Manage Files and Documents

ManageCasa offers a comprehensive file and document management feature designed to streamline the way property managers, community associations, owners, and tenants handle their documents. File access can be controlled for certain audiences, such as tenants in a specific building or residents of a specific community or the general public through the ManageCasa Marketing Website (optional feature).

Upload Files

You can upload a single or multiple files, such as leases, reports, images, legal and financial documents directly into the system from the respective section (e.g. Property, Contact, Lease, Architecture Request). 

When saving a file successfully, you will get a pop-up window with a confirmation.

Most file formats are accepted for upload. However, if you encounter an issue with uploading a specific file format, please send us a message, and we’ll be happy to look into it.
In general, we recommend commonly used file formats that users can open from their respective devices, such as .pdf, .png, .jpg, or Microsoft Office files.

There is no individual file size limit, but to keep everything running smoothly, it's a good idea to optimize larger files before uploading. This helps maintain fast loading and smooth performance within your account. Note that your ManageCasa account does have storage limits.

Manage files

You can manage files by using tags. For instance, if you want to see only files for a specific building or unit, you can create specific tags and assign tags to a single or to multiple files. Just select the file(s), click the three dots in the upper part of the table, and select "Tag". From there, you can add a tag for the building or the unit. Now, you'll be able to filter files with this specific tag.

Associate files with other objects

To associate a file with other objects like contacts, properties, leases, transactions, associations, or even other files, we recommend uploading the file directly in the respective section of ManageCasa. For example, upload a picture of the bush to be trimmed directly to the respective maintenance ticket. This automatically connects the file with the maintenance ticket.

You can also upload files to the Files/Documents section and associate a file with other objects by following these steps:

1. Upload and locate the file in the “File/Document” management section.

2. Select the file and click the three dots on the right-hand side.

3. Scroll down a bit and select "Associate To".

4. Choose which objects you want to associate the file with within the dropdown. You can multi-select if needed.

5. Click “Save” to confirm.

File Folders

You can create and manage folders to categorize files by property, project, or any other relevant criteria ensuring easy document retrieval. Some restrictions apply. Check the “Known Limitations" section of this article!

The Files/Documents section is not replacing your Google Drive or the place to neatly organize documents. The folder Structure under the Files/Documents section is primarily there to allow you to manage file and folder access and to search files.

The main benefit of ManageCasa over a file browser is that you can assign files to objects such as properties, contacts, maintenance tickets, etc.

Sharing Files

You can share files with specific registered contacts, such as owners or tenants, ensuring only authorized individuals access sensitive documents.

“Main account holder” roles such as “Admin” and non-Board Member Account user roles like “Treasurer“ can see all files.

Board members can see only files associated with their association.

You can make documents available to use on your public website for broader accessibility, ideal for documents such as public notices or general property information that needs to be available to anyone. Once they are marked as public, you can access them in your Website Authoring tool for your website (optional feature).

When you share a file or folder, you can give people outside of your organization access to that file. For example if you’re an association and you want your property owners to have access to certain documents, you can share that file or folder with all your owners. If you share a folder, that folder and all the contents are shared at the same time.

The difference between “Share” and “Associate to”

Share: This option allows you to give specific contacts access to a file or document. Depending on the permissions you set, they can either view or edit the file within their portal. For example, if you upload a tenant’s payment receipt, you can share it with them so they can view or download the receipt directly from their portal. Another example: if there’s an HOA announcement or community guidelines, you can share the document with all residents, giving them read-only access to view the guidelines in their own portal.

Associate to: This option links the file or document to contacts, properties, leases, transactions, associations, or other records. It helps you keep track of which files are related to specific records in the system but does not give contacts access to those files. For example, you’ve hired a vendor for landscaping services, and they’ve completed a job. You receive an invoice from the vendor, which details the services rendered, total cost, and payment terms. You would upload this invoice to the system and associate it with the corresponding transaction and vendor.

• File name: “VendorZLLC_Invoice_Aug2024.pdf”
• Associate to: You would associate this invoice with the specific vendor ("Vendor Z LLC") and the related transaction recorded in the Accounting > Transactions tab.

By associating this file, when you view the vendor's profile or the transaction, you can easily locate the document in the "Files" tab. Below is a sample screenshot showing how the associated file would appear when you open the transaction.

"Public Documents" and "Private Documents" in the Association Tab (association accounts only)

Public Documents: Files or folders uploaded to this section are automatically shared with and accessible to all registered property owners within the association. These documents are typically meant for broader distribution, such as newsletters, meeting minutes, financial reports, or community guidelines.

Not to be confused with “Make Public”  under file details! This makes the file available to be used for your ManageCasa hosted marketing website (optional feature).

Private Documents: Files or folders uploaded to this section are visible only to you or authorized administrators. These are confidential documents that are not shared with property owners and are typically used for internal management purposes, such as contracts, vendor agreements, or sensitive financial records. This section allows you to keep track of all related documents securely, ensuring that sensitive information remains protected.

Private documents are automatically associated with the Association.

Pro Tip

• When organizing documents, you want to establish and enforce certain rules, especially for larger organizations which tend to accumulate a lot of files over time. Rules should include retention periods, file ownership, file access by role, version management, file naming conventions, tagging, etc.
• Think carefully about how many files you really want to manage in ManageCasa, i.E. how many files you want to share publicly. The ManageCasa Files feature is not meant to replace your file manager on your computer. 
• Public files for example should only be those you want to share on your ManageCasa hosted website (optional feature). The system is not designed to handle and navigate hundreds or thousands of files.
• Your ManageCasa account comes with a limited amount of space. You may run out of file storage and need to buy extra storage. 

We strongly recommend to use the implementation of a new property management solution to review your files and clean up/archive old files that you don’t want to load into ManageCasa.

Known limitations:

There are some known limitations, for example:

• File replication does not work consistently. If you associate a file with an object (e.g. a maintenance ticket) and then move this file to another folder under “Files/Documents”, the connection to the object may get lost. To avoid this from happening, either select “Make a copy” when moving a file or do not move such files into Folders for now.
• Search by file extension and sort is currently not supported
• Search by tags and favorites does not include files in subfolders
• Caching issues: In case you do not see your file after uploading it, this may be related to a caching issue on your computer. Please clear your cache and cookies on your browser, and if necessary, restart your computer. 

We constantly strive to improve usability and we plan on addressing the above issues with one of the upcoming software releases.