Documents

What's in the document library?

BoardTools keeps two kinds of documents apart, on purpose, as two tabs on the Documents page:

• Library — the regular library: everything organized into folders and tags you control. A folder tree sits beside the document list — click any folder to open it, exactly like a file manager.
• Governing documents — bylaws, policies, approved minutes, and other elevated documents. They're always shown, in full, on their own tab — organized by category (Bylaws, Policies, Minutes — approved, Other governing) — and they're never filed into a folder.

How do I upload a document?

From the Documents page, choose Upload above the library table to open the upload panel. Pick the governing class for bylaws, policies, and other elevated documents (they land on the Governing documents tab and are tracked by category); everything else lands in the Library tab, where you can file it into a folder and tag it — uploading while you're inside a folder preselects that folder, so documents land where you're standing.

Every role except the read-only Observer can upload — a director can file a report or a disclosure without any library-management permission. The governing class in the panel, and everything that curates the library (new versions, restore, folders, tags, delete), still needs document-management permission; see What can each role do?.

The file picker accepts PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text, CSV, and image files, up to 25 MB — the same limits are shown right under the file field, and a file that's too big or the wrong type is flagged immediately, before you submit, so you don't wait on a round-trip only to be turned away. While the upload is in progress the submit button shows "Uploading…" and the panel stays open until it finishes; when it's done you'll see a confirmation notification and the new document in the library. The same file guardrails apply when you upload a new version of an existing document.

Promoting or demoting a document between "general" and "governing" is a separate, privileged action from the document's own detail page — a plain metadata edit doesn't move a document between the two.

Can I file a document under a committee?

Yes. If your board has committees, the upload panel has a Committee field with No committee — general board document selected by default. Choose a committee and the document also appears in that committee's own Documents section on its page, so a finance-committee chair opening their committee sees the papers that belong to it rather than an empty list.

You can change it later too: on a document's own page (or from the ⋯ menu on its row in the library), Edit details has the same Committee field — pick a different committee, or No committee — general board document to clear it. Every change is recorded in the audit log naming both the committee it left and the committee it moved to.

Two things worth being clear about:

• Filing a document under a committee doesn't restrict who can read it. It changes which committee lists the document, not who can open it — every signed-in member of the board sees it in the library exactly as before.
• The Committee field needs document-management permission. If your role can upload but not curate the library, you won't see the field at all; your uploads land as general board documents.

To see only one committee's papers, use the Committee filter above the library table (see below).

Can I upload straight from a meeting?

Yes. Anywhere you attach a document — a meeting's Materials card on its Details tab, or the paperclip Attach button on an agenda item — the dialog has an Upload a file tab alongside the file-cabinet picker. A file uploaded there is added to this library as an ordinary, versioned document and attached to the meeting in one step, so you never have to come here first and the library never misses a document that went to the board. See Add materials to a meeting.

Removing a document from a meeting only takes it out of that meeting's packet — the document stays in the library.

How do I browse and organize the library?

The Library tab works like a file manager. The folder tree on the left lists every folder your board has (with how many documents each holds) — click one to open it, or click All documents to see everything. Inside a folder you'll see its subfolders listed above its documents, and a breadcrumb trail (All documents / Board Records / Minutes) shows where you are — click any part of it to jump back up. Every folder has its own web address, so you can bookmark a folder or share a link straight to it.

Anyone can browse; managing the tree needs document-management permission and happens right where you are:

• New folder (under the tree) creates a folder in whatever location you're currently viewing.
• Rename, Move, and Delete (next to the breadcrumb) act on the folder you're inside. Delete asks you to confirm, and a folder must be empty — no subfolders or documents — before it can be removed.

Above the table, the search bar carries a Tag filter and — if your board has committees — a Committee filter, so you can narrow the library to one committee's papers. Like every other filter it lives in the address, so a filtered view is shareable, and a document filed under a committee also shows a Committee: <name> chip on its row so you can tell at a glance without filtering. It is a filter, not a privacy control: leaving it on All committees shows every document, exactly as it always did.

Every document can also carry tags, shown in the library as small clickable chips — select one to filter the library down to that tag, the same as picking it from the search bar's tag filter above the list. The search and tag controls work within the folder you're browsing (open All documents first to search the whole library). The library updates on its own a moment after you change a search term or filter — there's no need to click Apply (it's still there, and it's what runs the search/filter if JavaScript is off), and Clear filters clears the search without moving you out of the folder.

While you're inside a folder, its Folder column is hidden from the table — every row already shares that one location, so repeating it on each row would be noise; at the library root it's shown, since rows there can come from many folders. Each row also carries a small filetype label (PDF, DOC, XLS, and so on) before its title, so the library reads like a file listing at a glance.

When the library holds a lot of documents, the table shows one page at a time with Previous page / Next page links at the bottom — the count above the table always reflects the full filtered total, not just the page you're looking at, and the page you're on lives in the address so a shared link opens in the same place.

Can I sort the library?

Yes — select the Title, Uploaded by, or Updated column heading to sort the library by it. Selecting the same heading again reverses the order (A–Z becomes Z–A, newest-first becomes oldest-first), and the heading you're sorted by says which way it's going, for sighted and screen-reader users alike. The headings are ordinary buttons, so Tab to one and press Enter or Space if you'd rather not use a mouse.

Sorting is done by the server, across every document that matches what you're looking at — not just the page in front of you — so paging through a sorted library keeps one continuous order. It lives in the address too, so a sorted view is shareable and survives a reload, and it stays put when you change the search box or the Tag/Committee filters. Sorting starts you back on page 1, since "page 4" of a different order wouldn't mean anything.

Uploaded by sorts by the uploader's name as shown, not by anything invisible behind it; documents whose uploader has since left the board sort to the end. If you've typed something in the search box, the library normally leads with the best matches — but the moment you choose a column to sort by, your sort wins and the results come back in exactly the order you asked for.

Tags and Folder don't sort. A document can carry several tags, and the folder column shows a whole folder path, so neither has an order that would mean anything — rather than sort them by something you can't see, those two headings are plain labels. Use the Tag filter, or open a folder in the tree, to narrow by either instead.

Is there a quick preview alongside the table?

On a wide enough screen, the Library tab shows a preview panel beside the table with the selected document's thumbnail, current version, folder, uploader, updated date, and version history — so you can check an older version without leaving the table or opening the document's own page.

The preview follows whichever document you're working with, from either a mouse or a keyboard: clicking anywhere on a row (other than one of its own links or buttons, which keep doing what they already do) selects it, and so does simply tabbing to any control already inside that row — its title link, a tag, the uploader's name, Copy link, or the ⋯ menu — so reaching the preview never costs you an extra keystroke. Screen readers are told which document the panel now shows each time the selection changes.

What can I do straight from a row in the library table?

Every row shows who uploaded it under Uploaded by — the member's name, linked to their profile, or "Former member" if they've since left the board, or an em dash if no uploader was ever recorded (a departed member's name never links anywhere, since there's no profile left to open). The Updated column shows the calendar date the document was last changed, together with a relative hint (for example "Jul 25, 2026 · 2 days ago") — and each row carries a Copy link button that copies that document's direct, shareable URL to your clipboard.

Every row also has a ⋯ menu with edit details, move-to-folder, edit tags, change class, and delete — no need to open the document's own page first. Delete asks you to confirm before it removes anything. Which of these you see depends on your role: edit details/move/tag/delete need document-management permission, and "Change class" (promoting or demoting between "general" and "governing") needs the more elevated governing-document permission.

Edit details is how you fix a typo'd title, or update tags and folder all in one place — it opens a dialog prefilled with the document's current title, tags, and folder, and saving updates the title everywhere it's shown (the library list, the document's own page) without discarding any version history. Before this, a document's title was set once at upload and could never be corrected short of deleting and re-uploading the file — which would have lost the version history. The same Edit details control is also available from the document's own page, next to Copy link.

How do I move, tag, download, or delete several documents at once?

Tick the checkbox on each row you want (or the header checkbox to select every document currently shown), and a bulk action bar floats at the bottom of the screen with Move to folder, Add tag, Download selected, and Delete selected controls. Each one applies to every selected document in a single action, and selecting documents and using any of these controls works fully from the keyboard.

Move to folder and Add tag each report afterward a summary of how many succeeded — a document that can no longer be affected (for example, one someone else just promoted to governing while you had it selected) is reported individually rather than stopping the rest of the batch.

Download selected packages the current version of every selected document into a single ZIP file and downloads it right away — no confirmation needed, since nothing changes. If one of the selected documents' files can no longer be found in storage, the rest still downloads — you'll see a warning naming which document(s) were left out (and why), and the ZIP itself includes a MISSING-FILES.txt file listing them, so the caveat travels with the archive even if you forward it on its own. Only if every selected document's file is missing does the download fail outright.

Delete selected removes every selected document, including its entire version history — this cannot be undone, so it always asks you to confirm first and states exactly how many documents are about to be removed. Once you confirm, the selection clears and the library refreshes. Bulk delete needs the same document-management permission as deleting a single document from its row menu.

How do version history and effective dates work?

Every document keeps a full, immutable version history on its detail page. Uploading a new version never overwrites the old one — it becomes the new official current version while every prior version stays downloadable. Restoring an older version works the same way: it adds a fresh version with that content rather than rewinding history. Each version's Uploaded date renders in your board's own time zone (Settings → Board profile).

For a governing document, each version also carries an effective date and a status — Effective (currently in force), Pending (adopted but not yet in effect), In review (a draft circulated for the board's comment, not in force and not yet decided), or Superseded (replaced by a later version) — so you can always tell which version of your bylaws is the one that counts today.

A draft circulated for review is added to the version history but does not become the current version. It shows as In review until the board adopts it, and until then the library, Download selected, meeting materials and meeting packets all keep serving the version the board actually adopted.

The By column shows who uploaded each version, by name — "Former member" if that person has since left the board, or an em dash if no uploader was ever recorded. The Size column shows each version's file size in a readable unit (B/KB/MB/GB) rather than a raw byte count.

A document's own page also has a Copy link button next to Back to library, for sharing a direct link to that document.

Good governance tip: set a governing document's effective date to when the board actually adopted it (often the date a ratifying motion passed), not the date someone got around to uploading it.

Correcting a version's effective date

An effective date isn't locked in forever. If you can manage governing documents, each version in the history table has its own Edit control next to its effective date — use it to fix a typo'd date (so a version stuck showing Pending because of a mistyped future date reads correctly again), or to set a date on a version that never had one, which happens whenever a document was promoted from the regular library to a governing document: its existing versions carried no effective date at all, and now you can give them one without re-uploading anything. Clearing the field back to blank removes the effective date entirely — useful if a document was promoted by mistake. This only ever changes the stored date on that one version; it never creates, removes, or reorders a version, and it's recorded in the audit log with the date it replaced.

What can I do on a document's own page?

Everyone who can open a document can read it there: its class and category or folder, its tags, the full version history, and a Download link for every version (plus the in-page reader for PDFs, and Copy link to share it).

The page's editing controls follow the same rule as the library row's ⋯ menu — you only ever see the ones your role can actually use, so nothing on the page turns you away after you click it:

• Edit details, Delete, Move to folder, tag editing, Restore next to a prior version, Publish as new version (only once someone has started a collaborative draft — see below), and Upload a new version need document-management permission.
• Change class — the Governance section that promotes or demotes a document between "general" and "governing" — needs the more elevated governing-document permission, so a role that can manage ordinary documents won't necessarily see it.

If you can't edit, nothing useful is simply missing: the document's tags still appear as read-only labels, its class and folder are still shown, and the version history still lists — and downloads — every version.

Publishing a collaborative draft as a new version

If a document has a live collaborative draft — content the board has been editing together, rather than uploaded as a file — its detail page shows a Publish collaborative draft section above Upload a new version, with a Publish as new version button. The section only appears once there's actually a draft to publish; a document nobody has started editing collaboratively shows neither the section nor the button.

Selecting Publish as new version asks you to confirm, since it adds a permanent new version to the document's history (prior versions are always kept, exactly like an uploaded version). Once confirmed, the live draft is turned into the new official current version and appears in the version history right away — no page reload needed. If the draft happened to be cleared in the moment between opening the page and clicking Publish, you'll see "There's no collaboratively-edited content to publish yet." instead of the version being created.

Which resolution adopted this version?

For a governing document, the version-history table also carries an Adopted by column — the motion that ratified that version, linking straight to it in the meeting's record (or, for a version adopted by written consent, just the motion's title and date, since there's no meeting page to link to). A version with no linkage yet shows an em dash. If the linked motion's status has changed since (for example, a withdrawn consent round), the column shows that current status rather than repeating a claim that's no longer true.

If you can manage governing documents, select Link resolution next to Edit details to set or clear which passed motion adopted the document's current version — pick from a searchable list of the board's passed motions, or choose "No ratifying motion" to clear an existing link. The same linkage shows up in reverse on the Decisions page: a decision that adopted a governing document links back to it there too, and its Copy citation text includes the document and version it adopted.

Can I read a document without downloading it?

If the document's current version is a PDF, its row in the version history shows a Read button alongside Download. Selecting it opens the same in-app reader the meeting packet uses, filling almost the whole window on a laptop and going full-screen on a phone: every page is stacked in one continuous view, so you scroll straight through the document rather than clicking through it. Previous/Next (or ← / →, Page Up / Page Down, Home / End) jump a page at a time when you want them, ↑ / ↓ and the space bar scroll, and the zoom controls enlarge a page when the text is small (see reading the packet on a phone). Every page's text is real and selectable — not a picture of the page — so you can copy it or have a screen reader read it aloud, and each page is its own labelled region ("Page 3 of 12") for screen-reader navigation. Long documents fill in a few pages at a time as you scroll, showing a placeholder for pages you haven't reached. If the file can't be loaded (a network hiccup, for example), the reader shows a clear error with a Try again button rather than leaving you stuck.

A current version that isn't a PDF (a Word document, spreadsheet, image, and so on) shows its file type next to Download instead of a Read button — open it in the application that handles that file type after downloading.

How do I acknowledge a governing document?

If a governing document still needs your sign-off, the library flags it with a Needs acknowledgment badge so you know at a glance, and the Governing documents tab itself carries a count badge for how many you still owe. Whenever you owe at least one, a dismissible banner also appears at the top of the Library tab — the default landing view — with a Review link straight to the Governing tab, so the obligation follows you instead of waiting inside a tab you had no reason to open. The badge is a link: select it to jump straight to your onboarding checklist and confirm. Your dashboard surfaces the same thing under "Documents to acknowledge" — see Getting started.

Acknowledging itself happens from Members → Onboarding, which always shows your own checklist: confirm each governing document one at a time — it's a one-click action, always recorded against you (the signed-in member), and plainly marked "Acknowledged" afterward. See Members & roles for the full onboarding checklist.

Who still needs to acknowledge? (governing-doc managers)

If you can manage governing documents, each governing document's detail page has an Acknowledgments section that answers "who still needs to acknowledge the bylaws?" at a glance. It shows an acknowledged count — "3 of 7 members have acknowledged this document" — and expands into a roster split into Outstanding and Acknowledged, each member shown by name and avatar. Currently-serving members are the ones tracked here.

It is visible only to members whose role can manage governing documents. Everyone else sees the document exactly as before, with no roster.

Chasing outstanding acknowledgments

Right above the roster, a Send a reminder button lets you nudge everyone who is still outstanding — the same one-click, confirm-then-send pattern as the meeting reminder. Confirming emails each currently-serving member who hasn't yet acknowledged, with an in-app notification alongside it; a member who has already acknowledged is never contacted, and one who has opted out of board email still gets the in-app notification. You can send a reminder for the same document again on a later day, but re-clicking within the same day sends nothing extra — it's a nudge, not a way to spam the board. When everyone has acknowledged, the button disables itself and says so, rather than sitting there with nothing to do.