# Attach a File

Attach at the point of entry, from the record rather than from Documents.

It takes seconds then and it is the difference between an auditable record and an afternoon of archaeology later.

## Highlights of attaching

- **Attach from the record**, using the activity panel on its right-hand side.
- **The Attachments tab counts what is there**, so you can see at a glance whether a bill has its invoice.
- **Ten files per record**, fifteen on an item, 10 MB each.
- **A few screens offer a QR code** for uploading straight from a phone camera.
- **Files attached to an unsaved form are held** and claimed when you save it, so nothing is lost if you attach before finishing.

## Attach it

- **Open the record**

  A bill, invoice, expense, receive, item, adjustment, journal or one of about forty others.
- **Find the Attachments tab in the activity panel**

  It sits on the right, beside Comments and Logs, and the number on the tab is how many files the record already has.

  ![The Activity Panel on the right of an open bill. A comment box sits at the top with an Attach control beneath it. A row of tabs reads All 4, Comments 0, Logs 3 and Attachments 1, with Attachments selected. Below it one entry shows the uploading user, a timestamp, the file name hudson-valley-invoice and a file size of 920 bytes, with download and delete buttons beside it.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/documents/attachment-panel.png)
- **Attach the file**

  Use **Attach** beneath the comment box, or drop the file onto the panel. Several at once is fine, up to the record's limit.
- **Check it landed**

  The file appears in the panel with its size and who uploaded it, and in Documents against this record.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Attach before you save, if you like**
>
> A file dropped onto a form you have not saved yet is held against that draft and claimed when the record is created. Abandoning the form discards it rather than leaving an orphan.

## Uploading from a phone

Some screens, including recurring expenses and the item image gallery, offer **Scan QR code**. Scanning it opens an upload page on your phone, and anything you photograph there arrives on the record you started from. It is the quickest route for a paper receipt or a photograph of damaged goods, and it saves emailing a picture to yourself first.

> **Note:**
>
> **Not on every screen**
>
> The QR route is on a handful of screens rather than everywhere. On the rest, attach from a computer as above.

## What to attach where

| Record | Attach | Because |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bill | The vendor invoice PDF | It is the evidence for the cost and the tax claim. |
| Expense | The receipt | Without it the claim is unsupported. |
| Purchase receive | The delivery note, and photos of damage | Both are needed for a carrier or supplier claim. |
| Journal entry | The calculation or schedule | A journal has no document behind it. This is it. |
| Stock adjustment | The count sheet | It is what an auditor asks for. |
| Recurring expense | The contract or the insurer's schedule | It explains where the recurring figure came from. |
| Item | Datasheets and certificates | They belong to the product, not to one sale. |

## File types and sizes

| Rule | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Size | 10 MB per file. |
| Count | 10 files on most records, 15 on an item. |
| Documents | PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF, TXT. |
| Images | JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, WebP. |
| Spreadsheets and slides | XLSX, XLS, CSV, PPT, PPTX. |
| Archives | ZIP, RAR, 7z. |
| Never accepted | Executables and scripts: EXE, BAT, CMD, SH, PS1, JS, PHP, JAR and similar. |

> **Tip:**
>
> **A refused scan is almost always resolution**
>
> Ten megabytes is generous for paperwork and easy to exceed with a full-colour scan at print resolution. Rescan in greyscale at 200 to 300 dpi and it will usually drop well under the limit without losing legibility.