CRM Files
Every document for a client in one place, on your own computer - copies PrimeTask keeps, links to originals that stay where they are, or web links, on contacts, companies, deals and activities, with a Files page to manage them all.
For a solicitor, a clinic, an adviser or an accountant, the client file is the job: every engagement letter, signed contract, scan and record for one client, findable in seconds. PrimeCRM keeps that file on the records it belongs to. A file can sit on a contact, a company, a deal or an activity, and the same file can belong to several of them at once while being stored once.
You choose how each file is kept. A copy is held by PrimeTask, so it syncs and is backed up with the rest of your Space. A link points at the original, which stays exactly where it is on your computer: nothing is copied, uploaded or moved. A web link keeps an address, for a document on a shared drive, an online form or a video, so not everything for a client has to be on a disk. Either way, the CRM Files page lists everything with who it belongs to, and lets you search, filter, attach, export and tidy.
CRM Files is part of the Pro tier, with the rest of PrimeCRM. To use it, upgrade from License Settings.
Nothing leaves your computer unless you say so
A linked original is never copied, synced or backed up by PrimeTask. A copy travels only where your Space travels: to your other computers over File Sync or iCloud Sync, and into the backups you make. There is no PrimeTask cloud in between.
What you can do
Add a copy or link to the original
on any contact, company, deal or activity, one file or many at once
Give one file several homes
an engagement letter on the client company, the partner contact and the matter, stored once
Drop files in now and attach them later
a file that belongs to nobody yet waits in Unfiled until you attach it
Take files from your File Inbox
link or attach what arrives in your File Inbox folder, straight onto a client
Label files with your own words
Court, Invoices, ID - and they read as folders under each client
Keep a web link like a file
a document on a shared drive, an online form, a video - dropped or pasted in, attached to a client, opened from the list
Drop the same folder twice without a second copy
PrimeTask says which files are already here and asks what to do
See the whole client file
for a company or contact, including files on its deals, activities, related tasks and timeline notes
Find anything
from the CRM Files page by name, note, kind, who it belongs to, when it was added and where it is kept
Preview, open and reveal
a file without leaving PrimeTask
Export a client file
as one zip with an index of everything in it
Keep links working on every computer
re-link one file, or a whole folder at once
Turn a link into a copy
when a linked file should travel with the Space after all
Take files with a project
when you copy it to another Space
Let your AI agent list a client's files
and read their details, never their contents
How to open CRM Files
- On a record: open a contact or company and scroll to its Files card. Open a deal and find Files among its sections. Open an activity and its page has Files too, and so does its window when you edit it. See Activity Page
- From an activity's file count: on the Activities page, and on a contact's or company's page, an activity with files shows how many it has. Click the count to open the activity at its files
- In a project's CRM tab: the Files tab in Table view, or the Files section in Cards view, lists the files on the project's contacts, companies and activities. Open CRM Files in Table view, or View All in Cards view, opens the CRM Files page
- The CRM Files page: open PrimeCRM and click Open Files on the CRM Files card. Every Files card on a contact or company page also has See all, which opens the page already narrowed to that record
- Search: search for a file by name from anywhere and open it from the results. It opens on the CRM Files page with its details showing
- Automation: Apple Shortcuts and other tools can open the CRM Files page, inside a project or narrowed to one record, through a deep link. See Apple Shortcuts & Deep Links
- Through your AI agent: see CRM & MCP
Adding files
A copy or a link
Every place you can add a file offers the same two choices:
- Add a copy - PrimeTask keeps its own copy of the file. It syncs to your other computers with the Space and is included in backups. Copies can be up to 100 MB each. Files your File Inbox has copied in can be attached at any size up to its Largest file setting
- Link to original - the file stays in its folder and uses no extra space. PrimeTask remembers where it is and opens it from there. It is never copied, synced or backed up by PrimeTask, and each computer links it once
Click Add files on a Files card or on the CRM Files page, pick the files, and choose which. On the CRM Files page you can also choose who the files belong to as you add them, or nobody yet.
To file onto an activity, choose Activities when you pick who a file belongs to. Choose a client and it lists all of that client's activities, newest first, and for a contact you can include their company's activities too. Narrow the list by type and date, or search it. Without a client it shows your 50 newest activities from the last 30 days.
When to link and when to copy
Link when a firm already keeps its documents in one place, such as a shared drive, and that place should stay the single copy. Copy when you want the file to travel with your Space, to your other computers and into backups, or when the original might move.
From your File Inbox
Emails, scans and downloads that arrive in your File Inbox can go straight onto a client. On a record's Files card, click Add files, then From your File Inbox. On the CRM Files page, click File Inbox. Then, for each file:
- Link adds it to the record without copying it. The file stays in your File Inbox, which shows what it is linked to, and you can link it to more records
- Attach adds a copy kept in the Space, and the file leaves your File Inbox
On the CRM Files page with no record chosen, both ask who the file belongs to. Dragging a file from your File Inbox onto a record in the record list, or onto Unfiled, attaches it.
A file linked from your File Inbox opens from your File Inbox on this computer, and keeps working when your File Inbox's files move to another folder or drive. Removing it from its records, or deleting it here, removes only the link: the file stays in your File Inbox.
Web links
Not every document for a client is on a disk. A contract in a shared online drive, a client's intake form, a recorded call, a video: keep the address, and it sits in the list like any other file, on the records it belongs to, with a name, a note and labels.
- On a Files card: click Add files and choose Add a web link, then type or paste the address
- On the CRM Files page: click Add files and choose Web link, or simply paste an address onto the page, or drag a link from a web page onto it. PrimeTask suggests a name from the address, which you can change
- Opening: a web link opens outside PrimeTask, in the app your computer uses for web pages, the way any other file opens in its own app. A link to a YouTube video plays inside PrimeTask instead
A web link is the same on every computer, so it never needs re-linking, and it is never "not found": if the page behind it goes away, that shows when you open it. The same address added twice is not kept twice: PrimeTask attaches the one already here to the records you chose instead.
Drag and drop
Drop files from Finder or Explorer onto a Files card, onto the CRM Files page, or onto a record in the page's record list. A plain drop adds copies. Hold Command and Option (on Windows, Ctrl and Alt) while dropping to link the originals instead. On the CRM Files page a drop also offers Add copies and Link originals as two targets, so you can choose as you let go.
Whole folders drop too. Every file inside a dropped folder is added, however deeply it is nested, and hidden files are left out. The folder's own name and each subfolder become the file's labels, so a client's folders arrive as folders: drop Smith holding Court/Filing.pdf, and the filing carries Smith and Court. A drop takes up to 2,000 files at once, so a folder dropped by mistake stops with a message rather than adding a whole drive.
Dropping onto a record attaches the files to that record. Dropping onto the page while All files or Unfiled is chosen asks who the files belong to first, so a batch does not land in a pile: choose one or several records, or nobody yet, and they go to Unfiled. After any drop, the files that just arrived are selected and the list moves to where they are, so attaching, labelling or moving them all is one step.
Dropped twice
Drop a folder you already dropped last week, and PrimeTask notices. Before anything lands it says which files are already here, found by where they are linked from on any computer, or by name and size, and asks what to do: skip them, attach the ones already here to the records you chose, so one file gains a home instead of a twin, or add them again. A drop straight onto a client's Files card decides for itself: a file already on that record is skipped, and one kept elsewhere is attached to the record.
Unfiled
A file that belongs to no record yet lives in Unfiled. That is deliberate: you can drop a batch of scans in now and attach them when you get a moment. Unfiled files are ordinary files in every other way, and PrimeTask never deletes a file just because it has nothing to belong to.
Only Delete deletes
Removing a file from its last record moves it to Unfiled. Deleting the contact, company, deal or activity it was on does the same. The file, and its copy if it has one, stays until you delete it yourself.
The CRM Files page
The page is a file manager for your CRM. The record list groups every file by what it is attached to, with All files, Unfiled, Recent (added in the last 30 days) and Needs attention (files this computer cannot open yet) above the contacts, companies, deals and activities. Choose one and the table shows its files. The record list can be folded away when you want the room.
Finding files
- Search matches names, notes, labels and web addresses. It also understands a few shorthands:
type:pdffor a kind,is:linked,is:copyoris:webfor how a file is kept,added:monthfor when,on:missingfor files not found on this computer,owner:acmefor who it belongs to, andlabel:courtfor a label - Filters narrow by kind, by what a file belongs to, by label, by date added, by how it is kept and by whether it is on this computer. Clear all puts everything back
- Group the table by record, label, file type or month. Each group shows its own count and totals
- Sort by newest, oldest, modified, name, size or kind, or click any heading in the table
Search and filters are for the moment and clear when you leave. Table or cards, the sort, the folded record list, the details you show and the totals you choose are remembered.
The whole client file
Choose a company or a contact in the record list, then switch on Include related in Filters. For a company that adds files on its contacts, its deals and the activities linked to any of them. For a contact it adds files on their deals and activities. Attachments on related CRM tasks and on deal timeline notes are listed too, and open the task or note they belong to.
Labels: the folders inside a client file
A client file is never one pile. It is correspondence, the court bundle, ID, invoices. Give each file the words that say what it is, and those words become the folders. Click a file's labels in the table, or Add label on its details, then tick the labels already in use or type a new one. Tick several files first and choose Labels to label them all at once. A file can carry several, so a signed contract sits under Contracts and 2026 at once, and a file needs no label at all.
Choose a record in the record list and its labels appear beneath it, one folder each with its count; choose one to see just those files. The Labels section above the records does the same across everyone, and Manage beside it renames a label on every file that carries it, or removes it from all of them. Right-click any label for the same choices. Group the table by label to see every folder at once, tick labels in Filters, or type label:court in the search. There is nothing to create first and nothing to move a file into, and a label you stop using simply stops appearing. Labels travel with the file: they sync, they come along when a project is copied to another Space, they have their own place in the export index, and your AI agent reads them.
Working with files
Click a file to see its details beside the table: what it is, when it was added and last changed, where it is kept, which computers hold a link, and everything it is attached to. From there you can rename it, add a note, change its labels, attach it to more records or remove it from one. The table edits in place too: click a file's labels to change them, and click what it is attached to to change that, without opening anything else. Double-click a file, or press Enter, to open it with the app your computer uses for that kind of file. Right-click a file for Open, Show in folder, Details, Labels, Attach to, Move to, Remove from, Move to Unfiled and Delete.
Tick several files, or hold Command (on Windows, Ctrl) while clicking, and the same actions apply to all of them at once. Drag files onto a record in the record list to attach them, or onto Unfiled to detach them from everything. Attach to adds a record, Move to replaces every record, and Remove from takes one away.
Choose which details the table shows with Columns, drag the edge of a heading to make it wider or narrower, and click the calculation under any heading to change it, so the table can total sizes or count what you are looking at. Cards shows the same files as pictures, which suits scans and photos.
The keyboard works like a file manager
the arrow keys move between files, Enter opens, Delete asks to delete what is selected, and Command + A (on Windows, Ctrl + A) selects everything shown.
Previews
Images, PDFs, videos and audio preview inside PrimeTask from a record's Files card and from a file's details, and a web link to a YouTube video plays there too. Choose Picture in picture on a video or a recording to move it to PrimeTask's floating player: it carries on from where you were, with the full controls, and keeps playing while you work anywhere else in the app. Everything else opens with the app your computer uses for it. See Media Player.
On a contact's, company's, opportunity's or activity's page, click a file to preview it in the same small window your File Inbox uses, which you can move anywhere. Step through that record's files with the arrow keys, open its pictures full size, and click the file again to close the preview. Rest your mouse on a file's icon for a quick look without opening anything. In the activity window, files preview inside its Files block.
An email's files are its attachments. On the email's page they show under the message, and its Attachments line counts them. The Email Tracker counts each email's files too.
Linked files and other computers
A link is remembered per computer. When you link a file on one computer, your other computers see the file in every list, with its name, kind, size, dates and everything it belongs to, marked as linked on that computer. To open it there too, choose Link on this computer and pick the file. Each computer's link is its own: linking on one never changes another.
If a file has moved or been deleted, it shows as not found at its last location, with Find the file again to point PrimeTask at it. Needs attention in the record list collects every file in either state.
Re-link a whole folder
When a firm's files live on a shared drive, one computer may know the folder by one path and another computer by a different one. Rather than re-linking a hundred files by hand, choose Re-link a folder from Needs attention, or from a file's menu, and pick the folder on this computer that holds them. PrimeTask looks for every file inside it and links each one it finds, and tells you how many it could not.
Turn a link into a copy
When a linked file should travel with the Space after all, right-click it on the CRM Files page, or open its menu on a Files card, and choose Make a copy in this Space. On the CRM Files page you can select several files and copy them all at once. The copy syncs with the Space like any other copy, keeps the records and labels the file had, and the original stays where it is. A big file shows its progress while it copies, with Cancel.
You can make a copy of a file you linked on this computer, while its original is here. A file stays a link, and PrimeTask says why, when it is over the size limit for a copy (100 MB, or your File Inbox's Largest file for a file in your File Inbox folder), changes while it is being copied, isn't where its link says, or can't keep its "downloaded from the internet" mark.
A link opens only what you chose
PrimeTask opens a linked file on a computer only where you picked it, dropped it or chose its folder on that computer. A location that arrives from another computer through sync is never opened on its own. This is what keeps a shared Space from opening files on your computer that you never chose.
Exporting a client file
Choose a client, or Unfiled, on the CRM Files page and click Export, or tick the files you want and click Export above them. PrimeTask asks where to save one zip. It holds every copy and every linked original that is on this computer, plus an index listing every file, what it belongs to, when it was added and, for anything left out, why. Files that are still syncing, linked on another computer or not found on this one are listed in the index rather than dropped without a word, and a web link is listed with its address.
Copying a project to another Space
When a project keeps its own CRM and you copy that project to another Space, its files come along: copies are copied, links stay links, and every file keeps the records it belongs to that also exist in the other Space. A file whose records are not there is left out, and the result names each one with the reason, so nothing goes missing quietly. The original project and its files are never changed. See Projects Overview for copying a project.
Sync, backups and deletion
| A copy | A link | A web link | |
|---|---|---|---|
| File Sync | The file travels with the Space to your other computers, and to collaborators in a shared Space | Only the entry travels. The original never moves, and each computer links it once | The address travels, and opens on every computer |
| iCloud Sync | The file travels to your other Macs. Until it arrives, the file shows as still syncing | Only the entry travels | The address travels |
| Backups | Included when a backup includes attachments. See Data Management | Only the entry. PrimeTask never backs up the original | The address |
| Delete | The copy is deleted from the Space, everywhere it has synced | The link is removed. The original is never touched | The link is removed. Nothing on the web changes |
A copy syncs as you added it. If you edit a copy afterwards, don't count on the change reaching your other computers: they can keep the version you added, and in a shared Space another computer's copy can replace your edit. To share a new version, add it again. File Sync and iCloud Sync explain how a Space travels.
Deleting asks first and cannot be undone. Removing a file from a record never deletes anything, and on a record's Files card it offers Undo.
Deleting a project deletes its files
A project that keeps its own CRM keeps its own files. Deleting the project deletes them with it, copies and links alike. Deleting a contact, company, deal or activity does not: their files move to Unfiled.
Shared and project files
Files follow the same rule as the rest of PrimeCRM. Your shared CRM has its files, and a project that keeps its own CRM has its own, separate ones. A file added while you are inside such a project belongs to that project, even when it is attached to a shared contact who is linked to the project. With auto-sync on, the project view also lists the shared files of the shared records linked to it, so the picture is complete. See Shared vs Isolated CRM.
Your AI agent
Through PrimeTask's MCP server, your AI agent can list a client's files and read a file's details: its name, note, whether it is a copy, a link or a web link, a web link's address, its size and dates, what it belongs to, and which computers hold a link. It never receives a file's contents. See CRM & MCP.
Common questions
"Where does a copy actually live?"
With the rest of your Space, on your computer. It syncs and is backed up exactly as your tasks and contacts are, and nowhere else.
"I linked a file on my Mac. Why can't my other Mac open it?"
Because a link is made per computer. The file is listed there with everything about it, marked as linked on your first Mac. Choose Link on this computer and pick it, or use Re-link a folder for many at once. If the file should be on every computer, use Make a copy in this Space on the Mac that linked it.
"I removed a file from a contact and now it is gone from their page. Is it deleted?"
No. It moved to Unfiled on the CRM Files page, where you can attach it again or delete it on purpose. The message that appears when you remove it from a record's Files card also offers Undo.
"Can one file belong to a company and a contact at the same time?"
Yes, and to a deal and an activity too. It is stored once and appears on every record it belongs to. Removing it from one record leaves it on the others.
"Does exporting need a particular license?"
No. Anyone who can see the files can export them.
"Can I keep a document that lives in an online drive?"
Yes. Add it as a web link, or paste or drag its address onto the CRM Files page, and it sits on the client like any other file. PrimeTask keeps only the address, so the document stays where it is and opens from there.
Where to go next
| If you want to… | Read this |
|---|---|
| Bring emails and scans in through one folder | File Inbox |
| See files on a contact's page | Contact Details |
| See files on a company's page | Company Details |
| Keep documents on a sale | Opportunities |
| Attach files to a call, email or meeting | Activity Page |
| See the files on a project's clients | CRM & Projects |
| Keep a project's files apart from your shared CRM | Shared vs Isolated CRM |
| Understand how a Space syncs and travels | CRM & Spaces |
| Let your AI agent read a client's files | CRM & MCP |
| Export contacts and companies themselves | CRM Import & Export |
| Attach files to tasks instead | Task Attachments |
| Back up your Space | Data Management |
| Return to the CRM hub | PrimeCRM Overview |