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Infrastructure & Integrations

File and object storage: every file is a record

Job photos live on technicians' phones. Permits sit in someone's email. The signed estimate is in a shared drive, maybe. A file is only useful if you know whose job it belongs to, who's allowed to see it and how long you keep it. We store files as records: uploaded straight from the phone, private by default, shared through links that expire and kept by your rules.
Talk through your filesSee the kinds of file ↓
straight from the phone to storage, not through the appT3 · J-644furnace · 9:14 amuploading…uploadedfile recordjobJ-644 · furnace checktaken byT3 · 9:14 amwho sees itJ.H., the office, T3publicnokeptby the job-photo rulestorageprivate · no public addressoriginal4.1 MBfor screens380 KBthumbnail24 KBJ.H. opens the photolink made for J.H. · expires in 10 minexpired · J.H. opens it again from the accountjob-photo ruleeveryday storagearchive storageafter 12 monthsdeleted when the rule says

Every kind of file has an owner and a rule

Decided once per kind of file, then applied to every file without anyone thinking about it.
Job photosthe customer, the office, the technician who took themeveryday for a year, then archived
Permits and inspection reportsthe office; the customer on requestas long as the property is a customer
Signed estimatesthe customer and the officeas long as your records rule says
Invoicesthe customer, the office, the bookkeeperas long as your records rule says
Website imageseveryoneuntil replaced

Decisions that keep files useful

  1. 01

    Straight to storage

    Not through the app

    Large files go from the phone directly to storage, so a big upload never slows the app for anyone else.

  2. 02

    A record for every file

    Whose, from where, about what

    Job, customer, who added it and when, saved beside the file, so it can be found and its access checked.

  3. 03

    Private by default

    Links that expire

    No file has a public address unless it's meant to. Each view gets a link made for that person, valid for minutes.

  4. 04

    Sizes made once

    Original kept

    A thumbnail and a screen size are made on upload; the original is kept untouched.

  5. 05

    Kept by your rules

    Moved, then deleted, on schedule

    Older files move to cheaper storage and are deleted when your rule says, without anyone remembering to.

When it goes wrong

Files fail in ordinary ways. Each one has a planned answer.

Upload from a basement

What happens
T3's phone loses signal halfway through six photos
What the app does
keeps the photos on the phone, shows “4 of 6 sent”
Then
the rest send when the signal returns; nothing is sent twice
T3 does
nothing; the job can be closed, and the photos follow

A shared drive, or files as records

Files in a drive and inboxes

  1. 01Photos on technicians' phones
  2. 02Folders named by whoever made them
  3. 03Anyone with the link can open it, forever
  4. 04Kept forever, or lost when someone leaves

Nobody can find the photo from last March, or say who's seen it.

Files as records

  1. 01Uploaded from the job, onto the job
  2. 02Found by job, customer or date
  3. 03Seen only by the people allowed, through expiring links
  4. 04Archived and deleted by your rules

Every file has a home, an owner and an end.

What file storage connects

In

Uploads
from technicians' phones
Generated documents
estimates, invoices
Customer files
sent through the account
Storage
private, recorded, kept by rule

Out

Expiring links
for allowed people
Screens and documents
the right size
Archive and deletion
on schedule

Worth designing when files belong to jobs and customers

Good fit

  • Photos and documents are part of the work, not attachments to it.
  • Customers or staff need to see some files and not others.
  • You need to keep some files for years and delete others.

Not the right fit

  • A few documents the office shares. A shared drive is fine.
  • You need to read what's in the documents. That's document intelligence.

Where this capability is used

Next to file storage

Questions about file storage

How long should we keep files?

That's your decision, and sometimes your industry's or your accountant's. We build the rule you set for each kind of file and apply it automatically.

Can customers upload files too?

Yes, through their account. Their uploads are checked for type and size, kept private and recorded against their job or property.

Can you move our existing files in?

Usually. We match files to jobs and customers where the folder names or dates allow it, and list the ones a person needs to place.

What does storage cost?

It depends on how much you keep and how often it's opened. Moving older files to archive storage is the main way to keep it down, and we estimate it with you before building.