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Documents

SolaBooks keeps your paperwork in two connected places: the Documents library (a general file store for your organization) and the Supporting Documents panel on each transaction (the files that belong to a specific bill, expense, or invoice). Together they keep receipts, contracts, scans and generated PDFs alongside the books instead of scattered across email and drives.

When to use it

  • Documents library — for files that belong to the business as a whole: contracts, licences, bank correspondence, scanned paperwork, spreadsheets you refer to often.
  • Supporting Documents on a transaction — for the paperwork behind one specific record: the supplier's PDF on a bill, the till receipt on an expense, the signed order on an invoice.
  • Receipt drop box on Bill / Expense create — when you want a receipt both attached and read by receipt scanning to fill in the form for you.

The Documents library

Open Documents in the sidebar. The library panel gives you:

  • My Documents — everything you have uploaded or that has been filed for you.
  • Starred — files you have marked as important, for quick access.
  • Trash — deleted files. Trash is reversible: restore a file, or permanently delete it. Permanent deletion cannot be undone.
  • Browse by type — PDFs, Images, Spreadsheets, Documents — quick views filtered by file kind.
  • Folders — your own folders for organising files however suits your business.

To add files, drag them in or use the upload button. Star important files, move them into folders, and use Trash rather than permanent delete when in doubt.

Supporting Documents on transactions

Bill, Expense, Purchase Order, Invoice, Journal Entry and Payment pages each have a Supporting Documents panel. It distinguishes two roles:

  • Primary document — the one file that is the transaction's source paper: the supplier's invoice PDF on a bill, the till receipt on an expense. There is only one primary document at a time; uploading a new one replaces it.
  • Supporting attachments — any number of extra files: delivery notes, email printouts, photos, correspondence.

From the panel you can:

  1. Upload — a small upload window lets you add one or several files and choose whether one of them is the primary document.
  2. Preview — click a file to open it in a full-screen preview (works for PDFs and images).
  3. Download — save the original file to your computer.
  4. Replace — upload a new primary document over the old one.
  5. Remove — take an attachment off the transaction.

Attachments stay editable even when the transaction itself is posted and locked — you can always add the missing receipt to a posted bill.

The receipt drop box (Bill and Expense create)

The New Bill and New Expense forms have one clearly-labelled receipt drop box wired to receipt scanning:

  • If the form is empty, a dropped PDF or photo is scanned — supplier, date, amounts, tax and line items are filled in for you.
  • If the form already has data, the file is attached only — nothing you typed is overwritten and no scan credit is used.

Either way the file ends up on the transaction as an attachment. See Bills and Expenses for the full scanning behaviour.

Supported file types

Matching the library's browse types, you can upload:

  • PDFs
  • Images (JPG, PNG)
  • Spreadsheets (XLSX, CSV)
  • Documents (Word files)

There is a per-file size limit (around 10 MB by default). Files over the limit or of other types are rejected with a clear message.

Generated documents

Every posted invoice, quote, bill, and receipt stores its rendered PDF automatically, so the library doubles as an archive of everything you have issued. See PDF templates to control how these look.

What happens when a transaction is deleted

Attachments live with their transaction. If you delete a draft transaction, its attachments are no longer reachable — they are not moved into the Documents library. Download anything you want to keep before deleting a draft. Posted transactions cannot be deleted (they are unposted or voided instead), so their paperwork stays in place.

Example

Sara at Al Noor Trading receives a freight invoice by email. She opens New Bill, drops the PDF into the receipt box on the empty form, and the supplier, date and amount fill in automatically. After posting, she notices the delivery note is missing — she opens the bill, uses the Supporting Documents panel to upload it as a supporting attachment, and previews both files in the lightbox to confirm they're the right ones.

Common problems

  • "My file was rejected as too large." There is a per-file size limit (around 10 MB by default). Compress the file or scan at a lower resolution and try again.
  • "Unsupported file type." Only PDFs, images, spreadsheets and Word documents are accepted. Convert other formats (e.g. print an email to PDF) before uploading.
  • "I can't upload or delete files." Uploading and deleting each require access your account may not have — ask your workspace administrator.
  • "I deleted a file by mistake." Check Trash in the Documents library — files there can be restored until they are permanently deleted.
  • "The receipt didn't fill in my bill." Scanning only runs when the form is empty. If you had already typed anything, the file was attached without scanning — see Bills.

Behaviour and rules

  • Organization-scoped. Files belong to the active organization only.
  • Trash is reversible until you permanently delete.
  • Attachments on posted transactions stay editable even though the accounting fields are locked.
  • One primary document per transaction; supporting attachments are unlimited within the size rules.

Related

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