March 2025: documents on every record, for the job, the customer, the van and the company
A job's paperwork is not the customer's, and neither is the van's. In March 2025 the documents sticky learned which record you are on and opened the right folder in its own colour.
Part 19 of 39 of Building TradeYoke, the story of how the platform was built, from January 2024 to today. Previous: March 2025: the page a customer accepts a quote on. Next: April 2025: what happens after a quote is sent. See every part on the build timeline.
Quick answer
Quick answer: In TradeYoke a documents sticky sits on every page, at every width (a slim one on phones). It opens the documents of whatever record is on screen, the job, the customer or the vehicle, each in its own folder colour, or the company library, with a switch between the two. It can go full screen for document-heavy work.
Key takeaways
- One sticky on every page opens the documents of the record you are looking at.
- Job, customer and vehicle documents each have their own folder colour, so you know where you are.
- A switch moves between that record's documents and the company library.
- It can go full screen when you have a lot to read or sort.
Four kinds of paperwork
By March 2025 the library held a lot, and it was holding four different kinds of thing. There is the paperwork for a job: photos, a signed form, a supplier invoice. There is the paperwork for a customer: an agreement, access instructions, a gas certificate for their property. There is the paperwork for a vehicle: the MOT, the insurance, the service record. And there is the paperwork for the company itself: policies, templates, your own insurance.
Mixing them in one long list works until the day you need one of them in a hurry.
A sticky that knows where you are
The fix was not a bigger menu. It was a documents sticky on every page, at every width, that opens the documents of the record on screen. Standing on a job, it opens that job's documents. On a customer, the customer's. On a vehicle, the vehicle's. On a phone it is a slim tab, so it never takes over the screen.
A colour for each
Each kind has its own folder colour. A job's folders look different from a customer's, and both look different from a vehicle's. It is a small thing, and it saves a surprising amount of squinting: you can see which shelf you have opened before you read a single file name.
The company library, one switch away
Some documents belong to nobody in particular. A switch on the same panel moves between the documents of the record you are on and the company library, so a template or a policy is one tap from the job that needs it. You do not leave the page you were working on.
Full screen for the heavy days
Most of the time a side panel is plenty. When you are sorting a pile of scanned certificates or reading a long PDF, the panel can go full screen, and back again when you are done.
Why we built it this way
We could have sent people to a Documents page and left them to navigate. But paperwork is rarely the task; it is something you need in the middle of a task. Putting it beside the record, rather than behind a menu, keeps you where you were.
Next
Later in March the series moves on to quotes, and in April we come back to the library to look at searching inside the files.
Questions people ask
Where do I find a customer's documents in TradeYoke?
Open the customer and use the documents sticky. It opens that customer's documents in their own folder colour, with a switch to the company library.
Can I keep vehicle documents such as the MOT in TradeYoke?
Yes. A vehicle has its own documents, in their own folder colour, opened from the same sticky when you are on the vehicle.
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