Documents
Two screens share this page. The job's Documents tab holds every file on that job: plans, specs, finishes schedules, quotes, photos, and everything Base generated (the quote, the scope of works, the bill of quantities, purchase orders). The company-wide Documents library holds every file in the business across projects, leads, companies and contacts, each with a link back to whatever it belongs to. Estimators upload the drawing set here; everyone else comes to find a file.
A document's type is how the rest of Base finds it. A quote saved as "Other" is invisible to anything looking for quotes.
- The job's Documents tab needs the Documents module on (Settings → Team modules).
- Generated documents come from your templates in Document Studio. A template has to say what it is a template of before a job can use it.
- The quote, scope and bill of quantities are built from approved estimate lines only.
- On the job's Documents tab, press Upload files, or drop the files anywhere on the tab.
- Leave File uploads as on Work it out and Base says what each file is and what to do next in the dialog that opens; or pick the type yourself. A big batch is not walked file by file; review it when asked.
- PDFs are rendered and indexed so the assistant can measure from them, quote sheet numbers and point at the exact page a line came from. Name sheets so a sheet number can be tied to a filename.
- Filter by kind with the chips and group by type, folder or nothing. The folder rail narrows to one folder.
- Organise with AI asks the assistant to file this job's documents into folders, following the folders you already have.
- Open a document's edit control to fix its type, name or folders. Tick several to delete them together; deleting is permanent and takes any annotations, comments and measurements with it.
- Open New document. At the top are one-click documents from the estimate: Quote (your quote template filled from the estimate, numbered and filed), BOQ — priced and BOQ — unpriced (rates left blank for a sub or supplier to price). The scope of works PDF is under the estimate's More menu.
- The quote needs a client to address. If the job has none, Base lists what is missing and offers to generate it anyway.
- The document lands in the list and opens. Generating a scope of works again asks whether to replace the old one or add a version.
- Anything else (a letter, a notice, a site instruction) starts from New document with a template, is filled in and reviewed, and is saved as a PDF.
- Each document has one Send…. For a quote Base produced it opens Send quote; for anything else it sends by email or for signature.
- For the quote, see Client and the quote. A quote whose PDF total does not match the estimate is refused, not sent.
- Under Export, download the estimate as Excel, CortexPM Excel (one blended markup), Xero CSV or Buildxact CSV.
- On the Documents library, type in Search inside documents to search the text of every file ("fire dampers", "A-201"), or search by name, project or type.
- Each row links back to its project, lead, company or contact. Open, download, edit and regenerate a generated document, sign or request signatures, or delete it.
- A generated document keeps what it was made from, so Edit and regenerate produces a new version through the same template.
- Deleting is a soft delete: the list never shows the file again, but nothing on disk is lost immediately.
- A document uploaded from a task says so and links back to it.
- Deleting a document an estimate line points at leaves the reference dangling; the review will say it cannot find the source.
- A drawing set split one sheet per file still works, but plan references read better when the sheet number is in the filename.
- Generating a quote with no client contact produces a quote addressed to nobody. It is allowed because a hard block teaches people to route around it; fix the client first.
- The company-wide library is the same files as the jobs' tabs, not copies. Deleting here deletes there.