How to manage project documents
Every project has a document library under Documents, organised into categories and sub-categories. Upload files or whole folders, choose what is visible outside your company, restrict sensitive categories to named people, and share on site with QR codes.
- Where it lives
- Inside a project, under Documents, then Project documents.
- How it is organised
- Categories, each with optional sub-categories.
- Who sees it
- Your team by default. External visibility and restricted access are opt-in.
- On site
- Externally visible categories and documents get a QR code.
Before you start
Before you start, check that:
- The project exists.
- You can view project documents.
- Adding, deleting and managing categories are separate permissions.
- Drawings live on their own Drawings sub-tab, not here.
Open Project documents
Go to Projects, open the project, select the Documents tab, then Project documents.
Plans, schedules, and progress tracking.
Safety procedures, risks, and incident logs.
Technical plans and design details.
Costs, agreements, and financial records.
Certificates, manuals, and final handover docs.
The default categories
New projects start with five categories:
Plans, schedules, and progress tracking.
Safety procedures, risks, and incident logs. Comes with eight sub-categories: Construction Phase Plan, RAMS, F10 & Notifications, Asbestos, Site Induction, Incidents & Near Misses, Audits and Returned Site Files.
Technical plans and design details.
Costs, agreements, and financial records.
Certificates, manuals, and final handover documents.
Each tile shows the file count, an Externally visible toggle, the description and up to four sub-category chips.
Search everything
Type in Search to search documents across every category. Select Clear to go back.
Switch between Tiles and All documents
Tiles shows the categories. All documents shows one table of every document, with its type, visibility, category, sub-category and the date it was updated.
Open a category
Select a tile. The category page shows its title and description, a visibility bar, the sub-category list on the left and the documents table on the right.
Add documents
Select Add documents. Drag files in or select Browse files. You can add any file type, up to 50 files at once.
Plans, schedules, and progress tracking.
Safety procedures, risks, and incident logs.
Technical plans and design details.
Costs, agreements, and financial records.
Certificates, manuals, and final handover docs.
Upload a whole folder
Drag a folder in, or select Browse folder. Choose whether to file it as a New sub-category under the chosen category, or a New category of its own, and give it a name.
Check titles and destination
Under Where should these live? pick the Category and, optionally, the Sub-category. Titles fill in from the filenames, and you can edit any of them. Remove a file with ×, then select Upload documents.
Add a sub-category
Inside a category, select Add subcategory.
Rename, describe or delete a category
Use the … menu on a tile:
Rename, Edit description, Restrict access and Delete category.
Rename, Toggle external visibility and Delete sub-category.
You can also rename a category from the visibility bar on its page.
Document actions
Each document row has these actions:
- Rename.
- Move to another category.
- Make externally or internally visible.
- Get QR code (when external).
- Delete.
Select a document name to preview it (PDFs, images and text) or download it (for example Office files).
Make a category, sub-category or document externally visible
Turn on Make this category externally visible in the visibility bar, or use the toggle on the tile. The bar shows how many documents are externally visible.
Share on site with a QR code
Externally visible categories, sub-categories and documents get a QR code. Hover over Get QR code to preview it, and select it to download.
Restrict a category to named people
From a category tile's … menu, select Restrict access. Turn on Limit internal access and add team members. Only those people can open the category, and everyone else in Sync loses sight of it. People you add are notified.
Plans, schedules, and progress tracking.
Safety procedures, risks, and incident logs.
Technical plans and design details.
Costs, agreements, and financial records.
Certificates, manuals, and final handover docs.
Portal users
Customers and subcontractors that the project is shared with see Project documents read-only. They cannot upload, rename, move or delete.
What you can and cannot do
- Upload up to 50 files at once, or a whole folder as a new category or sub-category.
- Rename, move, delete and change the visibility of documents.
- Rename, describe, restrict and delete categories.
- Share externally visible items by QR code.
- Search across every category.
- Restrict access on a sub-category. Restriction is set on top-level categories.
- Make a document internal when its category or sub-category is external.
- Upload to a deleted project.
- Store drawings here. Use the Drawings tab.
- Upload, edit or delete from a customer or subcontractor portal.
Common issues
You need permission to add project documents. Ask your Sync administrator.
It has been restricted to named people. Ask whoever manages the category to add you.
The item is not externally visible. Turn on external visibility first.
It is inheriting external visibility from its category or sub-category.
Upload them in batches, or drop the whole folder in to file it as a category or sub-category.
Documents checklist
To keep a project's documents in order, check that:
- Documents filed in the right category and sub-category.
- Titles are clear.
- Only documents needed on site are externally visible.
- Sensitive categories are restricted.
- QR codes printed for site.
Summary
To manage project documents in Sync:
- 1Open the project, then Documents and Project documents.
- 2Open a category and select Add documents.
- 3Drop in files or a folder, check the titles and destination, then upload.
- 4Organise with sub-categories and document actions.
- 5Set external visibility, share QR codes and restrict access where needed.
Keep everything for the job in one place, share only what site needs, and lock away what it does not.