Each vendor contact record you create in the Contacts tab of each project provides a happy home to keep and share important vendor files. From brochures, price lists, proposals, and contracts from your favored vendors, having one place to store these important files makes them easy to find, for both you, your team, and your clients.
Once you’ve created a vendor Contact Record within a project, you can upload any file (pdf, doc, xls, png, jpg, etc.) to the right side of that vendor record by dragging and dropping it into place or using the gold Add to Contact button towards the top left of your vendor record to browse your computer for files.
Using Comments to Introduce a Contact, Notify Your Client You've Uploaded Files, & Request Client Approvals
You can also use the “file” space to the right of each contact record to start a discussion with your clients, or to let them know a file has been uploaded. We also like to use this comment stream to request and document approvals and document change requests.
And, when it comes to uploading files, your clients won’t be notified each time you upload a file; however, if you add a comment indicating you just uploaded a file, they’ll receive both in email and in-app notification, along with a link that takes them directly to this page in Aisle Planner. Because of that, it’s always helpful to introduce what the file is, and what you’d like the client to do as next steps to keep the ball moving forward!
*Please note: Some of the screens shown in this video have been updated and may look a little different, but we think you'll still find the information in this tutorial super helpful!
Renaming Vendor Files Once You've Uploaded Them Into Aisle Planner
Sometimes the names of files you sent from vendors don't make any sense, so once you've uploaded them into Aisle Planner, you can always rename those files. To rename any file you've uploaded to a contact record, just click on the file name and type in the new name.
To view the original file name, you can always use your mouse or track pad and hover over the file name on display to view. We like this option just in case we need to reference that original name when speaking with vendors!
Here's a quick video to show you how's it's done!
*Please note: Some of the screens shown in this video have been updated and may look a little different, but we think you'll still find the information in this tutorial super helpful!
Keeping Track of Multiple Versions of a Vendor File, Contract, or Document
It's pretty common to have multiple versions of a file, especially when it comes to things like floral, and catering proposals, not to mention equipment rentals quotes and stationery designs.
Keep every single version of vendor proposals within Aisle Planner, so you can easily look back at previous versions as needed.
*Please note: Some of the screens shown in this video have been updated and may look a little different, but we think you'll still find the information in this tutorial super helpful!
More Options Menu ︙
When you use your mouse or trackpad to hover over the file you'd like to preview, print, download, or delete in a Contact Record, you will see the vertical More Options menu appear. Click on that and you'll see additional actions you can take with the uploaded file: Preview, Download, and Delete. See below for specifics of each.
Previewing and/or Printing a File
If you need to quickly view a document without downloading it to your computer, simply click on "Preview" and in a new browser tab, you will be able to see what the file looks like. Multi-page documents can be scrolled through, zoomed in or out, and printed right there from your browser. You can also view a jpg, png, or gif by selecting the Preview option. Your web-browser will display these image files, so if you'd like to print them, simply choose to print the browser window.
Preview supports the following file types:
Adobe .PDF
Microsoft Excel .XLS and .XLSX
Microsoft Word .DOC and .DOCX
Microsoft Powerpoint .PPT and PPTX
.PNG, .JPG, .JPEG, and .GIF
Please note that all Adobe and Microsoft file formats will open in "View Only" while image file formats will open using your web browser's file preview function. Apple Pages, Numbers, and Keynote files, as well .MOV, .SVG, .TIFF, and .WEBP formats are not supported at this time.
Downloading a File
Need to download a file so you can email it out to someone that isn't a project planning partner? Just click on "Download" and the file will download to your computer.
Deleting a File
Deleting an uploaded file is simple. Just select "Delete," confirm the action,
and—poof—it's gone.
