How client folders work

You will learn what the Documents app builds for each client, who can see each folder, and where Uku files each new file.

• Turning the app on or off and editing folder templates needs a Company Owner or Company Admin. A Company Member sees only the Overview tab of the app.
• Opening a client’s Documents needs access to that client. Some folders can be limited to members with certain workflow roles.
• The Documents app is on the Elite plan.

Path: Settings & Apps → Documents → Overview

1. Open Settings & Apps and open the Documents app.
2. Click Activate.
3. Click Confirm. The header now shows Active, and the Connectors tab opens.
4. Connect a drive on Connectors only if your team wants to open the same files in Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint or Dropbox. See Connect your document storage.
5. Open Folder templates and check the default template. See Folder structure templates.

When you activate, Uku starts creating client folders from the default folder template. A connected drive is optional: Uku Document Management keeps your folders with or without one.

The Overview tab shows the Default folder structure card. The card draws the default template’s folders for an example client this month. Hover the small icon at the end of a row to see who can see that folder. To stop using the app, click Deactivate app on the Uku Document Management card, then Confirm.

Every client has its own folder tree, shown on the client’s Documents page. The tree comes from the client’s folder template. A background update, the sync, keeps the tree in step with the template. Nobody needs to start the sync. The sync runs:

• after someone saves a template, or gives a client a template
• when someone opens the client’s Documents in a new month
• once a month, on the 1st

The sync runs in the background, so allow a minute before you reload the page.

Every tree has these parts:

Folder	What it is
Recent	The client’s newest files from the whole tree. A list only — no file is stored here.
New files	Where a client contact’s uploads arrive first. Uku files them from here automatically.
Public	Folders the client sees in the client portal.
Private	Your firm’s own folders. The client does not see them.
Year and month folders	For example Private → 2026 → 9. Uku files dated files into them.

Year and month folders exist from January of this year up to this month. A new month’s folder appears when someone opens the client’s Documents, when the first file for that month arrives, or on the 1st. Months have no leading zero (9, not 09), unless the template uses Year-month (padded).

Every folder has a Visibility: Public, Private, or Inherit. You set it in the folder template, and every client’s folder takes it.

• Public — client contacts see the folder and its files in the client portal.
• Private — no client contact sees the folder or its files.
• Inherit — the same as the folder above. A top-level folder is always Public or Private.

A Public folder inside a Private one is visible to contacts. The contact does not see the Private folders above it, or their names. The Public folder appears at the top of the contact’s tree.

Client contact visibility narrows a Public folder to contacts with certain contact roles, for example Board. Only contacts who hold one of those roles on that client see the folder.

• A folder with no contact roles has no limit of its own.
• An Inherit folder with no roles of its own takes the roles of the folder above.
• A folder set to Public or Private starts fresh and does not take roles from the folder above.
• Roles on a Private folder affect nobody, because no contact sees the folder.

Member visibility limits a folder inside your firm with workflow roles, for example Payroll.

• The Company Owner, Company Admins and the client’s Client Admins always see every folder of the client.
• Other members see a folder with member roles only if they hold one of those roles on that client. A role held through a team counts.
• A folder with no member roles follows the folder above. A top-level folder with no member roles is open to every member.

A member who cannot see a folder cannot open, download or delete its files in any other way. The file’s name may still show on a task, a note or an e-mail. Opening it gives Invalid rights.

Every file Uku files belongs to one of eight kinds:

Kind	What it holds
Task files	Files members add to a task or a task comment
Note files	Files added to client and project notes
Template files	Files on task templates, workflow plans and recurring tasks
Member e-mail files	Attachments of e-mails sent by a member of your firm
Contact e-mail files	Attachments of e-mails from anyone outside your firm
Sent e-mail files	Attachments of e-mails sent to the client
Contact uploads	Files client contacts upload in the client portal
Signed files	The signed copy returned when a document is e-signed

In the folder template, each kind can point at one folder, under Automatically filed here. A file of that kind is filed there. A kind with no folder goes where Task files go. With no Task files folder either, it goes to Private → [year] → [month].

You may point a kind at a folder the client can see. The template then warns you: “The client can see files filed here.”

A contact’s upload in the client portal lands first in the client’s New files folder. The same goes for uploads on a task, and in New files, Recent or Uploaded by me. Each contact sees only their own uploads there.

One to two hours later, Uku files each upload by the rule above. A member who does not want to wait opens New files and clicks File now. See Browse and manage a client’s documents.

A contact who uploads while one of their folders is open puts the file straight into that folder. The file stays there.

A member can add folders on one client, inside any folder except New files. A hand-made folder always starts as Private, even inside a Public folder. The client sees it only after someone sets it to Public in Folder settings. The folder can be deleted only when no file is left in it or in a folder below it.

When a template later gets a folder with the same name in the same place, the sync adopts the hand-made folder. The folder joins the template and takes the template’s settings. Its files stay. From then on, only a change in the template can rename or delete the folder.

When you archive a contact, the contact loses the client portal for that client:

• The contact sees nothing in the portal for that client and cannot log in to it.
• The contact gets no portal e-mails for that client.
• The contact cannot be picked as a portal assignee or as a signer.

Restoring the contact gives all of this back.

With a connected drive, Uku stores files inside the drive’s Main folder, one folder per client. The client’s folders on the drive follow its tree in Uku. Uku also keeps a copy unless you turn off Backup copies in Uku.

Who sees the folders on the drive depends on the drive’s own sharing. Uku’s visibility and roles do not reach the drive. Setting up a drive, naming the client folders, and creating them ahead of time are covered in Connect your document storage.

The client has no folder template, or the first sync is still running. Open the client, click Edit, and choose a Folder structure template. Wait a minute and reload the page.

Open the client’s Documents, click the Folder settings gear, and select the folder. Check that the folder is Public, or inherits Public from the folder above. A folder your team made by hand starts as Private. Then check Client contact visibility: the contact needs one of those roles on that client. An archived contact sees nothing.

The file is filed in a folder with Member visibility roles the member does not hold. Give the member that workflow role on the client, or add one of their roles to the folder in Folder settings.

Month folders have no leading zero by default. To get 01, 02 and so on, set the template’s year and month folder to Year-month (padded). New month folders then get the padded name. The save window tells you how to rename the existing ones: with Rename folders on the Maintenance tab.

The template now has a folder with the same name in the same place, so the folder joined the template. Rename or remove the folder in the template instead. The change reaches every client.