Sharing Options Overview
Essal Office offers several ways to share documents — with colleagues inside your organisation and with people outside it. Choosing the right sharing method depends on who the recipient is and how long they need access.
Summary of Sharing Options
- Method: **Shareable link**
- Best for: One-off external sharing; client, auditor, or partner review
- Requires recipient account?: No
- Method: **Download and send**
- Best for: Attaching to email and sending as a file
- Requires recipient account?: No
- Method: **User permissions**
- Best for: Colleagues who need regular, ongoing access
- Requires recipient account?: Yes
- Method: **Group permissions**
- Best for: A team that shares access to a category of documents
- Requires recipient account?: Yes
Shareable Links
A shareable link is a unique URL that gives anyone who has it read-only access to a single document. The recipient does not need an Essal Office account. The link can be revoked at any time.
Use shareable links when: - A client or external contact needs to download a specific document - An auditor requests a copy without needing full archive access - You need to reference a document in an email without attaching a large file
See Creating and Managing Share Links for detailed instructions.
Download and Email
For any document in your archive, you can download the file and attach it to an email through your normal email client. This is the most straightforward option when a recipient needs the file itself rather than a link.
See Downloading a Document for how to download.
User and Group Permissions
For colleagues who need regular access to documents, add them as Essal Office users and configure their permissions. This is more scalable than sharing links one by one and gives recipients access to the full interface rather than a single document.
See Users, Groups, and Permissions for how to invite and manage users.
Choosing the Right Method
- Scenario: Send one invoice to a client
- Recommended method: Shareable link or download + email
- Scenario: Give your accountant access while they audit
- Recommended method: Shareable links per document, or a temporary user account with limited permissions
- Scenario: Onboard a new employee to the finance team
- Recommended method: Add as a user, assign to the Finance group
- Scenario: Share a contract for review and signature
- Recommended method: Shareable link
- Scenario: Daily collaboration on documents
- Recommended method: User accounts with appropriate permissions