Documents in Aptly are the policies, procedures, protocols, and other supporting materials that provide context for your organization's authority framework. By linking documents directly to Decisions and Delegations, Aptly ensures that the people who hold or manage authority can always reference the "why" behind the "what" and "who."

In this article, you'll learn:

• What documents are and how they fit into Aptly's authority lifecycle
• How documents are linked to Decisions and Delegations
• Who can upload, link, and manage documents
• How document types, versioning, and visibility work at a high level

Who this is for: All Aptly users who work with Decisions, Delegations, or the Documents module. Administrators who configure document-related settings will also benefit from this overview.

What are Documents in Aptly?

Documents are records in Aptly that represent supporting materials — such as company policies, approval procedures, compliance protocols, or operational guidelines — that give context to the authority managed through Decisions and Delegations.

A document in Aptly can be:

• Uploaded — a file (PDF, Word, Excel, image, etc.) stored directly in Aptly
• Linked — a reference to a document hosted outside Aptly, such as on an intranet or internal document management system

Whether uploaded or linked, documents become part of Aptly's governance record and can be associated with the Decisions and Delegations they support.

How Documents connect to Decisions and Delegations

Documents are linked to records from within the Decision or Delegation record itself — not from the Documents module. This is an important distinction: the Documents module is where you can view and manage documents centrally, but the act of associating a document with a specific Decision or Delegation happens on that record's Documents section.

Linking a document to a Decision

When viewing or editing a Decision, a Documents section is available (provided the Documents setting is enabled for Decisions). From here, you can:

• Click Link Document to select one or more existing documents to associate with the Decision
• Pin key documents so they appear at the top of the list for quick reference

Linking a document to a Delegation

Delegations also include a Documents section (provided the Documents setting is enabled for Delegations). The process works the same way — click Link Document from within the Delegation record to associate documents.

When viewing a Delegation's documents, you will see two groups:

• Delegation Documents — documents linked specifically to this Delegation
• Decision Documents — documents linked to the parent Decision, which cascade down and are visible on the Delegation for reference

Decision vs. Delegation document behavior

How documents cascade depends on where they are linked:

This distinction allows organizations to attach broad policy documents at the Decision level (so every Delegation inherits the reference) while also attaching situation-specific materials to individual Delegations when needed.

The Documents module

The Documents module (accessible from the left navigation menu) provides a centralized view of all documents that have been loaded into Aptly and linked to records. From this module, you can:

• Browse, search, and filter documents across your organization
• View document details including type, status, versioning data, and linked records
• Create new documents (upload or link) for later association with Decisions or Delegations
• Manage document settings such as oversight roles and sharing (depending on permissions)

Important: While you can create and manage documents from the Documents module, the association between a document and a Decision or Delegation is always established from within the Decision or Delegation record. The Documents module does not provide a way to link a document to a specific record — you must navigate to the relevant Decision or Delegation to make that connection.

Who can upload and link documents

Access to documents in Aptly is controlled by role-based permissions configured in Settings → Users & Roles. The Documents permission tab on each role determines what a user can do.

Key permissions

In addition, oversight stakeholders (Owner, Responsible, Approver, Reviewer) inherit access to documents they are assigned to — the scope of that inherited access varies by stakeholder type.

To link a document to a Decision or Delegation, a user must have the appropriate permissions on both the document and the Decision or Delegation record.

For full details on permission scopes and how they apply to documents, see Roles — Permission Scopes & Key Permissions and Roles — Permissions Glossary.

Document types

Aptly supports categorizing documents by type, which helps users identify the nature of a document at a glance. When the Document Type feature is enabled by an administrator, every document can be assigned a type.

Default document types include:

• Policy
• Procedure
• Protocol

Administrators can add custom document types (for example, "Register" or "Standard Operating Procedure") and enable or disable individual types from Settings → Account Settings → Documents → Document Types.

For full configuration details, see Document Types (Account Settings).

Versioning basics

When Document Versioning is enabled by an administrator, documents can carry version-related metadata fields that help track which version of a document is in effect.

Default versioning fields include:

Administrators can also add custom versioning fields (either Alphanumeric or Date type) to capture additional metadata specific to the organization's document governance needs.

If Document Versioning is disabled, versioning fields will not appear on documents and users will not be prompted to enter version data when creating or linking documents.

For configuration details, see Document Versioning (Account Settings).

Document visibility and sharing

Who can see a document depends on a combination of the document's sharing setting and the user's role permissions:

• Restricted — The document is visible only to its owner, users with oversight roles on that document, users with access to linked records (the Decision or Delegation the document is associated with), and users with global document permissions.
• Shared — The document is shared with specific users and/or groups, expanding access beyond the restricted default.

The Manage Sharing permission on a user's role determines whether they can adjust a document's sharing settings.

Document oversight (optional)

If Document Oversight is enabled by an administrator, documents can have oversight roles assigned to them. These roles define who is responsible for a document's governance lifecycle:

• Owner — always assigned; the person or team responsible for the document
• Responsible — a designated party accountable for the document's content or compliance
• Approver — a user who must approve the document (can optionally auto-generate an approval Action)
• Reviewer — a user who reviews the document (can optionally auto-generate a review Action)

Oversight roles are configured on the Settings tab of an individual document. If Document Oversight is disabled at the account level, oversight roles appear in a disabled state and cannot be assigned.

For configuration details, see Document Oversight (Account Settings).

Supported file formats and size limits

When uploading documents directly into Aptly, the following constraints apply:

• Maximum file size: 10 MB per document
• Supported formats: .pdf, .doc, .docx, .csv, .xls, .xlsx, .jpg, .jpeg, .png

If a file exceeds the size limit or is in an unsupported format, Aptly will display an error message and the upload will not proceed.

Note: Documents linked (rather than uploaded) are hosted externally and are not subject to these file format or size restrictions within Aptly.

Pinning documents

When multiple documents are linked to a Decision or Delegation, users with appropriate permissions can pin key documents to keep them at the top of the list. Pinned documents appear in the order they were pinned — the first document pinned appears first, the second pinned document appears next, and so on.

Pinning is especially useful when a Decision or Delegation has several associated documents but one or two are the primary policy references that users should see first.

Admin configuration: Documents Settings

All document-related features described in this article — linking, uploading, document types, versioning, oversight, and sharing — are controlled by administrators through the Documents settings page.

To access these settings: navigate to Settings → Account Settings → Documents.

The settings page is organized into the following sections:

For the full configuration reference, see Documents Settings.

Documents must also be enabled at the module level for Decisions and Delegations separately:

• Decisions: Settings → Account Settings → Decisions → Module Settings → Documents — see Decision Documents
• Delegations: Settings → Account Settings → Delegations → Module Settings → Documents — see Delegation Documents and Pathway

Frequently asked questions

Can I link a document to a Decision or Delegation from the Documents module?

No. Document associations with Decisions and Delegations must be created from within the Decision or Delegation record. The Documents module provides a central view for managing documents, but linking is done on the record you want to associate the document with.

If I link a document to a Decision, will it appear on all Delegations under that Decision?

Yes. Decision-level documents cascade to all downstream Delegations and appear under the "Decision Documents" section on each Delegation record.

Do documents linked to a Delegation cascade to Redelegations?

No. Delegation-level documents apply only to the specific Delegation they are linked to and do not cascade to child Delegations or Redelegations.

What happens if Documents are disabled in Module Settings?

If Documents are toggled off in the Module Settings for Decisions or Delegations, the Documents section will not appear on those records and users will not be able to link or view documents from within those records. Existing documents remain in the Documents module but will not be visible on the affected records.

What's the difference between uploading and linking a document?

An uploaded document is a file stored directly in Aptly. A linked document is a reference to a file hosted outside of Aptly (such as on your company intranet). Both types can be associated with Decisions and Delegations in the same way.

Next steps

• Documents Settings — Configure document management, types, versioning, oversight, and sharing at the account level.
• Document Management (Account Settings) — Enable or disable link and upload capabilities.
• Document Types (Account Settings) — Manage the list of available document types.
• Document Versioning (Account Settings) — Configure version metadata fields.
• Document Oversight (Account Settings) — Set up oversight roles for documents.
• Document Sharing & Document Generation — External sharing controls and upcoming generation features.
• Decision Documents — Enable documents on Decisions via Module Settings.
• Delegation Documents and Pathway — Enable documents on Delegations via Module Settings.
• Roles — Permission Scopes & Key Permissions — Understand document permission scopes.