# Your client opens the folder, you take it over from a link

> Your client opens the folder, drops their documents in it and sends you the link: you read it without an account, then take it over to reply.

## Your client asks for a folder, and can also open it

A client has to provide documents to their broker, their notary or their tradesperson. The professional does not use Kolinea, and waiting until they sign up means falling back on scattered attachments.

So Kolinea lets the client take the initiative. They open the folder themselves, drop what they have in it, then send a link to their professional. The professional has nothing to install to read it.

## How it works

**On the client's side**, an assistant asks one question per screen.

1. **For whom?** The client's name (unless already known), their professional's name, with their company if needed, and the subject of the folder. When the client chose a trade on the site, the subject examples are that trade's. From the app, an account chooses “For someone else”.
2. **Documents and a note.** Files dropped or photographed, in one go or several, each removable before sending, with a note for the professional. The step is optional. All of it is posted in the thread under the client's name.
3. **The account.** It is required: without it, there is no way to tell the client about replies. It is free, with no password, and each sign-in is confirmed from the client's e-mail address. A draft whose client never signed up is deleted after 24 hours.
4. **The link.** Once signed up, the client lands on their folder, with the link to send by WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail from their own mailbox, copy or the phone's share sheet, in a message already written. They can also ask Kolinea to send it by e-mail on their behalf: replies to that e-mail come straight back to them. Before the client has signed up, the link opens nothing.

The folder shows where the link stands: not opened yet, or opened. An opening is only recorded once the page is displayed in a browser: a messaging app's preview or a mail scanner does not count.

**On the professional's side**, they open the link and read the whole folder without signing in: what the client wrote, and their documents, which they can open. They then have two moves.

- **Take over the folder.** They sign in, with a free account created on the way if they have none, and land directly in the folder. With no workspace, one is opened for them, in the name of the company the client gave, otherwise in their own, with the Premium trial. With several workspaces, they choose. The folder joins that workspace, and the professional becomes its responsible person. A box ticked by default, "Start with the template…", adds the requests of the template for the trade the client chose; they review them before sending, and a template that fails never prevents the takeover.
- **Decline.** "This folder is not meant for me": the link stops working at once, and an e-mail asks the client to check who they sent it to.

The first professional to open the link and sign in takes the folder. When the client had Kolinea send the link to the address of an existing account, the folder is reserved for that account: anyone else can only read it. The client never sees whether an address has an account. The client themselves, like the people they brought in, cannot take over their own folder.

At takeover, the client receives an e-mail and finds the folder in their account, now a normal folder. For the professional, everything the client wrote or dropped before the takeover shows as unread.

## Before the takeover, the client stays in charge

- They drop more documents at any time.
- They rename the folder and rewrite its description.
- They bring in directly whoever is also concerned, a spouse, a co-buyer: the person receives their own link and follows the folder, without ever being able to take it over. After the takeover, an invitation from the client waits for the responsible person's approval.
- They close the folder, which removes it from what is offered to the professional, and can reopen it.
- They replace the link. The old one stops working at once: this is the remedy if the link went to the wrong person.

## Without a takeover, the folder does not stay

A folder nobody takes over is deleted after 30 days, documents included. It is deleted after 7 days if it stayed empty and its link was never opened nor sent by Kolinea. The deletion also removes the professional's name and address, as the client had typed them.

When the client has given their address, Kolinea writes to them twice: a reminder 3 days after opening, to chase their professional, then a warning 7 days before deletion.

## In practice

**Mortgage brokerage.** A client opens "Mortgage" for their broker and drops their supporting documents with a note. The broker reads everything from the link, without an account, then takes over the folder to ask for what is missing.

**Architecture.** A couple opens "Extension of our house" for their architect, drops their photos and brings in the spouse who also follows the folder. The architect takes it over, and the exchanges continue in the same folder.

## What it does not do

Kolinea writes to the professional only if the client asks it to, and only in the name of an address already confirmed. Otherwise it is up to the client to pass on the link, and Kolinea does not check who receives it: send it only to the professional concerned. For a single folder, Kolinea sends no more than three e-mails per hour.

The folder has only one responsible person: a single professional takes it over. The active-folder quota of their workspace applies, and the Free plan keeps 2 at a time. Beyond that limit, the folder stays pending. Finally, a folder never taken over is not kept: with no professional, it disappears.

## Read also

- [Participants and team](/en/features/participants-and-team), for the folder's responsible person and those who join it
- [Folder templates](/en/features/folder-templates), what the professional can start from when taking over
- [The folder thread](/en/features/the-folder-thread), where the client's documents and note arrive
- [Closing and archiving](/en/features/closing-and-archiving), to close the folder, before or after the takeover