Supporting material refers to the additional files that sit alongside a main document that's uploaded to Plexus.
To upload supporting material, head to your document list and select the document you're after. Supporting materials are found to the right hand side of the resulting page.
Categorising supporting material
When you upload supporting material into Plexus, you'll be asked to categorise it. There are three (3) types of document categorisations for supporting material:
Sub-documents. The document that's attached to the main document. It's also attached to the review, approve and sign workflow. A sub-document is visible alongside the main document in the documents list and can be viewed and/or signed by both internal and external users.
Internal documents. Formerly referred to as attachments, an internal document that sits outside of the document workflow. It is not visible from the documents list and is never visible to external parties.
Linked documents. A linked document allows you to create links between documents with existing and separate workflows. A linked document is visible from the document list as its own workflow.
The following section will go into uploading sub-documents and internal documents in more detail. You can also read about linked documents in a separate article.
Uploading a sub-document
Sub-documents are visible alongside the main document when that file is sent for approval or signature.
Top tip! A document should only be uploaded as a sub-document if you are comfortable with external parties having visibility over that file. This includes external parties that are included on the document's workflow or have that file shared with them.
From the supporting material pane, you can drag and drop your supporting files into the upload space or click Browse files to upload.
Follow the prompts to Select file and select Sub-document from the dropdown. You'll then need to include the following details:
Document name
Document type
Optional comment
Click Upload once you're happy with your changes.
Note that you'll only have the ability to choose the sub-document option whilst the workflow is in the Review stage, or whilst the workflow is paused.
A sub-document can also be uploaded at the start of the document workflow.
Once a sub-document is uploaded to Plexus, you can click the sub-document to view it on its own document details page, including:
A document previewer
Workflow stage
Key facts
Signature locations
Related files
Activity feed
Alerts
Uploading internal documents
Unlike sub-documents, internal documents are internal reference files that are not attached to the workflow and are not visible to external parties.
Just like with your sub-documents, you can drag and drop your files in the Supporting material section or click Browse files to upload.
Select file from your computer, then click the Internal document option from the dropdown. Then add an optional comment before uploading your file.
Click Upload to load the file to your Supporting material section.
You can upload internal documents at any point in the document workflow.
Once an internal is uploaded to Plexus, you can click the internal document to preview the file in a pop-up modal. This extends to images uploaded as internal documents.
Where msg or eml files are uploaded as internal documents, this preview also supports the viewing of emails and their attachments.
Linking documents
Specific custom applications are designed to allow for linking new files from your computer as linked documents. In this instance, you will be able to Browse files to upload new linked documents.
For our standard apps, you will only be able to link from other documents already loaded into Plexus.
A linked document shows the current workflow status, and clicks through to its own document details page, including:
A document previewer
Workflow stage
Key facts
Signature locations
Related files
Activity feed
Alerts
You can also check out this guide for supported file sizes and types.
Still have a question about internal documents and sub-documents? Reach out to us via live chat or [email protected].