How are email attachments regularly archived?
To regularly archive email attachments, incoming attachments should be saved directly to the relevant department's file area instead of being downloaded and kept on the desktop; there they are subject to naming, versioning, and access rules. This way, a quote or invoice is not just available in the inbox of the person who received it, but becomes accessible to the entire team. This guide explains how to set up an attachment archiving routine.
Why do email attachments disappear?
Most documents received by companies arrive via email: supplier quotes, customer orders, signed contracts, invoices. These attachments often remain solely in the recipient’s mailbox. When the recipient is on leave, leaves the company, or their mailbox fills up, it becomes difficult for the team to access those documents.
The second issue is the habit of downloading. It is downloaded to the desktop, copied to a shared folder without renaming, or not copied at all. When the same attachment reaches two people, two copies are created and it becomes unclear which one entered the archive.
Which attachments should be archived?
Archiving every attachment fills the archive with unnecessary files. Attachments that serve as records of transactions should be archived:
- Contracts, protocols, and attachments.
- Quotes, orders, and order approvals.
- Invoices, receipts, and reconciliation documents.
- Correspondence from official institutions.
- Project outputs, technical drawings and approved designs.
How is the additional archiving scheme set up step-by-step?
- "Define the target area. Attachments arriving from the mailbox should land in a single area or folder first; then move them to the appropriate location.
- "Define responsibility for saving. Clarify whether the first person in the area or the department head will save the attachment.
- "Rename according to rules. Suffixes reflect the sender's habits; rename files upon archiving to comply with the organization's naming convention.
- "Save the new version of the same document as a version. A revised contract received from the other party is not a new file, but a new version of the same document.
- "Do not use mailboxes as archives. After saving attachments, look in the file area to find the document, not the email.
How should archive documents be sent by email?
Downloading a document from the archive and then attaching it to an email creates another unmonitored copy outside the organization. Sending the document directly from the file area ensures that which document went to whom is recorded.
Example: how does a supplier quote enter the archive?
The purchasing manager receives a price quote from a supplier. Instead of leaving it on their desktop, they drag and drop it into the supplier folder in the Purchasing area in SmartFiles and rename it according to company policy as '2026-09-24_SupplierA_Quote'.
A week later, the supplier sends a revised quote. The responsible person uploads it to the same folder with the same name; the file becomes a new version. This way, an administrator wanting to see the difference between two quotes checks the version history of a single document instead of searching for two separate files. Since the quote is read by AI upon upload, price and delivery terms also appear in the summary within the file list.
What are common mistakes when archiving email attachments?
- "Leave attachments in mailbox: a mailbox belongs to an individual, whereas an archive belongs to the team.
- "Saving the same attachment by multiple people: If it's unclear who saves it, the same document ends up in two places under two names.
- "Saving without changing the attachment name: “Document.pdf” or “IMG_2044.jpg” tells nothing in the archive.
- "Save revised attachments as separate files: If the new version of the same document is not added as a version, it becomes unclear which quote is valid.
- "Re-downloading the document for sending: Each file downloaded from the archive and attached to an email creates an additional copy outside of control.
In which area should the supplementary archive be stored?
A single 'Incoming Documents' area or folder works well as the initial drop point for attachments. Documents here are moved daily to relevant department areas; thus, the target area remains a waiting room and does not become a permanent archive. It must be clear who empties this area every day; otherwise, the waiting room gradually becomes a second shared folder.
Keeping broad read permission and narrow delete permission on the waiting area is a good balance: teams see incoming documents and move them to their own areas, but restoring accidentally deleted attachments becomes solely the responsibility of assignees. Attachments containing personal data (CVs, ID copies, health reports, etc.) should be moved directly to a restricted-access area rather than kept in the waiting area.
Email attachment archive checklist
After setting up the layout, check the following points:
- A single target area or folder has been determined for initial attachment placement.
- In each department, it is clear who will save and move attachments.
- Attachments entering the archive are renamed according to the organisation’s naming rule.
- Revised documents are saved as new versions, not new files.
- The target area is emptied daily; the waiting room does not turn into an archive.
- Documents in the archive are sent directly instead of being downloaded and re-added.
In which teams does the extra archive make the biggest difference?
Purchasing, accounting and sales, and teams receiving the most external documents are key groups. In purchasing, quotes and order approvals; in accounting, invoices and reconciliations; in sales, customer orders and signed contracts arrive via email. When these teams have an organised archive, when an employee goes on leave or leaves the company, documents do not disappear along with the mailbox; the team continues to access the same document from the same place. The same applies to project teams: when approved drawings, technical specifications, and meeting minutes from customers are gathered in the project area, a person joining the project later can look directly at the documents instead of scanning past correspondence.
How does SmartFiles solve this?
Incoming attachments are uploaded via drag-and-drop into the relevant storage area and folder in SmartFiles. From there, they follow the same rules as other files: uploading with the same name into the same folder creates a new version, they are automatically analysed by AI, and they are protected by the area's permissions.
Conversely, in organisations using SmartMail, a file in SmartFiles is sent via email through SmartMail without being downloaded. Both uploads and sends appear as records in the area's activity history.
First, an attachment uploaded to a 'Incoming Documents' folder is moved by a user with editing permission to the requested area and folder; the versions, notes, and AI summary of the moved file go with it. SmartFiles and SmartMail open with a single account; employees are defined once in DBLinx and work with the same identity in both products.