Parties and attachments
What this page is — who a document involves on the other side, the files that travel with it, and the security tags that restrict who inside your organisation may see it.
What it is for — so a document knows who its counterparty is and who must sign before anything is sent, and so annexures stay attached to the agreement rather than lost in an email thread.
The problem it solves — the counterparty, the signers and the annexures live in separate emails, and something is always missing at signing time.
Route: /org/papers/documents/<document> · Permissions: Manage counterparty access and redlines.
for parties and portal invitations; Edit draft documents / data values. for attachments.
1. What it is
Three cards in the workspace, answering three different questions:
| Card | Answers | Restricts |
|---|---|---|
| Parties | Who is on the other side, and what can they do? | What external people receive |
| Attachments | What files belong to this agreement? | Nothing |
| Security tags | Which of our own people may see it at all? | Internal visibility |
There are exactly three party roles — all external:
| Role | Can | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| Counterparty | Read, comment and raise redlines in the portal | The organisation on the other side |
| Counterparty signer | Everything above, and sign | A named person who must sign |
| CC | Be kept in the loop | Their legal team, an assistant |
Internal people are not parties. Your organisation's side is represented by the document's owner, its approvers and its signers.
2. Why you would use it
- Nothing external works without a party. The counterparty portal, signature invitations and verification all need to know who the other side is.
- Invitations need no account. A portal invite is a private magic link; the counterparty reads, comments and redlines without signing up to anything.
- The counterparty list builds itself. A new party typed in is captured into the project's counterparty master list, so the next document picks them rather than retyping.
- Annexures travel with the agreement. The rate card, the insurance certificate and the site plan are on the document, not in someone's inbox.
- Security tags handle genuinely sensitive documents — board matters, payroll, M&A — without splitting them into a separate project.
3. Step by step
Add a party
- Add party on the Parties card.
- Pick from the project's counterparty list, choose Pick from project contacts (counterparties, enrolled customers and CRM contacts), or type a new name and email.
- Choose the role.
- Add them.
Invite them into the portal — Send portal invite on their row. Set the link's validity in days, optionally add a message. If the email cannot be sent, the link is shown for you to copy and share.
Revoke or remove — revoking cuts a sent portal link immediately; removing takes them off the document.
Attach a file — Upload on the Attachments card. Click a file's name to open it; the bin removes it while the document is editable.
Tag a document — attach a tag on the Security tags card, and read the warning before confirming.
4. Field reference
Add party
| Field | Required | Rules | Refusal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Yes | — | — |
| Yes | Where invitations go | email is required | |
| Role | Defaults to Counterparty | counterparty, counterparty_signer, cc | invalid counterparty role "x" |
And one refusal from the type:
this document type does not allow counterparties — enable 'Allows counterparty' on the type first
Allows counterparty defaults to off on a type. Until someone turns it on in behaviour settings, no party can be added to any document of that type.
Upload attachment
| Rule | Default | Set by | Refusal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Size per file | 20 MB | System Config papers.attachment_max_mb | File exceeds the 20MB attachment limit |
| Allowed extensions | pdf, png, jpg, jpeg, webp, docx, xlsx, csv, txt | System Config papers.allowed_extensions | File extension "zip" is not allowed (pdf, png, …) |
| When | While the document is editable | — | — |
Attachments are not shown in the Preview panel, which renders only the document body. They are not merged into the sealed PDF either.
Security tags
| Rule | Effect |
|---|---|
| A user sees the document only with a grant on every tag it carries | Missing one grant hides it everywhere — lists, search, the workspace |
| Attaching a tag nobody holds a grant on | A loud warning: confirming would hide the document from everyone, including you |
| Removing a tag | Confirmed, and recorded in the audit trail |
Grants are managed in Security tags.
5. What the state does to the parties
The Parties card tells you what the counterparty can currently do, and it changes with the document's state. In an internal review state, for example, a counterparty can open the deal room but cannot comment or send the document back until the lifecycle moves to a state that invites them.
It is rarely a permission or a broken link. The document is in a state that does not yet invite a response.
6. Worked example
A procurement lead is finalising a services agreement with Northwind Traders.
Parties. They press Add party and are refused: this document type does not allow counterparties. An administrator turns on Allows counterparty for the Services Agreement type and publishes. Now:
| Name | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Northwind Traders | [email protected] | Counterparty |
| Dana Okoye | [email protected] | Counterparty signer |
| Northwind Legal | [email protected] | CC |
They send Northwind a 30-day portal invite with the message "Draft for your review — comments by Friday."
Attachments. They upload rate-card.xlsx (48 KB) and insurance-certificate.pdf. The site plan, a
.dwg, is refused: File extension "dwg" is not allowed. They export it to PDF and upload that.
Security tags. The agreement includes named individuals' day rates, so they attach Commercial-Confidential. The warning does not appear — the procurement team holds grants — so they confirm. Two colleagues outside that group stop seeing the document in the list.
7. The admin contract
| Must be true | Where | What breaks without it |
|---|---|---|
| Allows counterparty is on for the type | Behaviour settings | No party can be added — the most common first failure |
| The role holds Manage counterparty access and redlines. | Role editor | No Add party, invite or revoke |
| The role holds Edit draft documents / data values. | Role editor | No Upload or remove |
| The org's email channel can deliver | Communication Channels | Invites fail and the link is shown for manual sharing |
| Extensions and size limits suit your documents | System Config | Legitimate files are refused |
| Somebody holds a grant for every tag in use | Security tags | Tagged documents vanish for everyone |
8. Downstream
| When… | Then |
|---|---|
| A party is invited | Their comments and redlines appear in the Suggestions card |
| A counterparty signer is added | They are offered when you send for signature |
| A portal link is revoked | It stops working at once |
| A new party is typed in | They join the project's counterparty list |
| A security tag is attached | The document disappears for users without the grant, including in the Repository |
9. Don't confuse this with…
| Signers on a signature request | The ceremony's own list. A counterparty signer is a party; the request is separate |
| Counterparty portal | Where invited parties work |
| Project membership | Decides who can see a project's documents at all. Tags narrow within that |
| Redaction | Masks parts of an outbound copy. Tags hide the whole document internally |
10. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| this document type does not allow counterparties | Allows counterparty is off on the type — it defaults off |
| I cannot add an internal reviewer as a party | Parties are external only: counterparty, counterparty signer, CC |
| A party never received their invite | The email channel failed — copy the link shown, or check Communication Channels |
| The counterparty cannot comment | The document's state does not invite them yet (§5) |
| File extension "x" is not allowed | Not on papers.allowed_extensions |
| File exceeds the 20MB attachment limit | Over papers.attachment_max_mb |
| An attachment is not in the preview or PDF | Attachments ride alongside; they are never rendered into the body |
| A colleague cannot see the document | A security tag they hold no grant for |