> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Send and track documents

> Send a consent form or agreement for signature, follow its status, and resend or cancel it from the hospital's document ledger.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Records and front-desk staff" note="Needs the Records care area" />

**Documents** is your hospital's full document ledger: everything sent out for signature, what it is doing now, and the templates it is built from. Where [Records](/hospital/records/overview) shows only what needs a person today, this shows all of it.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Records', 'Documents']} />

<TaskHeader before="An active document template, and a patient with an email address on file" time="Under a minute per document" after="A document sent, tracked by status, and filed to the patient's record once signed" />

## What you're looking at

The heading reads **Clinic Documents** — "Manage and send documents for clinic signatures". A period filter offering **Today**, **Last 7 Days**, **This Month** and **All Time** sits beside a split **Send Document** button, whose dropdown offers **Create Document** and **Upload Document**.

Four tabs:

| Tab           | What it holds                                           |
| ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Overview**  | **Total Documents** and the rest of the period's counts |
| **Documents** | The ledger itself                                       |
| **Analytics** | How signing is going over the period                    |
| **Templates** | The templates every document is built from              |

Each document has one of six statuses:

| Status        | What it means                             |
| ------------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| **Pending**   | Sent, not yet opened                      |
| **Viewed**    | The patient has opened it but not signed  |
| **Signed**    | Done — the signed copy is on their record |
| **Expired**   | The link ran out before they signed       |
| **Declined**  | The patient refused to sign               |
| **Cancelled** | You withdrew it                           |

**Empty state.** A hospital that has sent nothing shows **No documents found** with "Send your first document to get started".

## Before you start

Two prerequisites, and both stop you dead rather than failing quietly:

* **An active template must exist.** Without one you get "No active document templates found. Please create a template first." Build one on the **Templates** tab.
* **The patient must have an email address on file.** The chart warns "⚠️ This patient does not have an email address. Please update their profile before sending documents.", and sending is refused with "Selected patient does not have an email address".

## Send a document for signature

<Steps>
  <Step title="Find the patient">
    Open [Patient records](/hospital/records/patient-records), find the person, and open the row's **⋯** menu.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Select Send Consent">
    The **Send Document for Signature** dialog opens — "Send a document to \{patient} for review and signature" — and shows the patient's name and the email it will go to. Check that address before going further.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the template">
    **Document Template \*** is required. The picker lists your active templates with their descriptions.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add context">
    **Additional Notes (Optional)** — "Add any additional notes or instructions for the patient..." — is where you say why they are being asked to sign. A consent form arriving with no explanation is a consent form that does not get signed.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Send">
    The patient gets an email with their own link, and the document appears in the ledger at **Pending**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Follow it up

Each row's **⋯** menu offers **View Details** always, and two actions that appear only when they make sense:

<Steps>
  <Step title="Resend an expired document">
    **Resend Document** appears only on a document at **Expired**, and gives the patient a fresh link. This is what an **Expiring soon** or **Link expired** row on the [records desk](/hospital/records/overview) is asking for.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Cancel one still in play">
    **Cancel Document** appears only while a document is **Pending** or **Viewed**. It asks **Cancel Document?** and lets you back out with **Keep Document**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Read the detail">
    **View Details** shows what was sent, when, and where it has got to.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  **Cancelling kills the patient's signing link for good.** The dialog says so — "This will cancel the document and the patient will no longer be able to sign it. This action cannot be undone." They cannot reopen it and there is no undo; you must send a fresh one. If you are only chasing a slow signer, leave the document alone and ring them.
</Warning>

<AuditNote action="Sending, opening or cancelling a document" />

## Who can do this

**Role** decides whether the ledger opens. **Documents** needs the **Records** care area in **Settings → Facility**, and on Enterprise an owner controls which roles see the **Records** group under **Settings → Role Navigation**.

**Permission** decides what you may do inside:

| Action                               | Who by default                  | Permission                       |
| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------- | -------------------------------- |
| Open the ledger and read it          | Records and front-desk staff    | **View all documents**           |
| **Send Consent** / **Send Document** | Records and front-desk staff    | **Share documents with clients** |
| **Resend Document**                  | The same people                 | **Share documents with clients** |
| **Cancel Document**                  | Records staff, owners, managers | **Share documents with clients** |
| Create or edit a template            | Owners and managers             | **Edit note and form templates** |

Enforcement is **opt-in per person** — a colleague never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"** before it starts applying. A **denied action is recorded**; an allowed one is not. Hiding **Documents** from a role is a convenience, not a security boundary.

## Check it worked

* The document is in the ledger against the right patient, at **Pending**.
* When the patient opens it the status becomes **Viewed**; when they sign it becomes **Signed** and the signed copy is on their chart.
* A resent document has a fresh **Sent** time and is no longer **Expired**.
* **Total Documents** on **Overview** counts it for the period you have chosen.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="No active document templates found">
    Nothing can be sent without one. Create a template on the **Templates** tab, make sure it is active, then send again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The patient does not have an email address">
    Documents are delivered by email. Add the address to their record, then send — see [Patient records](/hospital/records/patient-records).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Resend Document is not in the menu">
    It appears only on an **Expired** document. One still **Pending** does not need resending — the original link still works.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I cannot cancel a document">
    **Cancel Document** appears only while a document is **Pending** or **Viewed**. Once it is signed, declined or expired there is nothing left to withdraw.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The patient says they never got the email">
    Ask them to check spam first. If it is genuinely missing, confirm the address on their record, cancel the outstanding document and send a new one. A patient with portal access can also open it from the portal without the email.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The ledger looks empty but I sent documents last month">
    Check the period filter. It defaults to a recent window; set it to **All Time**.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="What is the difference between Create Document and Upload Document?">
    **Create Document** builds one from a template inside the product. **Upload Document** brings in a file you already have and sends that for signature.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Where does a signed copy go?">
    Onto the patient's record, in their files. Nothing needs filing by hand — that is what keeps the **Unfiled** queue on the records desk short.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I send the same document to several patients at once?">
    Not from one action. Documents are sent per patient, because each one carries that patient's own signing link.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How long does a signing link last?">
    Long enough for a reasonable reply, then it expires — and your hospital's expiring-within threshold, set under **Settings → Facility**, decides when the records desk starts flagging it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does a declined document need anything from me?">
    Not in the product. A refusal to sign is a clinical and administrative conversation, not a status to clear — decide with the clinician what happens next.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck />