Question

Documents in karbon that are live

  • 26 October 2021
  • 4 replies
  • 163 views

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Hi, we are a new user, still working on our configuration and learning. We had in mind that we could attach a live document to a work item. But, I am now realizing that any time we want to update the document (like adding this week's payroll to an annual based payroll workpaper file) we would have to download the document, update it and then upload the changed file back. So, it seems that karbon is not meant to work efficiently with live documents. Am I missing something? I hope I am stating my concern clearly and apologize if not. For example, as we are doing payroll work, in our current system we would have a payroll prep workpaper pdf file. Each time we prepared payroll we would add bookmarks and the next payroll prep workpapers to this same pdf document. Now it seems we would not so efficiently be updating the workpaper pdf file, if it is stored in karbon. Documents that are stored in karbon seem like they are best if static?

How do other firms incorporate the information that is collected in karbon, particularly documents, into workpaper files.  We keep all of our workpaper files in pdf documents.  Do we need to consider a new alternative.  I may just be getting old, and learning new ways is harder! I would be very interested to know how documents interact/play into your use of karbon!


4 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +19

Hi Terri! Welcome to the Karbon community. :)

I’ll give you how we handle these situations, but there are many ways to do it. Others will hopefully post how they handle it and you can choose which parts work best for your firm.

Hi, we are a new user, still working on our configuration and learning. We had in mind that we could attach a live document to a work item. But, I am now realizing that any time we want to update the document (like adding this week's payroll to an annual based payroll workpaper file) we would have to download the document, update it and then upload the changed file back. So, it seems that karbon is not meant to work efficiently with live documents. Am I missing something? I hope I am stating my concern clearly and apologize if not. For example, as we are doing payroll work, in our current system we would have a payroll prep workpaper pdf file. Each time we prepared payroll we would add bookmarks and the next payroll prep workpapers to this same pdf document. Now it seems we would not so efficiently be updating the workpaper pdf file, if it is stored in karbon. Documents that are stored in karbon seem like they are best if static?

We use a document file tree for our client documents outside of Karbon. and we use Karbon to transfer documents to and from clients but not to store them. If you NEED to store a live file in Karbon, one way to do that would be to share a link from Google Docs or O365 and paste the link into a work item so that when the staff taps on the link, it opens the live document in a browser for editing.

Good news is that Karbon is currently working on an integration with document managing systems DropBox and OneDrive so that documents from Karbon are linked to the live documents in those systems.

How do other firms incorporate the information that is collected in karbon, particularly documents, into workpaper files.  We keep all of our workpaper files in pdf documents.  Do we need to consider a new alternative.  I may just be getting old, and learning new ways is harder! I would be very interested to know how documents interact/play into your use of karbon!

Karbon is a pretty different approach to work, so it takes time to acclimate regardless of age. :) It was a huge shift for our firm, but we saw benefits really quickly, so it was worth it for us.

We take all documents out of Karbon and store them in our document system outside of Karbon. We tried to keep things in Karbon, but it ended up just not making sense for us. Others may have found a different way to do it, so I’m eager to see how other people answer.

Does that help at all?

Userlevel 2
Badge +1

Yes, Max, this is helpful!  I really appreciate your taking the time to share how things are working for you.

Userlevel 7
Badge +10

@Terri Svihla 

We follow a similar process to @max using Google Drive.  

We also utilize the Pin feature in Karbon - we Pin a note to the Timeline that we add linked documents to. 

If they are documents that are permanent in nature we will Pin to the Client Timeline, if they relate to a specific work item we will Pin it to the Timeline for that work.

This way the link is always at the top of the timeline and is the first place the team sees.

Userlevel 7
Badge +12

@Terri Svihla we use a lot of the same methodologies as the other commenters!

We use Google Drive and a have a folder for each client, and then files/folders are linked in Karbon -

  • Links in the Client Details tab - there’s no option to add a hyperlink specifically in the Description field, but if you paste a URL it turns into a hyperlink.
  • Links in the Details tab of work items - same as Client Details, but this ensures the link rolls forward to any future work items in the series. A pinned note will only be in that specific work item’s timeline, but details will be in any future work items in the series, and can also be added to the based template.
  • Links inside Task Descriptions inside work items - both client tasks and internal tasks. The benefit of this is you could have one external document (e.g. some instructions or a guide for clients) that is linked in all tasks, and if you need to change something (for example, when Receipt Bank changed their name to Dext), you can just change the source doc and it applies to anywhere that has that file linked.

We’ve actually started using Slack as a starting point for client details - we have a channel for each client, and in the bookmarks bar for each channel is a link to their

  •  Karbon client page
  • Drive folder
  • Client SOP document

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