---
id: KB-MA-011
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/marta/getting-up-to-speed-on-a-file-with-marta
idioma: en
categoria: marta
audiencia: usuario
nivel: basico
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-MA-002, KB-MA-006]
citadoPor: [KB-CR-011, KB-MA-017]
---

# Getting up to speed on a file with Marta

_Picking up someone else's work without reading eighty emails._

**Responde a:** catch up on a file someone else handled · summary of what happened in a process · taking over from a colleague on leave · quickly understand the state of a case

It is one of the biggest time sinks and one nobody talks about: someone leaves, goes on sick leave or changes role, and another person has to pick up their files. The norm is spending a morning reconstructing the story.

## The four questions that solve 90%

1. **"Summarise what has happened in this file"** — The sequence, not the detail. Enough to get oriented in two minutes.
2. **"What is outstanding and who is it waiting on?"** — Separates what is yours from what you are waiting for.
3. **"What was promised to this person?"** — What was said by email or message and not yet delivered.
4. **"Is anything expiring soon here?"** — The question that stops you inheriting a problem in week one.

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The third saves the most grief. Verbal or emailed commitments are the first thing lost in a handover, and the first thing the other party asks about.

## What to verify yourself

| Aspect | Why check it yourself |
| --- | --- |
| Real deadlines | A summary can misquote them; the original rules |
| Amounts and terms | Any figure you are going to use gets checked |
| Who the contact is | It may have changed without the history saying so |

> [!WARNING]
> Do not use a summary as the basis for answering a client without opening what was summarised. A summary tells you where to look; it does not replace reading what matters.

## And the reverse: leaving a file behind

If you are the one leaving, the best legacy is not a handover document: it is that everything you did lives in the file rather than in your inbox. With that, whoever takes over can ask and get answers; without it, no summary is possible.

**En corto**

- Conversations in the file, not in a personal inbox.
- Commitments written where the next person will see them.
- And decisions, with their reasoning, even in one line.

> [!NOTE]
> Marta answers from what exists in your organisation and what your permissions let you see. If a file was restricted, the summary will not include it either — the same rule as everywhere else on the platform.

**Can it summarise several files at once?**

Yes, and for a full handover that is usually the first question.

**Does it see emails?**

Whatever is recorded on the platform. What stayed in a personal inbox, no.

**Does it get things wrong?**

It can. Anything going to a client is checked against the original.

## Ejemplos

**Someone inherits fourteen files from a colleague on leave.**

- Asks for a summary and outstanding items across all fourteen
- Manually checks dates and amounts on the three most urgent

→ Starts working the same morning instead of spending two days reconstructing the state.

**You must catch up on a months-old file.**

- Asks for a status summary

→ Catching up takes minutes.

**Somebody covers for a colleague on leave.**

- Asks for a summary of their files

→ The handover starts informed.

**A meeting with a supplier is being prepared.**

- Asks what is outstanding with them

→ The meeting starts with data.

**The summary leaves out something important.**

- Asks expressly about that point

→ The answer covers what was needed.

**The whole file is read just in case.**

- Asks for the summary and opens only what is doubtful

→ Time goes on what matters.