# Folders, Permissions and Deleting

Grouping files into folders, who is allowed to remove one, and what deleting actually does.

There is no settings page for Documents. What there is instead is a folder on each file, a permission on the role, and a delete that is gentler than it looks.

## Highlights

- **Folders are a label on the file**, created as you type a new name, with no setup step.
- **A file sits in one folder** or in none, and folders do not nest.
- **Deleting is soft**: the record is marked inactive rather than destroyed.
- **Attaching and deleting are one permission**, not two.

## Folders

**Add to folder** on any row opens a small panel: search the folders that exist, or type a name under **New folder** to make one on the spot.

![The Move to folder panel open from a row in the Documents table. It offers a Search folders box, a message reading No folders yet, and a New folder section with a Folder name input.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/documents/documents-folder.png)

*Folders are created as you need them. There is no folder admin screen to visit first.*

| Behaviour | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Creating | Type a name in the panel. The folder exists as soon as a file is put in it. |
| Membership | One folder per file, or none at all. |
| Nesting | Not available. Folders are a flat list. |
| Filtering | The Folder filter under More filters narrows the table to one folder. |
| Emptying | Move every file out and the folder stops appearing, because it was only ever a label on those files. |

> **Tip:**
>
> **Group by what cuts across modules**
>
> Records already group themselves by type, so a folder called Bills adds nothing. Folders earn their keep for things the module structure cannot express: one audit, one insurance year, one grant claim, one supplier dispute.

## Who can attach and delete

Documents is governed by a single permission on the Finance role, covering both attaching files and removing them. There is no separate right to delete, so anyone who can attach evidence can also take it away.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Attach and delete are not separable**
>
> If that matters for your controls, the lever is who holds the Documents permission at all rather than a finer setting, because a finer one does not exist.

## Deleting

Deleting from the row menu marks the file inactive rather than destroying it, so it leaves the list and stops appearing on its record.

![The row menu open on a document, offering Open preview, Download, and Delete in red.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/documents/documents-row-menu.png)

*Three actions per row. Delete is the only one that changes anything.*

| What happens | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| To the file | Marked inactive. It leaves the Documents list and its record. |
| To the record | Nothing. Deleting an attachment does not touch the bill or expense it was on. |
| To other records | Nothing. Each attachment belongs to exactly one record, so removing one cannot empty another. |
| On an expense | The deletion is written to that expense's history, naming you and the time. |

> **Note:**
>
> **One file, one record**
>
> Attaching the same PDF to three bills uploads it three times and produces three separate entries. That is worth knowing in both directions: deleting one leaves the other two intact, and replacing a document properly means replacing all three.

## Attachments people expect to be compulsory

| Expected rule | What actually happens |
| --- | --- |
| Require a receipt on an expense | No such setting. Saving an expense with no receipt is allowed. |
| Require an invoice before opening a bill | No such setting. Nothing blocks a bill with no attachment. |
| Mark an attachment to send with the document | No such flag. Attachments are internal, and emailing a document does not carry them. |

> **Warning:**
>
> **Evidence is a habit here, not a rule**
>
> Nothing in the product refuses a transaction for having no paperwork. That makes the monthly review the real control: filter Documents by date to see what came in, and check the transaction lists for records that should have had something attached and did not.