Guide › Documents

Documents

Documents is where the company keeps its files — trade licences and tenancy contracts, supplier certificates, signed agreements, the scan behind a bill. Open it from the rail on the left: Library is the file browser, Signatures holds the requests you've sent for signing.

The Library at a glance

The sidebar lists the places to look:

  • All files — every folder and file.
  • Starred — the files you starred. Your stars are yours alone.
  • Expiring — files whose expiry date has passed or falls within 60 days, the most urgent first.
  • Recent — the files you opened, downloaded or uploaded, newest first.
  • From records — every file attached to a bill, invoice, order, expense or journal entry, in one place.
  • Your folders, then Trash.

Along the top: the path you're in, search (press ⌘/ — Ctrl / on Windows — to jump to it), New folder and Upload. Files show as Grid, List or Gallery (pictures only). The line at the foot of the sidebar shows how much storage the company uses.

Folders

New folder asks for a name, a colour and, if you like, a glyph — a small symbol on the folder, so Contracts and Payroll are told apart at a glance. Folders can hold folders.

Right-click a folder, or use its ⋯ button, for Open, Colour, glyph and name, New folder inside, Move to…, Who can see it and Delete folder. Deleting a folder moves the files and folders inside it up one level — nothing is lost.

To move files or folders, drag them onto a folder: in the grid, in the list, in the sidebar, or onto a folder in the path at the top.

Uploading files

Press Upload, or drag files from your computer anywhere onto the Library — they go into the folder you're in. Each file is checked against what's already there: if the same file exists, even under another name, Tamra says where (Already in Contracts) and offers Upload anyway or Skip.

As a PDF uploads, Tamra reads it once — the words on its pages, so search can find it, and a picture of page one for its card. Photos get a small copy too, so the Gallery opens quickly.

A scanned PDF has no words to read. It gets its picture, but search finds it by name and tags only.

Finding a file

Type in search. Tamra matches file names and tags, and the words inside PDFs: warehouse rent finds the tenancy contract that says it, and the card shows the matching line with the words picked out. Search looks in every folder you can see.

Filter narrows any view — by Kind (PDF, pictures, office files), when it last Changed, who uploaded it, and Tag. The button shows how many filters are on; Clear removes them.

Files uploaded before the Library could read PDFs are read once when you press Make N files searchable at the foot of the sidebar.

The file's panel

Click a file to open its panel on the right. At the top: Open (the file in the viewer — Space does the same), Download, Get it signed for PDFs, Open in PDF for PDFs and pictures (the PDF workspace, to arrange, mark up or stamp it), and buttons to send it to a customer, rename, move and trash it. The star adds it to Starred; ✕ closes the panel.

Three tabs sit below:

  • Details — the expiry date and reminder, the records it's linked to, its share links, where it lives, who uploaded it, its tags, and a note about why it matters.
  • Versions — the current copy and every earlier one.
  • Activity — who uploaded, opened, downloaded, moved, renamed, shared or trashed it, and when.

Expiry dates and reminders

Licences, visas, insurance policies, tenancy contracts and certificates lapse. In the file's Details, the Expiry box takes the date and when to be reminded — 7, 30, 60 or 90 days before, or no reminder — then Save.

  • The reminder is an ordinary Tamra reminder: it rings in the bell at 9 in the morning, sits on Home and in the Calendar, and opening it opens the file.
  • The file's card and row carry a badge — amber Expires in 38 days, red Expired 3 days ago — and the file appears under Expiring.
  • Changing the date or the lead time moves the same reminder; Remove expiry removes both. A date already inside the window reminds you straight away.

Versions

When a renewed licence or a revised contract arrives, keep the history instead of adding a second file: open the file → Versions → Upload a new version. The new copy becomes the file; the old one is kept below it as v1, v2 and so on.

Any earlier version can be downloaded, or made the current copy again with the circular arrow — and the copy it replaces is kept too, so nothing is lost. Search and the thumbnail follow the current copy.

A PDF changed in the PDF workspace becomes its next version the same way: Open in PDF, make the changes, Save → New version of ….

A signed PDF — one produced by a signature request — never gets a new version on top. It keeps its exact bytes; upload changes as a new file instead.

Linking a file to a record

A file often belongs to a record: the supplier's contract behind a bill, the customer's purchase order behind an invoice. In the file's Details, Link to a record → choose the kind (bill, invoice, quotation, sales or purchase order, RFQ, expense, journal entry) → type part of its number → pick it.

The file then appears in that record's Files rail (the paperclip), marked with a folder symbol, beside the record's own attachments. Nothing is copied — it stays in the Library, and the rail's folder button opens it there. A file can be linked to several records; ✕ on a link removes it. Deleting a record removes its links.

From records works the other way round: every file attached to any record, with the record it belongs to one click away.

The PDF workspace

PDF, next to Documents in the sidebar and on the Home page, is for PDFs that start outside Tamra: a supplier's batch of invoices, a year of bank statements, a contract that came by email.

  • Open — drop PDFs or pictures anywhere on the page, press Open files, or choose From the Library. Open several at once and they become one PDF, in the order you chose, named after the first. A photo of a receipt becomes a page. A document can also come straight from Documents → Open in PDF: it opens the document itself, not a copy.
  • Work on them — the whole page is the viewer, so everything it does is here: arrange, turn, delete and insert pages, take pages out as their own PDF, mark up, sign, redact and search. To add more files, use + in the toolbar or drop them on the page; their pages go at the end.
  • Save — Save, at the right of the toolbar, asks where: New version of … for a document opened from Documents (or saved once already) — it becomes that document's next version, the earlier ones kept under Versions — or a new document in the Library folder you choose, with Download instead beside it. The toolbar's download and email buttons give the PDF with your changes. The files you opened from your computer are never changed.

Split into bills

When a supplier sends one PDF holding several invoices, choose ⋯ More → Split into bills (← Pages, or Esc, takes you back). The pages appear grouped into bills — Tamra suggests where each bill starts from the pages' own words: a page that says Page 2 of 3 or continued stays with the bill before it. Click ✂ between two pages to start a new bill there, or Join with bill … to put a bill back into the one before.

Reading starts by itself, one bill after another. The steps across the top go green as they're done, and each bill shows where it stands: Waiting, Reading… (with a moving bar), what was found — supplier, number and total — in green, or Nothing readable in amber: that bill still goes to Purchase, blank, with its pages attached. Stop pauses the reading; Resume carries on.

A supplier that isn't in Tamra yet is never added quietly: the bill says New supplier with the name and TRN it read, and you choose Add as supplier or pick one under Choose existing. A supplier already in Tamra is matched by TRN or name.

When every bill is read, Open … bills in Purchase takes them to Purchase → Bills, one after another, each filled in from what was read, with its pages beside it. Check it and save it: the pages become the bill's attachment, and the next one opens. Stop after this one ends early.

A bank statement

With a bank statement open, ⋯ More → Import into Banking… sends it to Banking, which matches it to its bank account by the IBAN printed on it and opens the import with it already read — every transaction, the period and the balances, each running balance checked.

After saving

When the workspace saves to the Library — the whole document, or pages you extracted with Save these pages as a separate PDF — a card in the corner says where it went, with Show in Documents › to open it there and Download to export that exact file at once.

After saving the whole document, the workspace carries on from the file just saved — your marks are now part of it — and the next Save is its next version. Pages you extracted are a document of their own; the file you are working on keeps all its pages.

Nothing is lost when you leave

In the module's sidebar, Documents keeps the file Open now, the Drafts you worked on and Recent documents — click one to carry on, × to remove it (it asks first), + Open to open more. These working files are kept in your account: the file, pages you added, the arrangement, marks and stamps, recognised text, and how you split it into bills, with what was read. Sign in on another computer with the same company and the same list is there. They are yours alone — nobody else in the company sees them — until you save to the Library.

  • Saved as you go — a moment after each change. The foot of the list says what is happening: Saving to your account…, Saved to your account, or Not saved yet — trying again with Try now. Opening a file and only reading it saves nothing.
  • Go elsewhere, come back — go to another module, reload, or switch computer: coming back to PDF picks up where you left off.
  • Two computers at once — if the file was changed on another computer while you worked on it, both are kept: theirs as it was, yours as … · this computer, and a note says so. Nothing is overwritten.
  • No connection — a change that can't be sent waits on this computer and goes up by itself, on the next try or the next time you open the PDF module. Closing the page with a change still on its way asks first.
  • From before — files kept in this browser before October 2026 move up to your account the first time you open the module here (a file over 50 MB stays on that computer, and the note says so).
  • Nothing is removed by itself — working files stay until you remove them. The foot of the list shows how many you have and the room they take.

Until the October 2026 database update (2026-10-09_pdf_01_working_files.sql) has been run, working files stay in each computer's browser, as before, and the foot of the list says Kept on this computer only.

Large files open quickly: Tamra reads the page sizes first and draws each page as you get near it, so even a few hundred pages stay smooth.

Reading a PDF

The viewer's toolbar keeps to one quiet line: the file's name and the page you're on at the left; zoom, highlight, rotate, Mark up, download and email in small groups at the right; then the search box.

  • Find words — type in Search (or press ⌘ F). Every match is marked on the pages and listed down the left with the words around it; click one to go there. Enter or ⌘ G moves to the next, Shift Enter or Shift ⌘ G to the previous; Esc clears the search.
  • Copy text — drag across any text on the page to select it, then copy it as usual. This works for PDFs made on a computer; a scanned page is a picture and has no text to select.
  • Choose the view — the arrow beside the sidebar button opens View: page thumbnails, contact sheet or no sidebar, and Continuous scroll, Single page (the ↑ ↓ keys turn the page) or Two pages side by side.
  • Zoom — − and +, or click the percentage for Actual size, Fit the page, Fit the width and fixed sizes. ⌘ or Ctrl with the scroll wheel (or a pinch on the trackpad) zooms too.
  • More (⋯) — in the PDF workspace, Split into bills and Add pages (from your computer or the Library) are here too, along with Highlight, turning the page left or right, Download, Export with the marks, Email and Print are under ⋯ in the toolbar; on a narrow screen, zoom joins them. Search is the magnifier, or ⌘ F.
  • Scanned pages — when a PDF is only pictures of pages, the scan button in the toolbar (Recognise text) reads them, in English and Arabic, so you can search, select and copy their words. A card in the corner shows each page as it's read, with Cancel; at the end it says how many pages it read and names any it couldn't, with Retry those pages (a page with no text may be turned — rotate it first). When you save, the English text goes into the file invisibly, so the copy can be searched anywhere. The first time, Tamra downloads its reader (a few MB); after that it's quick.

Mark up (the pen) opens the marking tools in a row of their own: select, draw, highlight, text, note, shapes, redact, today's date, Stamps, Signatures, and colour and size. Press it again when you're done.

Marking up a PDF

  • Highlight, underline or strike through words — choose the highlighter, then select the words: they're marked as you let go. Whether it highlights, underlines or strikes through is chosen under the highlighter's arrow (or Colour and size). On a scanned page, which has no text, drag a box instead.
  • Notes — choose Note and click where it belongs; type, then click away. A note shows as a small yellow sheet; click it to read it, even when you're not marking up.
  • Shapes — Shapes offers a rectangle, rounded rectangle, oval, triangle, star, line, arrow, double arrow, tick and cross: drag across the page.
  • Style — the Style button follows what you're doing: ink, width and opacity for drawing; line colour, fill (or none), solid, dashed or dotted lines and width for shapes; typeface (sans serif, serif or monospace), size, bold, italic, colour and background for text; colours for notes and highlights. Every colour choice offers a palette, your recent colours, any colour by picker or code, and opacity where it helps.
  • Redact — drag over what must not be seen, such as an account number or a salary. When the PDF is exported, emailed or saved as a new version, each page with a redaction is rebuilt as a picture with the black boxes burned in, so the words under them are gone from the file, not just covered. The rest of that page can no longer be selected or searched in the copy. Redaction is for PDFs only; the original file is never changed.
  • Edit text — choose Edit text and click a line to retype it, or select just the words to change (a loose selection takes whole words). Tamra covers the line in the paper's own colour and retypes it in the same typeface family, weight, slant and ink colour; a small bar above it changes the typeface, size, bold, italic and colour while you type (⌘ B, ⌘ I). It works on scanned pages too, once their text is recognised. The old words are covered, not removed: when they must be gone from the file, use Redact. Arabic lines can't be retyped yet.
  • Change or remove a mark — with the arrow tool, click a mark to select it. Drag to move it, use the corner to resize it, and press Delete to remove it.
  • Everything you've marked — View → Highlights and notes lists every mark page by page, with the words you highlighted and what your notes say; click one to go to it.

Marks are shared with your team

Marks on a file attached to a record, or kept in the Library, are saved with that file, so everyone in your company sees the same highlights, notes, stamps and signatures, on any device. Highlights and notes shows who made each mark and when.

  • The file's title line says Saved for your team once your changes are saved; saving happens by itself a moment after you stop.
  • If Tamra can't reach the record, it says On this device only and keeps your marks on this computer; they move up the next time the file opens with a connection, and Tamra tells you when they do.
  • Marks made before this change aren't moved: they were saved in a way that didn't record which file they belonged to, so they stay on the computer they were made on and are no longer shown.
  • A printed document or a statement preview isn't a stored file, so its marks stay on the device you made them on.

Arranging a PDF's pages

Every PDF opened in the viewer — from a record's attachments, its Files rail or the Library — shows its pages down the left as thumbnails. The sidebar button at the top left of the viewer shows or hides them.

  • Go to a page — click its thumbnail. The page you're reading is ringed.
  • Choose pages — click one, Shift-click for a run, ⌘-click (Ctrl on Windows) to add or remove one; ⌘ A chooses them all.
  • Reorder — drag a page, or all the chosen pages, to a new place. A line shows where they'll land.
  • Turn, copy, remove — the buttons under the thumbnails turn pages left or right, duplicate them and delete them. R turns right, Shift R left, and Delete removes.
  • Add pages — + above the thumbnails adds a blank page, a PDF or picture from your computer, or another PDF or picture already attached to the same record. New pages go after the chosen page; a picture sits on its own A4 page.
  • Take pages out — choose them and press the page-with-an-arrow button. They're saved as a PDF of their own: added to the record, or downloaded when the file isn't a record's attachment.
  • See every page at once — the grid button lays the pages out as a contact sheet, handy for big rearrangements. Double-click a page to read it; Esc goes back.

The file you opened is never changed. As soon as the pages differ, the title says Edited — click it to undo the last change (also ⌘ Z), go back to the original pages, or download the original — and Save as new version appears at the right of the toolbar. Saving adds the arranged PDF to the record beside the original, named (edited), and shows it. Outside a record — the Library, printed documents — the button is Download PDF.

Stamps, signatures and marks go with their pages. Email and Export PDF send the pages as arranged. Mark up waits until the page changes are saved or discarded, and closing the viewer asks before letting them go.

Private folders

Some folders aren't for everyone — payroll, board papers, personnel files. Right-click the folder → Who can see it → Only people I choose, tick the people, Save. A lock marks the folder on its tile and in the sidebar.

  • The folder's maker and the company's admins always see it. For everyone else it doesn't exist — not in the sidebar, search, Recent, Starred or Eagle's answers.
  • Everything inside is private too: subfolders, files, the words inside them, versions, and the files themselves.
  • Only the folder's maker or an admin can change who sees it.
  • A file moved out of a private folder is visible again.

To let someone outside Tamra open one file — an auditor, a bank, a new supplier — open the file → Share links → New link. Choose how long it lasts (a day, a week, 30 or 90 days, or Until I switch it off) and whether to Offer a Download button, then Create and copy. The link is on your clipboard.

Share it on WhatsApp: beside a link's Copy, press WhatsApp — Tamra writes a short message with the file's name, the secure link and the date it stops working, and opens WhatsApp for you to choose the chat. After saving a PDF to the Library from the PDF workspace, the card that confirms it has a WhatsApp button too: it makes a 7-day link and opens WhatsApp in one step.

The person opening it sees your company's name and logo, the file itself, and when the link ends. Each open is counted — the link's row reads Works until 21 Oct · 3 views. Switch off stops the link within minutes, even for a page someone left open.

Anyone who can view a file can also save it. The Download button is a courtesy, not a lock.

Sending files to a customer

To give a customer documents inside their Customer Portal: select one or more files → Send (or the send button in a file's panel) → choose the customer → add a note if you like → Send. The files arrive in the portal's Messages, where only that customer's link can open them, and each file's Activity records it.

Only customers with a live portal link appear in the list — see The Customer Portal to create one. The customer receives a copy: changing the file in the Library later doesn't change what they have. Files over 25 MB are too large to send this way; use a share link.

Getting a document signed

On any PDF, Get it signed — name the signers, add a message, set a deadline. Each signer receives an email, opens the signing page, types their name and draws a signature or initials, and signs where the boxes are. Signers need no Tamra account.

Signed copies are stamped with the date and stored beside the original. Remind pending signers nudges; a signer can decline with a reason. Signatures shows the requests you sent and the ones you're asked to sign (Admins see every request) — who has signed and who hasn't. The person who sent a request, or an Admin, cancels it. When the last person signs, the signed copy is filed beside the original, in the same folder. A signer can open the file they are asked to sign, and the signed copy afterwards, even when it sits in a private folder they can't otherwise open. Replacing a file's stored copy needs the right to change that document, and removing it the right to delete it.

Working with many files

Tick a file's box (it appears when you hover), Shift-click to take a range, or press ⌘A / Ctrl+A for everything in view. A bar appears with Move, Tag, Download (one ZIP file), Send and Trash. In the List view the same actions sit above the table.

Keys: ⌘/ search (Ctrl / on Windows; ⌘K searches all of Tamra) · ⌘A select all in view · Delete move the selection to Trash · Space preview · Esc clear the selection.

Trash

Trashed files wait in Trash until someone restores them or deletes them for good. Restore puts a file back in its folder. Delete for good removes it, with its earlier versions and its picture — that can't be undone. A share link stops working the moment its file goes to Trash.

Who can do what

Documents & Sign has its own switches in Settings → Users & Roles: files (view, create, edit, delete), folders (create, edit, delete) and sending for signature.

  • Viewer — sees files and folders, opens and downloads them, stars them; changes nothing.
  • Operator and Payroll — upload, rename, move, tag, add versions, link files to records, share by link, add and rename folders, and send files for signature.
  • Manager and Admin — all of that, and trash, restore and delete anyone's files and folders.
  • Your own files and folders — whoever uploaded a file, or made a folder, can change and delete it while their role can upload or add folders.
  • Private folders — as before, only the people chosen, the folder's maker and Admins see what is inside, and nobody else can change it either.
  • Share links — revoked by the person who made the link, or an Admin.

Common questions

Who can see a file? Everyone in the company whose role can view Documents — unless it's in a private folder.

Does Eagle see private folders? Only the ones you can see. Eagle searches with your access.

Can I get back a file I deleted for good? No — that's what Trash is for.

Is a file linked to a bill a copy? No. It's the same file, shown in two places; change it in the Library and the bill's rail shows the change.

Can my colleagues see my PDF working files? No — each person's working files are their own. What you save to the Library is shared as usual.

Why is there a file called … · this computer? The same working file was changed on two computers at once. Both were kept: the one without the ending is the other computer's, the one with it is yours. Keep the one you want and remove the other.

If something goes wrong

  • A PDF isn't found by the words inside it → it's a scan with no text, or it was uploaded before the Library read PDFs — press Make N files searchable.
  • A colleague can't see a folder → it's private; its maker or an admin can add them under Who can see it.
  • A customer isn't in the Send list → they have no live portal link; create one from the customer's Portal tab.
  • A share link says it isn't available → it expired, was switched off, or the file went to Trash. Make a new link.
  • The PDF list says Not saved yet — trying again → the connection to Tamra dropped; your changes are kept on this computer and go up by themselves (or press Try now).
  • The PDF list says Not saved to your account → a page or picture is over 50 MB, too large to keep there. Use ⋯ More → Reduce size, save it to the Library, or download it.
  • The PDF list says Kept on this computer only → the October 2026 database update hasn't been run yet.