Check who has viewed a document

Every file in Tidyflow keeps its own history. If you have shared a document with a Contact and want to know whether they have opened it, you can check without asking them.

Open a document’s audit trail

1. Go to the client and open the Files tab.
2. Click the ... next to the file.
3. Choose View audit trail.

The audit trail is available on every file, not only documents sent for signature, and only your team can see it. Contacts never see it in the client portal.

What the audit trail records

Each entry names the person who acted, the date and time, and the IP address the action came from. It covers:

• Document Viewed and Document Downloaded, including opens by a Contact in the client portal
• Document Uploaded, including files sent in through a client upload link, where the uploader’s email address and any comment they left are shown
• Document Renamed, with the old and new names

Entries appear newest first.

Signing and approval history

For a document sent for signature, the same audit trail records when the request was sent, when the signer gave electronic signature consent, when they signed, and when the document completed. Approvals and change requests are recorded the same way.

Once a signature request is complete, click Download in the audit trail dialog to save the signing history as a PDF you can keep with your working papers. See Electronic signature overview.

What the audit trail does not cover

Two limits are worth knowing before you rely on it as a record.

Portal sign-ins are not recorded. The audit trail tells you what happened to a document, not when someone logged in, so check activity per document rather than looking for a login history.

The history belongs to the file. Deleting the file removes its history too, so if you need to keep evidence for a completed signature, download the signing history PDF before deleting anything.

Checking a Contact has opened something you sent

Share the folder or file as usual, then check the audit trail on that document a few days later. A Document Viewed entry against the Contact’s name confirms they opened it, and the absence of one is a useful prompt to follow up before a deadline.

To be told when a Contact adds files rather than checking manually, turn on upload notifications for the shared folder. See How to share files with Contacts.