In this video:

Uploading files and documents is the first step of exchanging information with your clients, whether it be sharing engagement letters, tax forms or other kinds of statements.

In Canopy, you can upload nearly 30 different file types, from your common types like docx, and PDFs, but also picture types like .jpgs and pngs.

The max file size for any one file is a precise 4.999342 GB. For comparison’s sake, that’s about 312 songs - basically, the entire Beatles and Led Zeppelin anthologies put together. In other words, Canopy can take on just about any file! So Let it Be!

Anyway, You can upload files in two areas of Canopy:

Let’s begin with the client record page. Go to a client's record page within your client list, then select the Files tab.

After you’ve onboarded a client, you may want to share a welcome letter, where you might have important clients and phone numbers listed for your client to refer to.

First, select Upload.

You’ll be asked to locate the file on your device.

Select the file, and then click open (or you can also double-click)

Now your file has been added for this client.

It’s worth mentioning that when we upload files here, it does not mean your client can automatically see these yet.

A pop-up window appears after to ask you if you want to make this visible in the client portal. If you toggle this and have not yet invited them to the portal, you’ll see the client portal window to send an invitation.

Clients are only able to view them if the files are made visible to them in the client portal. The silhouette icon here indicates whether they see it - blue if it’s visible/gray if it’s not.

Also, if you have team members at your firm who are assigned to work with this client, you have the option of notifying them that you added a file.

You can choose to not share any files with the client quite yet, just by closing this box.

You upload files straight into the file area or into a folder you might have placed there beforehand.

There are several things you can do with files once you upload them. You can find these options by right-clicking on your mouse or selecting the three dots icon on a file row. All of these actions can be done on the client record page or under the Files tab.

Let’s go over some of our favorites:

First, unless you have a photographic superpower, you likely will want to preview a certain file to verify it’s the right one you’re thinking of.

Right-click and select Preview.

The file preview screen allows you to preview any file in Canopy, zoom, and pan around the file, search the file's text, and print, download, or make the file visible to clients.

On the left, you can see the folder structure as well. So you can navigate between your structures to other files.

Press the X button at the top right to leave this menu.

You can move files around into different folders or subfolders. Simply click on the row with the file you want to move. Then drag it. If you hover over a folder with subfolders, the folder directory fans out so you can place it in the top folder structure or a subfolder within.

If you’d like a more precise way of moving files, right-click with your mouse or click the three dots icon for that file, then click Move.

This menu, it’s essentially the same thing as we did before, just in a different format. Instead of dragging, it’s more point-and-click.

In this Move Menu, you can move files between the client and connections (like a spouse, dependents, or important clients) that you already linked to this account. In this example, I can move one file from Jack’s account to his spouse, Cathy. Just click on the dropdown to choose a connection, then you can choose an area to send it to.

To do this though, the client must be active to be able to move files.

You can also share a file with clients or team members that you're collaborating easily. In the file menu, select share file.

In this menu, indicate which team member or client should see this. Note, again, it’s only going to show team members that are assigned or collaborating with this client. And only the client you are working with shows up.

Once you indicate who, you can decide to write a personalized message or a template.

Then click Send. If you are sending it to a client, they will get an email notification that you shared the file with them and it appears in their client portal. So yes, this makes the file visible to your client.

If you are sending it to a team member, they will also get an email and link to the file in their Canopy account. It’s not sending an attachment, just more of a notification and direct pathway to the file.

Similarly, if you have a chat system or text messaging with a client or they just have trouble locating the file, you can copy a link to the file and send them the URL that way. Click Copy Link in the menu and you can paste the link somewhere.

This also makes the file visible in the client portal if it wasn’t already.

At any time, you can remove file access from a client by going to the file menu, and selecting Remove from Client Portal.

Lastly, if you want to see what your client sees in the client portal, file-wise, click on the silhouette in the Files header. This allows you to see which files are exactly visible to the client and what they can see.