Files App
Securely share files, links, and folders with clients
Overview 
The Files App lets you and your clients securely share files, links, and folders with one another.
App setup
Default files channel
If you have companies enabled you can select a default channel on the Settings > General page. The default channel works as follows:
Companies enabled | Companies disabled |
|---|---|
If the default channel is company-level, when a new client with a company is created then a company-level files channel is created. If in the future, other clients associated with the same company are created, they will be added to the existing company files channel. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ If the default channel is client-level, when a new client with a company is created then a client-level files channel is created. New clients, regardless of their associated company, can always have their own files channel. | When a new client is created, a client-level files channel is always created. |
In App Setup > Files > Edit, you can configure the following:
Always-on visibility
You can control whether clients always have a Files item on the sidebar that they can navigate to. Turn this off if you only want clients to see Files on their sidebar if 1 or more files have been made visible to the client.
Clients can add files
You can control if clients themselves can add files. Turn this off if you want clients to only be able to access files but not upload ones themselves.
Clients can delete files
You can control if clients can delete files. Turn this off if you want to prevent clients from deleting files.
Clients can update folders
You can control if clients can update the folder structure you have put in place. Turn this off if you want to “lock down your folder structure” and prevent clients from creating, uploading, renaming, moving, and deleting folders.
Internal user experience
Key Workflows
There are two main workflows for internal users.
App view
To see a list of all file channels sorted by recent activity, navigate to the Files App by clicking on Files in your sidebar. Here you’ll see a files channel for every client, company, or group that you’re sharing files with. From here, you can select a files channel to see the contained files and take actions like upload new files or create folders.
Client Details view
To access a particular client’s files channel you can click on a client on the Clients page and then navigate to the Files tab. This will only surface the files channel associated with that particular client.
Creating files channels
After you create a client, they will always get a new files channel or be assigned to an existing files channel which will be either client-level or company-level. In addition, there are group-level files channels. These are useful if you want to share files with multiple clients associated with a company, but not everyone assigned to the company.
How to create a channel:
Click on the + on the messaging channels sidebar.
Select one or more clients, or select a company. Note that you cannot create a files channel that already exists.
Client experience
Email notifications
Clients will automatically receive email notifications if one or more files were uploaded by an internal user. From there, they can navigate to your portal to access the files.
Portal notifications
Clients can see files by clicking on Files on the portal sidebar. In most cases, clients will only have one files channel so there is no file channels sidebar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Client file channels
Client file channels cannot be edited or deleted. If you wish to delete the file channel for an individual client, the client must be deleted.
Company file channels
Company file channels are visible to all members of a company. If you wish to edit the members of a company, you will need to do so from the Clients page. Adding or removing a company from a client will add or remove the client from any company channels.
Group file channels
You can create a group file channel if you wish to share files with a subset of clients within a company. Group channels are currently only supported for clients assigned to the same company.
To edit members of a group File channel, click the 3 dots in the top-right of the File channel. Select Edit members, and add or remove members using the checkboxes in the dropdown.
You can use any character except the following:
- / (forward-slash)
- \ (back-slash)
- * (asterisk)
- = (equals symbol)
- | (pipe)
- @ (at symbol)
- ^ (carrot)
On January 18 2023 we deprecated the eSignature request functionality in the Files App because we launched a standalone Contracts App. All completed and open eSignature requests from the Files App were seamlessly migrated to the new Contracts App.