Internal vs External Documents (the Instructions model)
Document visibility end to end: uploads start Internal, Notify customer makes them External and portal-visible, and the shop ticket stays internal.
Written By Dennis Rodin
Last updated 11 days ago
Every file on an order is either Internal (visible only to your team) or External (visible to the customer in the Customer Portal). Find it on any order under Notes & Files, in the order's Documents section, where each document shows its visibility.
New uploads default to Internal
When you upload a file and pick a type, the document starts out Internal no matter which category you choose. This is on purpose, so nothing reaches a family by accident. The five upload categories are:
Drawing: JPG or PNG design view for the shop ticket, portal, and PDFs.
Financial Document: receipts, invoices, and contracts.
Permit: cemetery or city paperwork.
Instructions: internal production guidance.
Reference: photos, supplier specs, inspiration.
When you want a family to see a file, flip it to External (see below). Proofs and drawings you mark External show up in the Customer Portal.
Notify the customer when you upload a file
Because uploads land Internal, MonuDesk asks whether the family should hear about them. Upload one or more files in the Files card under Notes & Files, answer What type of document is this?, and a small prompt appears at the bottom left. Its heading is the file name in quotes followed by "uploaded" (or "3 files uploaded" when you sent several at once), and it asks "Do you want [email] to be notified about this?", naming the contact who would receive it, or "[email] and 2 others" when the order carries more than one.
Notify customer flips the files you just uploaded from Internal to External, so the customer can see them in the Customer Portal, and sends the portal email in the same click. The button reads Sending..., then Sent, and the prompt closes.
No thanks, the X, or leaving the prompt alone answers no. A blue bar counts down and the prompt closes itself after about eight seconds. Nothing is emailed and the files stay Internal. Flip any of them to External later with the Internal / External control on the file’s row.
The recipients are every contact on the order that has an email address and has portal notifications switched on, and the email goes to all of them. If no contact on the order can receive portal email, no prompt is shown. The email tells the customer a new file was added, names it (or says "3 new files"), and carries the order number, your company or office name, phone and email, plus a fresh customer portal link. Replies go to the salesperson assigned to the order when they have an email address, otherwise to the company or office address. Several files uploaded at once produce one prompt and one email, and the Activity Timeline records the send.
Note: A file made External this way is visible in the Customer Portal from that moment on, the same as flipping the toggle by hand. Notify customer just does both steps at once.
The External / Internal toggle
Most documents carry a small toggle that controls visibility:
External (green): the customer can see this document in the Customer Portal.
Internal: only your team can see it.
Note: Flip the toggle any time. There's no separate save step, and the change takes effect for the Customer Portal right away.
The shop ticket is always internal
When you press Generate Shop Ticket, MonuDesk downloads the PDF and also saves a copy on the order as an Instructions document. Instructions are production guidance for your shop floor, so they are locked to internal.
An Instructions document does not have a toggle. Instead it shows a non-interactive Internal status, and hovering over it explains why: "Instructions are always internal only and never shown in the Customer Portal." You can't flip a shop ticket to External, and the backend enforces the same rule, so a family never sees it.
The Select images picker lists every image on the order whatever category it was filed under, so tick only the images you want printed on the document. It opens whenever the order carries at least one listable image, including an order with a single drawing, so you always get the chance to choose.
What the other generated documents do
The shop ticket is the only generated document that is forced internal. Everything else MonuDesk generates is saved as a Financial Document and is customer-visible by default:
Invoice, Receipt, Contract, Quote: financial documents, customer-visible.
Purchase Order and Foundation Order: also stored as financial documents (not Instructions), so they carry the normal External / Internal toggle rather than the locked status.
If you'd rather keep one of these from the family, just flip its toggle to Internal.
When you generate a document, the popup also offers a Notify the customer checkbox: tick it to email the customer a link to view the document. When a document generates without a popup, a small prompt at the bottom left offers the same choice for a few moments.
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