Group related records in a dossier¶

A dossier brings records about one matter together. For example, a lease-renewal dossier might link the incoming proposal, legal review and final decision. Each record keeps its own documents, process history and filing information. The dossier gives people a shared place to find the related records.

Availability: the backend supports browsing, creating and opening dossiers, and adding an existing record. The steps below describe the intended final design. The inspected app screens still use sample data and preview states; a connected journey and deployment have not been verified. Confirm availability with your organization before relying on these actions.

The current preview searches and selects fixed examples. Its Next control does not fetch another page, and opening a row can lose the selected dossier identity. Create and Add record show preview feedback rather than saving. Use the steps below as the intended journey and verify a connected result before relying on it.

Before you begin¶

Use the correct organization. You need permission to view records to browse or open general dossiers, and permission to manage records to create a dossier or add a record. Being able to see a dossier does not itself grant permission to change it or view every document elsewhere in the platform.

This guide covers general dossiers. Staff personnel dossiers and case-created dossiers have separate entry points and rules; the general list is not an inventory of every kind of dossier in the organization. Use the approved personnel or case workspace for those purposes. Automatically prepared dossiers explains their background creation, empty files and delayed relationships; personnel files provides the intended staff-record tasks.

Agree the matter being grouped and a clear title. A dossier does not establish a shared owner, security classification, retention period or approval process for its records. Do not use it as evidence that those controls have been reviewed or inherited.

General record promotion currently leaves automatic dossier creation disabled. A promoted record therefore does not imply a new general dossier. Source promotion explains the separate results and the personnel-filing exception.

Find and open a dossier¶

1. Open Records, then Dossiers.
2. Search by the dossier's title or reference. Narrow the results using All record categories or All creators when needed. These filters describe the dossier itself; they do not search every linked record's contents.
3. Check the title, reference, category and linked-record count. Use Previous and Next to move through the result pages.
4. Select Open on the intended dossier.
5. Review its identity and Linked Records. Select Open record to inspect a record through its own record view.

Results are ordered by the latest dossier update, falling back to creation time. Adding a link updates the dossier; changes made only inside a linked record need not move the dossier to the top of this list. A linked-record count counts relationships to records, not documents, completed tasks or approvals.

No dossiers yet is the intended empty-list state. No matching dossiers means the current filters found no matches; use Clear filters before concluding a dossier is missing. If the expected item remains absent, check the organization and ask the responsible team to verify its kind and access. A failed load must not be interpreted as an empty collection.

Create a dossier¶

1. From Dossiers, select Create dossier.
2. Enter Dossier title, using a short, recognizable description of the matter.
3. Optionally choose a Record category. The current implementation stores this for description and filtering; it does not enforce that all added records share that category. The final-design helper text suggesting a category restriction needs correction.
4. Select Create dossier, or Cancel to leave without creating one.
5. The intended next screen is the new dossier's detail. Verify the saved title and automatically assigned reference before adding records.

You do not enter a dossier reference. Zerohive assigns it when creation succeeds, using a year and sequence number. It is unique within the organization; it is not a promise of an unbroken sequence or a count of dossiers created. Two dossiers may have the same title, so use the reference as well when communicating with colleagues.

Creation starts with no linked records. It does not upload documents, register a record, file anything or start an approval. Keep the title concise: the stored title limit is 512 characters, though the current validation does not consistently provide an early length message.

Add an existing record¶

1. Open the intended dossier and select Add records. Check its title and reference before continuing.
2. Search by the record's subject or record number and use the category filter if helpful.
3. Select Choose beside one record. Confirm the Selected Record is the one you intend to add.
4. Decide whether this is the record's main grouping. Select Make this the primary dossier for the record only if the record has no primary dossier and this should be it. Otherwise leave that option clear to create an additional link.
5. Select Add record. After a confirmed save, reopen or refresh the dossier detail and check the relationship. Repeat the action for another record.

The action adds one record at a time. It does not upload a new file or bring in an archive. The narrower final-design companion currently labels its search action Bring in files and omits the dossier identity shown on the wider screen; those inconsistencies need correction before that companion can be relied on for navigation.

A record can have one primary dossier and additional linked dossiers. Once a primary dossier exists, this action cannot replace it. Adding the same record to the same dossier again is rejected, including trying to turn an existing additional link into a primary link. Check the saved relationship before retrying.

Adding a record updates the dossier and record modification information and records the relationship in the record's history. It does not change the record's files, process state, filing location or retention rules. The relationship label Primary dossier identifies the main grouping; Linked dossier identifies an additional grouping.

Understand the detail screen¶

The dossier detail shows its reference, title, optional category, creation method, creator and dates, followed by linked records. A newly created dossier can have no records and still be a valid saved dossier. Use Add records when a suitable record is available.

Creation method and creator answer different questions. Automatic creation does not always mean that no person initiated the work. If staff details cannot be resolved, the interface may show that those details are unavailable; do not substitute a guessed name. An absent modification date means no modification time was returned, not that the system recorded an update at creation.

Linked titles and record numbers are captured when the relationship is added. Other returned details can reflect the record's current state. Open the record when you need its authoritative current information. The dossier is not a certified historical snapshot of all linked records.

Renaming a dossier, removing a record, deleting a dossier, changing its primary assignment, dossier-level activity browsing and bulk export are not available through this inspected general-dossier flow. The final design correctly omits most of these actions; older sample app screens must not be treated as evidence that they work.

Resolve problems without creating duplicates¶

For managers and executives, dossiers improve discoverability around a matter. Their counts and grouping labels do not demonstrate that the matter is complete, every necessary record is present, or all compliance obligations are satisfied. Establish that assessment through the responsible process and records team.

Continue with record intake and registration, documents and process outcomes, record activity, or records reporting and organizational data.