Your day to day
Someone needs a document right now
Finding it and sending it properly, with a client or an inspector waiting.
Someone is waiting: an inspector at the door, a client on the phone, a lawyer with a deadline. It is thirty seconds of searching and a thirty-second decision about how to send it. Both go wrong in a hurry.
Finding it
- 1
Search by what it says, not where you think it is
A tax ID, a registration, a policy number. Almost nobody remembers the filename.
- 2
If too much comes back, filter by date
Faster than adding words, which usually yields nothing.
- 3
If nothing comes back, check the organisation and your permissions
The two commonest causes, and neither is a search problem.
Sending it
| Who is asking | How to send it |
|---|---|
| An inspector, on site | Show it on screen; nothing needs sending |
| A client who only needs to see it | A link: no loose copy and it is logged |
| A lawyer or a court | The original file with its receipt, not a printout |
| Someone outside asking by email | Verify who they are before sending anything |
Important
The last row is the one skipped in a hurry and the costliest. An urgent email asking for a document with sensitive data is exactly the shape of a fraud: if you were not expecting that request, phone the number you already had before sending anything.
Watch out
Do not send a screenshot or a scanned printout when the document has to prove something. Reprinting a PDF changes it, and verification will then say it does not match — correctly.
Worth knowing
If the same document is asked for three times a month, link it from where you work. Urgency is solved before it arrives, not when it does.
›Can I grant access instead of sending the file?
Yes, and it is usually better: checked on the spot, no copy left.
›Is there a record that I sent it?
Yes, with date and recipient.
›What if I lack permission to see it?
Ask an administrator; a hurry is the worst moment to decide to bypass that.
A real case
The situation
An urgent email asks for a client's contract and the associated bank details.
What you do
- Phones the number they already had for that client
- Confirms nobody requested anything
What you get
Avoids sending bank details to someone impersonating their client, which was the point of the urgency.
The situation
A client asks for a certificate by phone and it has to be hunted across three folders.
What you do
- Searches by content rather than by file name
- Shares from the platform instead of downloading and attaching
What you get
It is delivered while the client is still on the phone, and there is a record of what was sent.
The situation
The document exists under a name nobody remembers.
What you do
- Searches by something inside the document
What you get
The file name stops deciding whether it is found.
The situation
It is emailed and there is no record it was sent.
What you do
- Shares from the file
What you get
There is a trail of who received it.
The situation
The whole file is sent when one document was asked for.
What you do
- Shares only what is relevant
What you get
No extra information is handed over.
The situation
The document sits in the inbox of somebody who is away today.
What you do
- Uploads it to the file on receipt
What you get
Delivery does not depend on who is in that day.
This article answers
- i need a document urgently
- an inspector is asking for a paper now
- send a document to a client quickly
- find a contract fast