Co-Editing a Document with an Employee (Beta)

Plan: Not Available: Intermediate, Pro Available: Elite

Users: Not Available: All users Available: FYI Admins or User Group permissions

Practice Management Source: Available: All sources

Co-editing allows you to share a document with an employee so both users can work on the document at the same time.

This feature uses Collaborate and works in a similar way to Client Co-Edit. It is designed for documents that should only be accessible to the employee, along with their Manager, Partner, and authorised users based on employee permissions and management roles.

This feature is currently in beta. Learn more about beta registrations.

Documents Available for Co-Editing

Employee Co-Editing is available with the following documents:

Word
PowerPoint Presentations
Excel spreadsheets

Some features of Excel are only available in the Desktop version. To ensure compatibility, only use Excel features supported in both the online and desktop versions.

Features we don't recommend using:

Linking cells between sheets
Macros
Other controls e.g. buttons

The following documents cannot be shared for Co-Edit:

Already being edited by another user. You must finish editing the document first. Refer to Opening, Editing and Finish Editing Documents.
Locked because it has a workflow Status of "Completed", "Approved", "Pending Client Signature" or "Client Signed". A user with the appropriate workflow Approval Level can first change the workflow status. Refer to Workflow Basics.

If one of these Workflow Statuses is selected when a document is in Co-Editing, the document will be locked and no further changes can be made.
Being Co-Edited Internally. You must finish the internal Co-Edit first. Refer to Finish Co-Editing in Co-Editing an Internal Document.

If the selected documents cannot be shared for Co-Edit with Employee, the setting will be disabled, or the following message will be displayed:

Sharing a Document using Employee Co-Edit

You can share a document with an employee for Co-Editing by sending an email, or using Share No Email and sending a link to the file later.

Note that PDF files cannot be used for Co-Edit.

Share via email

When sharing a file using the Share function with Co-Edit set to On, the following users will be granted edit access to the file:

The employee via their personal email address
FYI Admins
Employees assigned to a User Group with the Employee - Management permission enabled
The employee's Partner
The employee's Manager
Any other email recipient

To share a file with Co-Edit using email:

From the Employee - Documents list, select one or more documents.
Note: Up to 10 documents can be shared at one time.
Click Share in the Toolbar.
The Create Email drawer will be displayed.
The Employee will be automatically selected, and will display their personal email address.
Add any additional Recipients if required.

Additional Recipients must be selected when sharing the document. Once a document is in Co-Edit, it cannot be shared with any other external users. To add more users, you would need to Finish Co-Editing, then re-share it again with all recipients.

Note: Any users with access to the Employee Folder on Collaborate will be able to view the document, but not edit it.
Select the Template to send to your email.
Note: The template must include the {{ DocumentAttachmentLinks }} Merge Field. If the document is accessed using the Merge Fields for the Collaborate Site or Upload Folder, it will open as read-only, and cannot be edited.
Update the Name of the email if required.
Change any filing details for the email, for example, the Year.
Note: The Employees Cabinet will be selected by default and cannot be changed.
Select the Save or Send option to choose whether the email is sent immediately or created as a draft.
Note: If you select Draft in Outlook, ensure that you do not make any changes to the recipients as the link will not be generated for any recipients added to the email in Outlook. Emails saved as "Draft in Outlook" are marked as "Sent" in FYI immediately, and should be managed from Outlook directly from that point onwards. The Workflow Status will be set to "Completed".
Update the Send Attachments field to be Collaborate.
The Include as PDF field must be set to Off.
Set Co-Edit with Employee to On.
Click Create.
The file will be uploaded, and a Status message will be displayed while the permissions are applied.

Share no email

When sharing a file using the Share No Email function with Co-Edit set to On, the following users will be granted edit access to the file:

The employee via their personal email address
FYI Admins
Employees assigned to a User Group with the Employee - Management permission enabled
The employee's Partner
The employee's Manager
Users added to the employee's Sharing Settings window

To share a file with Co-Edit using Share No Email:

In FYI, select one or more documents. Refer also to Selecting Documents in a List in Using the Documents Lists.
Note: Up to 10 documents can be shared at one time.
Click the arrow on the Share button and select No Email.
The Share Document Drawer is displayed.
The Employee will be automatically selected.
From the Send Documents drop-down select Collaborate. Two new options will be displayed - Include as PDF, and Co-Edit with Employee.
Set Include as PDF to Off.
Set Co-Edit with employee to "On".
Click Send.
The file is uploaded to the Employee Collaborate site with the correct permissions applied.
The employee can then access the document directly from the Employee Collaborate site.

Working with Employee Co-Edit Documents

Displaying Documents in Co-Edit

Documents that have been shared with Co-Edit enabled can be identified in the Employee - Documents or Employee - Collaborate list by:

The Co-Edit icon displayed in the right-hand column.
By adding the Edit Status column, and filtering to documents with a status of Employee Co-Edit. Refer to Adding, Removing, and Moving Columns in Lists.

Accessing Employee Co-Edit Documents

Documents shared using Employee Co-Edit can be accessed and edited both externally and internally.

Employees access documents externally via the Collaborate site using their personal email, while internal users, such as the employee’s Manager, Partner, and other authorised users, can access and edit the document directly in FYI.

Editing a Document as an Employee

Employees can edit documents in Co-Edit from the Employee Collaborate site, by logging in with their personal email.

The employee must click the document link in the email, or open the document from the Collaborate site. If a document was enabled for Co-Edit using the Share - No Email process and didn't receive a link, the document can be opened directly on the Employee Collaborate site.

Note: The employee must log in using their personal email address, and not their work practice email.

The document opens directly from the Employee Collaborate site. The employee can make any changes using Office online.

Editing a Document as an Internal User

Documents in Co-Edit with Employee can also be edited by an FYI Admin, or users assigned to a user group with permissions to access to the employee i.e. Employee Management, or Employees - Access and selected as the employee's Manager or Partner.

The document can be opened from the Employee - Documents or Employee - Collaborate lists.

Editing a document in Co-Edit does not lock the file for other users.

Select the document in a list.
Click Co-Edit to open the document for editing in the relevant Office Online product (Word Online, Excel Online or PowerPoint Online).

Note: Edits to documents in Co-Edit will not be displayed in the Home - My Edits tab.

Actions Not Available in FYI

When a document is in Co-Edit with Employee, the following actions are not available:

You cannot delete the document.
You cannot use Save as New Version from the Versions section in the drawer.
Filing details for documents in Co-Edit cannot be updated.

To perform any of these actions, first Finish Employee Co-Editing before retrying.

Document Activity

The documents in Co-Edit with Employee may show initially the user as the Modified By user, or the Saved by user, as the user set up as the admin account for your OneDrive (refer to Link your Practice's OneDrive Admin Account).

When a user edits a document that is in Co-Edit with Employee, the Modified By shows the relevant name. When a user finishes Co-Edit with the employee, this will once again show the Modified By user as the user set up as the account for your OneDrive.

As well as any changes to the filing details, the Activity section in the drawer shows the audit trail of which employee Co-Edited the document and when the Employee Co-Edit started and was finished.

Document Versions

When the document is in Employee Co-Edit, a new version is added to the Versions section in the drawer, and the file name is changed to display the new version number. This automatically creates the audit trail and, if needed, allows you to restore earlier versions. Refer to Version History and Creating a New Document Version.

Adding a version number to the end of the file name ensures that each file is unique, and that correct permissions are applied to ensure only authorised employees and users can access the file. It also avoids any risk of caching issues caused by files sharing the same file name.

The first time the file is created there is no version number. Each time the document is marked "Finish Employee Co-Editing" the number will increase consecutively, for example, 1, 2, 3 and so on.

Note: This version number cannot be modified or removed. Changing the file name manually will impact the ability of employees to access the file.

Finish Employee Co-Editing

Finish Employee Co-Editing can be done for individual documents by the user who initiated the Co-Edit or an FYI Admin.

Select the document from the list.
In the drawer, click Finish Employee Co-Editing.
Click Yes to confirm.

If you need to make the document Co-Edit with Employee again, you will need to re-share it.

Note: If the employee has the document open when you click Finish Employee Co-Editing, you will see a message that the document cannot be synced.