How to View and Download Documents

To access documents on an order, open the order and click Notes & Files on the left side menu.

Files

This is the file storage for that specific order. Any files generated by the system (invoices, receipts) and any files you upload are stored here.

Each file's row leads with the file's own title. To rename a file, click its title: the name becomes editable in place. Type the new name, press Enter to save it, or Escape to cancel. Renaming works the same way on files you upload inside the quote wizard.

Click the three dots on the right side of the file for its menu: Download File, Rename File and Delete File. Every file has this menu, reference files included: Reference, Supplier Reference and Reference Photo files, and the vase, urn, etching and material photos added in the quote. Files on older and archived orders open the same way. Delete File works on a reference file uploaded during the quote exactly as it does on any other document: the confirmation reads Delete Document? and "This will permanently delete this document. This action cannot be undone." Confirm it and the file leaves the list.

Uploading files

You can upload any file to an order. When you upload, you'll be asked to categorize it:

• Drawing: design proofs for the customer to review. A file uploaded as Drawing counts as the order's drawing for Drawing Reminders (Settings → Order Alerts → Drawing Reminders); a Reference or Permit file does not.

• Financial Document: receipts, invoices, and contracts.

• Permit: cemetery permits and admin paperwork.

• Instructions: internal production guidance and shop tickets.

• Reference: internal reference photos and files.

MonuDesk accepts most common file types: images (PNG, JPG, etc), PDFs, Word and Excel files, and email message files (.eml) so you can attach customer email threads. Each upload slot also accepts multiple files at once, shown as chips you can remove individually.

Scanning paper on a phone. In the iPhone app or a phone browser, the Scanner tab turns paper into pages on an order: Take photo or Choose from photos, Adjust corners, answer Which order do these pages belong to?, pick the document type and whether it is visible to the customer or internal, then press Upload N pages. The pages land in that order's Notes & Files, with Notify customer and No thanks offered.

Telling the customer about a file you uploaded

Drop a file on the Drag a document here or browse files area of the Files card and answer What type of document is this?. The upload lands as Internal, the way every upload does, and a small prompt then appears at the bottom left of the screen headed "[file name]" uploaded, or 3 files uploaded when you sent several at once. It asks: "Do you want [email address] to be notified about this?" With more than one contact on the order the prompt names the first and adds and 2 others, and the email goes to all of them.

• Notify customer switches the uploaded file or files to External, so they appear in the Customer Portal, and sends the portal email. The button shows Sent, then the prompt closes.

• No thanks, the X, or simply leaving the prompt alone answers no. It closes itself after eight seconds, counted down by the blue bar along its bottom edge. Nothing is emailed and the files stay Internal. Flip one to External later with the Internal/External control on its row.

Who can be offered: every contact on the order that has an email address and has portal notifications switched on. When no contact on the order can receive portal email, no prompt appears.

Each recipient gets one email saying a new file was added, naming the file (a new file ("Design_v2.pdf")) or the count (3 new files), with the order number, your company or office name, phone and email, and a fresh link to the Customer Portal. Replies go to the order's assigned salesperson when they have an email address, otherwise to the office or company address, and to the person who created the quote when neither has one. The Activity Timeline records it as Portal email (a new file ("…")) sent to [email address]. Several files uploaded at once produce one prompt and one email.

Internal vs. External visibility

Each document has an Internal and External toggle. Documents set to External are visible to your customer on the Customer Portal. Documents set to Internal are only visible to your team.

New uploads always default to Internal, in every category. This is intentional, so a file you upload never becomes customer-visible by accident. When you're ready to share a file (such as a drawing for the family to approve), flip it to External yourself. Documents MonuDesk generates for you work the other way around: they are saved customer-visible, so flip one to Internal if you want to keep it off the portal (see below).

Instructions documents are the exception: they have no toggle. Instead they show a non-interactive Internal status, with the tooltip "Instructions are always internal only and never shown in the Customer Portal." This is enforced on the backend, so the shop ticket and anything else categorized as Instructions can never be exposed to the customer.

Learn more: How the Customer Portal Works

Drawing approval status

Drawings get a visible approval status in the Files section so your team can see at a glance which ones the family has signed off on, without opening the portal.

Approved drawings show a green checkmark next to the file. Hover over the checkmark to see who approved it and when, for example "Approved by customer on May 8, 2026" for a portal approval, or "Approved by [team member name] on [date]" for a manual one.

Approving manually from the three-dots menu: if the family approves the design in person, you don't need to send them through the portal. Click the three dots on any file in the Drawing category and select Approve Drawing. The drawing immediately gets the green checkmark, logged with your name and the timestamp.

A drawing can only be approved once. The option disappears afterwards, and an approved drawing cannot be deleted, because the approval is the record of what the family signed off on. If the family asks for changes, upload or draw a new version and approve that one.

When the family asks for changes from the Customer Portal, the drawing's row in the Files card shows a Changes requested chip with Requested by the family ([name]) under it, and a banner at the top of the order popup carries their note and a View drawing button. Share the revised drawing with the family: upload it and click Notify customer on the prompt, or flip it to External on its row. The banner then goes away, and the family can approve the new version or ask for more changes.

Reviewing a drawing on a partner order: on an order a partner company shared with you, each drawing's three dots menu offers the same Approve Drawing action, plus Request Changes. The decision is made per drawing, so you can approve one proof and ask for changes on another.

• Approve Drawing opens a confirmation asking you to check the spelling and dates first, because approving tells your partner to start production and cannot be undone. Click Yes, Approve to confirm — your partner is notified right away.

• Request Changes opens a box where you type what needs to change (the message is optional). Click Send request — your partner is notified and will send a revised drawing for you to approve.

Once you've answered, that drawing's menu shows Already approved or Changes already requested.

When a partner asks you for changes on one of your drawings, that file's status in the Files card reads Changes requested. Hover the status to read their note: Changes requested: "[their note]". On the partner's own side the same status reads You asked for changes: "[their note]".

Learn more: How the Customer Portal Works

Choosing which images go on a document

Every generated document can carry images from the order, picked in a Select images section that shows a thumbnail for each image attached to the quote or order. Category does not decide what is offered: a reference photo, a picture of the existing stone, or the Cemetery Location Map saved when you pin the plot are all listed alongside your drawings and sketches. Only image files (JPG, PNG and the like) can be printed on a page; PDFs and other attachments are never listed.

What differs between documents is what starts ticked:

• Quote, Invoice, Receipt and Contract: the picker opens whenever the order has at least one image it can print, or a saved cemetery location map, so an order with a single drawing opens it too. The monument artwork (drawings and sketches) starts ticked and everything else starts unticked, so untick or add what you want and click Generate. There is no cap, and you may untick every image: the dialog then reads "No images selected. The [document] will carry the order's inscription details instead of a drawing." and generates a document with no drawings on it.

• Shop Ticket: the same picker with no cap, but nothing starts ticked, drawings and sketches included. Tick the images the shop needs, then click Generate. With nothing ticked, the grey note says the ticket carries the order's inscription details instead of a drawing.

• Foundation Order and Purchase Order: nothing starts ticked and you can pick at most two images. If you want the drawing on them, tick it every time.

The selector reads only from files that already exist on the order; you cannot upload from inside a generation popup. If nothing is listed it reads "Upload a drawing or reference image in Notes & Files to include it here." Upload under Notes & Files first, then generate.

The generate popup also has a Notify the customer checkbox: tick it and the customer is emailed a link to view the document. When a document generates without a popup, a small prompt appears at the bottom left for a few moments offering the same choice.

Automatically generated documents

When MonuDesk generates a document, it files and categorizes it for you automatically:

• Invoice, Receipt, Quote, and Contract PDFs → Financial Document, customer-visible (External) from the moment they are generated, so they appear in the Customer Portal right away. Flip one to Internal to keep it off the portal.

• Shop Ticket PDF → Instructions, Internal only. It's stored as an Instructions document with the static Internal status (no toggle), so it never appears in the Customer Portal.

• Purchase Order PDF and Foundation Order PDF → Financial Document, customer-visible (External) with the normal toggle. Flip one to Internal if you would rather keep it from the family.

• Sketches built in the Sketch & Inscription step → Drawing, Internal by default. A sketch counts as monument artwork, so it starts ticked in the image picker on the quote, invoice, receipt and contract.

Regenerating a Quote, Invoice or Contract replaces the copy already on the order instead of stacking a second file with the same name beside it. The old file is removed only once the new one is safely stored, and the replacement is labelled with its generation, such as V2 Contract and then V3, with the downloaded file named to match (v2-contract-....pdf). Outside Germany, Austria and Switzerland each newly generated invoice also takes the order's next invoice number: the first is listed as Invoice #ORD-53-1, the next as V2 Invoice #ORD-53-2. A company in Germany, Austria or Switzerland keeps the same invoice number on every copy, for example V2 Invoice #RE-00001. The first one you generate carries no marker. This is also what stops a customer opening a superseded quote in the Customer Portal after you have edited the order.

Receipts and Purchase Orders are deliberately left out of this. An order legitimately has several of each, so every one you generate is kept.

The Shop Ticket is replaced too. Generate it again and the new copy takes the place of the previous one, so the order's Files keep a single shop ticket, labelled with its version such as V2.

After you edit an order. When you save an edit to an order that already has a quote, invoice or contract, the edit confirmation lists every change and offers an Update the [documents] to match checkbox. Ticked, MonuDesk regenerates those documents with the new figures and the new version replaces the old one in the Customer Portal. Unticked, the stored documents keep the old figures, and the dialog says so. A document you deleted is not offered.

When you upload or replace the Front or Back sketch image on the order's Order Details tab (the order's monument thumbnail), MonuDesk automatically saves that image to Notes & Files as a Drawing so it flows onto the shop ticket's drawing page. If that automatic save fails, you'll see a toast letting you know, so you can add the image manually under Notes & Files and it still appears on the shop ticket.

Once that drawing is saved, MonuDesk asks Show this drawing to the family? and explains: "It appears in the customer portal under drawings, where the family can approve it or ask for changes. Keeping it internal leaves it in Notes & Files only." Click Show to the family to switch it to External, or Keep internal to leave it off the portal. Showing it does not email the family.

When you turn on Pinpoint Location on Map in the Cemetery & Logistics step, drop the pin and save, MonuDesk stores two images of the pin on the order: Cemetery Location Map (Satellite) - [cemetery name].png and Cemetery Location Map (Street Map) - [cemetery name].png. Both appear in Notes & Files, where they can be renamed. Neither is put on a document on its own: they sit in a Cemetery location map section of their own in the picker, with neither view ticked, so you choose the one view you want before you generate. Moving the pin replaces the images and switching the pin off removes them, so a stale location can never end up on a document. If the image can't be fetched you'll see a Location map not saved message and the pin still saves normally.

Learn more: What's on the Invoice PDF, What's on the Receipt PDF, What's on the Contract PDF, What's on the Shop Ticket PDF

For internal notes on the order, see How Internal Notes Work.

Related articles:

• How to Open an Order

• What the Order Overview Shows

• How to Log a Payment

• How Internal Notes Work