Documents

Cora PPM End-User Guide

A working guide to the Documents feature in Cora PPM — what it is, why teams rely on it, how manufacture-to-order, pharma, capital projects, and government-contracting customers typically configure it, and step-by-step instructions for everyday use.

1. What is Documents?

Documents isn't one screen — it's a repository capability that shows up everywhere a project needs supporting files. The same document engine appears in several places, and it behaves identically wherever you meet it — same categories, same check-out rules, same custom fields:

• Project Documents — the main tab on a project, for anything tied to that specific project.

• Company Documents — an organisation-wide area for files not tied to any one project, such as templates or standard specifications reused across many jobs.

• Task Documents — a lighter document list inside a task on the Task Manager / Gantt.

• Linked-Entity Documents — Risks, Issues, Cost Book Estimations, Cost Book Budgets, Custom Registers, and Benefit records each carry their own attached documents, filtered inline from the same repository.

At its core, Documents lets you upload a file or link to one already stored elsewhere, file it under a category, describe it with whatever custom fields your organisation has defined, and — where a project type requires it — lock it while someone edits it so two people can't overwrite each other's work.

2. Why Does a Customer Use It?

• One File, Many Owners: A document uploaded once to a project can be linked — not copied — onto a Risk, an Issue, a Task, a Register entry, or a Benefit. Everyone points at the same file, so there's only ever one version to go stale.

• Version Control Without the Chaos: Where check-out is switched on, checking a document out stops anyone else changing it until it's checked back in. The version number increments automatically and the swap is written to project history.

• Governance That Runs Itself: Every upload is scanned for viruses before it's usable, zip archives can be checked for disallowed file types hidden inside them, and an administrator can hand a document off to an external records system (EDRMS) for formal retention.

• Speaks Your Industry's Language: Categories and custom Document Fields are configured by your own administrator, so a document can carry a Drawing Number, a CLIN, a Batch ID — whatever term your business actually uses — without waiting on custom development.

3. Common Use Cases by Project Type

Documents ships as a set of general-purpose building blocks — categories, custom fields, check-out, PDF markup, and the EDRMS hand-off. Below is how each of these project types typically arranges those blocks. None of this is a pre-built template inside Cora PPM — your administrator sets it up using the configuration screens covered later in this guide.

Manufacture-to-Order (MTO) ?

• Categories for Engineering Drawings, Bill of Materials, Customer Purchase Orders, Test/Inspection Certificates, and Shipping Documents.

• Check-out switched on for drawings and BOM revisions, so a design change mid-build can't be overwritten by a second edit.

• Custom fields such as Drawing Number, Revision Class, and Work Order Reference.

• The approved drawing is linked directly onto the shop-floor Task it's being built against, instead of a second copy floating around.

• Document Markup used to redline a drawing PDF during design review.

Pharma & Life Sciences ?

• Categories for Protocols, Batch Records, SOPs, Validation/Qualification evidence (IQ/OQ/PQ), and Regulatory Submissions.

• Check-out switched on broadly — controlled documents, one editor at a time.

• Custom fields such as GxP Classification, Effective Date, and Study/Protocol ID.

• Controlled copies handed off to an EDRMS for validated, retention-governed storage outside Cora PPM.

Capital Projects ?️

• Categories for Design Basis, Permits & Approvals, Contractor Submittals, Cost Estimate Backup, and Progress Photos.

• Custom fields such as Discipline, Submittal Number, and Contract Package.

• Backup documents linked directly onto the Cost Book Estimation or Budget line they support, so the evidence travels with the number.

• Standard specifications and drawing templates held in Company Documents and reused across every capital project.

Government Contracting (GovCon) ?️

• Categories for the Contract & its Modifications, CDRLs, Compliance/Audit Evidence, and Past Performance.

• Custom fields such as CLIN, Deliverable Due Date, and Classification/Distribution Statement.

• Check-out on, plus an EDRMS hand-off where the contracting agency requires records to live in a specific system of record.

• The zip-content extension check is worth confirming with your security office — GovCon environments often mandate file-type allow-lists on inbound attachments.

4. Acronyms Used on This Page

Terms shown as code below are literal Cora PPM interface or configuration values. Others are industry terms customers commonly map into a category or custom field — Cora PPM has no built-in knowledge of them.

5. Step-by-Step Guide

Every walkthrough below applies wherever you find a Documents list — Project, Company, or Task — unless a step says otherwise.

Reading the Screen

The left-hand pane lists categories, each showing how many documents it holds. The Hide Empty Categories / Show Empty Categories button trims the tree down to categories that actually contain something. The right-hand grid lists the documents in whatever you've selected, with columns for file type, category, check-out status, name, version, a Properties link, who added it and when, file size, and (for PDFs) markup.

Uploading a New Document

1. Click the category you want the document filed under in the left-hand tree, then click Add above the grid.

2. Stay on the Upload Files tab. Drag your file onto the drop zone, or use the file picker — you can select more than one file at once.

3. Save. The file is uploaded, virus-scanned, and appears in the grid under the category you chose.

Adding a Hyperlink Instead of a File

1. Click Add, then switch to the Link to Document tab.

2. Set Type to HyperLink. Enter a Name and a Link — the link must start with http:// or https://.

3. Save. The link appears in the grid like any other row, minus a file size — clicking the name opens it in a new tab.

Linking an Existing Document Onto Another Record

Use this instead of uploading a second copy when the same file also belongs on a Risk, Issue, Task, Register entry, or Benefit.

1. Open the target record and click Add on its Documents section.

2. Switch to Link to Document, set Type to Project Document. The existing project document list appears with a Link Document checkbox column.

3. Tick the document(s) you want and Save. The record now shows the document without a second file having been stored anywhere.

Editing a Document's Properties

1. Click Properties on the document's row (shows as View instead if you only have read access).

2. Update Name, Link, Category, or "Available for Markup", plus any custom fields your administrator has added.

3. Save.

Checking a Document Out and Back In

1. Click Check Out before you start editing your local copy. The row now reads Check In for you, and Checked Out (with your name in a tooltip) for everyone else — they can't check it out or delete it while you hold it.

2. When you're done, click Check In. Upload the revised file — keep the same file name. If you check in without choosing a new file, you'll be asked to confirm that's intentional.

3. Save. The version number increments by one and the check-out/check-in is recorded in project history.

Marking Up a PDF

1. Click the Markup icon on a PDF row (shows as a view-only eye icon if the document is checked out by someone else, or if you only have view rights).

2. Add your annotations and save. The icon changes to show the document now carries markup, so reviewers can tell at a glance which files have comments on them.

Renaming, Exporting, and Deleting

• Rename — open the rename option from the document's row, update the Document Name and, if needed, its Category. The file extension can't be changed.

• Export the List — use Export to Excel on the grid toolbar to get the current document list as a spreadsheet.

• Delete — click the delete icon on the row. It's disabled — with a tooltip explaining why — if the document is currently checked out or currently linked to another record; resolve that first.

6. For Administrators

7. FAQ