A closed folder remains readable, years later
Closing and archive
A closed folder stays readable
Once closed, the folder becomes read-only and stays readable by everyone, for as long as the workspace exists.
- Read-only for everyone once closed
- Can be reopened if the folder picks up again
- Open requests flagged “not completed at closing”
Replaces: Mailboxes to dig through · Paper folder
Long after, you can reread what was requested, decided and approved
The finished folder is the one you will need
One question always comes back: what had been approved, what had been sent, on what date. It comes back six months later, sometimes three years later, and almost always at the wrong moment.
By then the information still exists, but scattered across an inbox, a shared drive and the memory of someone who has left.
Closing keeps everything
The professional closes the folder. If requests are still open, they are warned and can close anyway: those requests are then marked "not completed at closing", rather than disappearing into the pile. That is useful information: it stops anyone rereading the folder from believing everything had been provided.
Your team is notified, and the folder turns read-only for everyone. Nothing more is added, nothing is changed, comments included. But everything stays: the requests, the documents filed, the approvals with their date and their name, the decisions taken.
A closed folder leaves the active-folder quota. Closed folders are unlimited, on every plan, the Free plan included.
Kept, and portable
A closed folder stays available for life, as long as the professional's workspace exists. Your clients keep their link: they reread what was asked of them and what they provided, without writing to you.
Each participant can also export the folder as they read it:
- the thread as a PDF, with a cover page, the participants, and optionally the comments, voice notes, reactions or edit history
- the original documents
- for the team only, a re-importable JSON bundle, which restores the folder in another workspace
- optionally, a limited period, based on publication date
The export is prepared in the background and an email gives the download link. That link is valid for 7 days, and permission is checked again at download time. The client thus gets a copy that belongs to them, independent of the professional.
In practice
Building and renovation. The job is handed over, and a dispute over a finish arrives two years later. The accepted quote, with its date and the name of whoever accepted it, is still there, like the photos filed.
Law and accounting firms. A closed folder keeps its record of what was asked, provided and decided. The firm exports it as a PDF with its documents to file under its own retention rules, and the client keeps their copy.
What it does not do
Access lasts as long as the professional's workspace exists, whatever its plan, including after the subscription is cancelled. If the professional deletes their workspace, everyone involved in its folders is warned by email 30 days beforehand and can download the export of each folder; at the end, folders and documents are purged. The workspace's plan changes nothing about access, but the workspace itself can disappear: exporting the folders that matter remains a useful precaution.
This archive is a dated, named record, not a vault with evidential value, and your legal retention obligations remain yours. If the workspace turns the option on, participants with limited access lose their access at closing and get it back on reopening. The workspace can also withdraw the export from them. A reopened folder becomes active again, with its whole history, and counts toward the quota again.
Related reading
- Document confidentiality, for what only the team and the named participants read
- Sign-off, the dated record of what was accepted
- The folder thread, what the archive keeps
More features for your line of work
Your next folder, with nothing lost along the way
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