Sharing Documents with External Users

BuilderMate's Company Documents feature gives you a centralized place to store files and share them securely with clients, subcontractors, employees, or any external contact. Whether it's a scope of work, insurance certificate, or project photo, you can get it into the right hands with just a few clicks.

Who Can Access This

• Admin and Team Member users can manage documents (upload, organize, share, delete).
• Field Users have limited access to documents.

Where to Find It

Navigate to Settings > Documents from the sidebar.

Organizing Your Files

Folder Structure

BuilderMate supports a hierarchical folder system with unlimited nesting. You can create folders and subfolders to organize documents however makes sense for your business — by project type, by year, by document category, or any structure you prefer.

To manage folders:

• Create a new folder or subfolder at any level.
• Rename existing folders as your needs change.
• Move folders to reorganize your structure.
• Delete folders you no longer need.

Uploading Files

1. Navigate to the folder where you want to store the file.
2. Click "Upload".
3. Select one or more files — multi-file upload is supported.
4. Files are stored in the currently selected folder.

File Management

Once files are uploaded, you can:

• Preview documents in-app — PDFs, images, and Office documents all render without downloading.
• Download files to your device.
• Rename files for clarity.
• Move files between folders.
• Delete files you no longer need.
• Bulk operations — select multiple files to delete or move them all at once.

Sharing Documents

Here's how to share a document with someone:

1. Select the document you want to share.
2. Click "Share".
3. Choose who to share with:
   • Client — search by name
   • Subcontractor — search by name
   • Employee — search by name
   • External Email — enter any email address
4. Add an optional message to give context about the document.
5. Click Share.

The recipient receives an email with a secure link to view and download the file. Each share generates a unique access token, so every recipient has their own individual link.

Pro Tip: Use the external email option to share documents with people who aren't in your BuilderMate system yet — like an architect, inspector, or permit office.

Tracking and Revoking Shares

Tracking

For any shared document, you can view:

• Who it was shared with
• Access count — how many times the link has been opened
• Last accessed — when the recipient last viewed the document

This is helpful for confirming that a client or sub has actually reviewed a document you sent.

Revoking Access

If you need to revoke access, simply remove the share. The recipient's link will stop working immediately — they won't be able to view or download the file anymore.

Document Visibility

By default, documents are set to "Internal", meaning they're only visible within your BuilderMate account. You can change a document's visibility to "Public" if needed.

Good to Know

• Shared links are token-based and unique per recipient, so one person's link won't give access to another person's shared files.
• Previewing documents in-app means you don't have to download files just to check what's in them — a real time-saver when managing dozens of documents.
• Bulk operations make cleanup easy. Select multiple outdated files and delete or move them in one action.

Related Articles

• Project Files and Documents
• The Client Hub — What Your Clients See
• The Subcontractor Portal — What Your Subs See