Folders & folder templates

Every client has their own folder tree. There’s no firm-wide shared file area — folders are always scoped to one client.

How the Unsorted bucket works

Every client has an Unsorted bucket. Documents that haven’t been moved into a folder live here. You can’t delete or rename Unsorted — it’s always present, even when empty.

The browser’s root view (no folder selected) lists every file across folders and Unsorted. The Unsorted entry in the folder sidebar shows only the files that haven’t been filed.

Uploads default to Unsorted unless you have a folder selected when you upload. This is intentional — files keep flowing in even before your folder structure is settled.

How to create folders

In the folder sidebar inside the file area, click + New folder. A new folder gets the temporary name “New folder” — click into it and rename.

To nest a folder inside another, expand the parent (chevron) and click the + on the parent row. Or create at the root and drag onto a parent later.

Limits

Trying to create a sixth-level folder shows “Cannot create folder past depth 5”.

How to rename and reorder folders

Right-click (or kebab) → Rename. Inline editor. Press Enter to save, Esc to cancel.

Renaming doesn’t move files. Documents keep their place.

Drag the grip dots on a folder row to reorder it within its parent. The order is saved per client.

How to delete folders

Right-click (or kebab) → Delete.

If the folder is empty, it deletes cleanly. If it has files, the confirmation tells you how many will be moved to trash. The folder is removed and the files go into trash.

To delete a folder without trashing its files: move every file out first (drag, or use Move in the bulk-action bar), then delete the empty folder.

How folder templates work

A folder template is a reusable tree saved at the firm level. Apply it to a client and that tree gets created (or merged with what’s already there).

The default folder structure (out of the box)

When a firm is set up, Assure Pro seeds one folder template called Default Folder Structure. It looks like:

Default Folder Structure
├── 2024 Tax Year
│   ├── Source Documents
│   │   ├── Income Documents
│   │   ├── Deduction Documents
│   │   └── Other Documents
│   ├── Prepared Returns
│   ├── Signed Documents
│   └── Correspondence
└── Permanent Records
    ├── Engagement Letters
    ├── Authorizations & POA
    └── Prior Year Returns

Firm admins can edit, replace, or add more templates in Settings → Documents → Folder structures.

How to apply a template

In the file area’s folder sidebar, click Apply template. The dialog lists every active folder structure with a folder count. Click one.

What happens:

• Assure Pro walks the template tree.
• For each template folder: if the client already has a folder with the same name at the same level, it merges (keeps the existing folder, doesn’t duplicate).
• If no matching folder exists, it’s created.
• Files at the root that match a name being created are left at the root.

The result toast reads: Applied "<structure name>" — N created, M merged, K files moved to unsorted.

You can apply multiple templates to the same client. The “Applied” badge in the dialog shows which ones are already in use for this client.

[Screenshot: Apply template dialog with multiple folder structures listed]

When to apply a template

• At onboarding — apply on day 1 so the client lands on a familiar tree.
• At tax-year rollover — when you create a 2025 Tax Year template, apply it to every client at once (bulk apply is on the roadmap), or one by one.
• Mid-engagement — adding a new sub-area like Audit Workpapers partway through is fine. Files at the root land in Unsorted and you organize from there.

How folder visibility works

Folders themselves don’t have a visibility flag. Visibility lives at the document level. Two things follow from that:

• A folder named “Workpapers” can hold both shared and internal docs. The client sees the folder but only the shared docs inside.
• An entirely-internal folder still appears in the client’s portal tree — empty from their view, named like every other folder.

Tip: if you want a folder that looks internal to the client, give it an unambiguous name like “Workpapers (Internal)”. The client sees the name even when empty, so it’s clearer than implicit hiding.

How folder activity is tracked

Every folder action (create, rename, delete, apply template) logs an activity entry under the client. View it on the client’s Activity tab — find every folder change with timestamp and author.

How to move documents between folders

Three ways:

1. Drag a document onto a folder in the sidebar.
2. Kebab → Move to folder on the file row. Picks a destination from a tree.
3. Bulk move — select multiple, click Move in the bulk-action bar.

Moving across folders updates the filing. The file itself is unchanged, and the client portal sees the move next time they refresh.

How engagement subfolders work

When you upload a document on an engagement, the file is linked to that engagement automatically. From the firm side, that file appears both:

• In the client’s normal folder tree (in whichever folder it landed in).
• In the engagement detail page’s Documents tab, filtered to that engagement.

Linking existing documents to an engagement (from the engagement page) moves them into the engagement’s auto-created subfolder (usually inside <Tax Year> > Source Documents).

Common patterns

”Re-organize a client’s old folders”

Move the files in a logical order, rename folders inline. The activity log records every step. Clients see the new layout next time they open their portal.

”I want a specific template applied to every new client”

Set it as the firm default in Settings → Documents → Folder structures. New clients get that template applied automatically when they’re created.

”Two templates conflict”

Templates merge on folder name — same name, same level, merged. So Source Documents from template A and Source Documents from template B won’t double-create. Different names always create separately.

”Folder deletion took too many files with it”

Open Trash, find the files, click Restore. Restored files land in the folder they were in, or Unsorted if the folder was deleted permanently.

Permissions

Next

• Requesting documents — the chase-list pattern.
• Document types & categories — what powers AI extraction.
• Engagement → Documents — engagement subfolder behavior.