Browse and manage a client's documents

Everything you do in a client’s documents browser is here, from finding a file to removing one.

• Opening the tab, searching, previewing, and downloading — any member with access to the client.
• Uploading, renaming, moving, and creating folders — any member who can manage the client. On a firm that has not narrowed its team rights, that is every member with client access.
• Deleting a folder, or deleting a file completely — Company Owners, Company Admins, and Client Admins for that client.
• The Documents app is on the Elite plan.

Path: open the client → Documents

The left side shows Folders. The right side lists what is in the folder you selected.

• Recent sits at the top and lists the client’s 50 newest files from anywhere in the tree, newest first. Opening the tab without choosing a folder lands you here.
• New files is the inbox. Everything your client uploads in the Client Portal, and every document that arrives from a connected mailbox, waits here until your firm files it.
• The rest of the tree comes from your firm’s folder structure template.

Two controls narrow the list:

• Search — type part of a file name to filter the list you are looking at.
• Type — narrow by where the file came from: Tasks, Notes, E-mail, or Client portal. Clearing the filter returns to all files.

The Source column names the origin of every row. A Task chip is clickable and opens the task the file belongs to.

Click a file to open the preview. Use Previous and Next, or the arrow keys, to move through the folder without closing the window.

File type	What you see
Images and PDF	The file itself
Spreadsheets — xlsx, xls, ods, csv, tsv	A read-only grid, first 20 sheets, 500 rows and 50 columns each
Text — txt, md	The plain text of the file
Word — docx	The document, laid out
Word — doc, odt, rtf	The first 5 pages, prepared the first time somebody opens it
Presentations — pptx, ppt, odp	No preview. Download the file to open it.

Size limits apply: 2 MB for spreadsheets, 1 MB for text, and 5 MB for Word documents. Above the limit, the preview offers a download instead.

Finishing the upload… means the file reached Uku a moment ago and is still being copied to your storage. Wait a few seconds and it opens.

1. Select the folder you want the files in.
2. Drag the files onto the list, or click Upload files and choose them.
3. The files appear in the list straight away.

Uploading while Recent is open is not possible, because Recent is a view rather than a real folder. Choose a folder first.

Select one file and click Details to open the file panel on the right. From there you can:

• Rename — change the name. The file extension is fixed and stays whatever it was, so a .pdf cannot become a .docx by renaming.
• Add description — write a short note about the file, such as what it is or what still has to be done with it.
• Move — pick a new folder under Choose a destination folder.
• Download — save one copy.

To act on several files at once, tick them in the list. Download then produces a single zip file, and Move takes the whole selection to one folder.

If your firm has a connected drive, Uku moves and renames the copy on your drive as well. Sometimes your drive does not follow, because of a permission problem or a service that cannot move files. Uku tells you, and the change on the Uku side still stands.

Use the + button above the tree to add a folder, or open a folder’s actions menu for New subfolder, Rename folder, and Delete folder.

• A new folder is always created inside Private. Nothing you create sits beside Public, Private, and New files.
• Two folders in the same place cannot have names that match once capital letters, spaces, and punctuation are ignored.
• A folder that came from your firm’s template cannot be renamed or deleted here. Change the folder structure template instead.

Select the file and click Delete.

When the file belongs to a task, Uku asks which you meant:

• Keep on task — the file leaves the folder and stays on its task.
• Delete completely — the file goes from the folder and from the task.

A file created directly in a folder has no task, so deleting it removes it.

Two things put it elsewhere. A file your client attached to a task stays on that task and never becomes a document — open the task to find it. A contact uploading from the portal’s own documents screen also chooses the folder. Look in Public and its subfolders.

The zip is all or nothing. Uku cancels the whole zip when one file cannot be read, and names the file that caused it. A file still being copied to your storage is the usual reason. Untick that file and download the rest, then deal with that one on its own.

The file is a type Uku does not preview, such as a presentation, or a type it does not recognise. Download the file and open it in the program that made it.

The extension is deliberately fixed. Uku renames the part before the dot and keeps .pdf, .xlsx, and so on, so a file never claims to be something it is not.

Uploads are copied to your storage in the background. Give it a minute and check again. If it is still missing after that, check on the Settings tab of the Documents app that your storage is still connected.

Uku refuses while anything is filed in the folder or in a folder below it. Open each folder and move or delete its files first. If the folder came from your firm’s template, remove it from the template rather than from the client.