filed into it. The new folder is then available on every record of that type.

Note

Folders cannot be renamed. If you need to change a folder's name, create a new one with the new name, move the documents across from the old folder, then delete the old folder