Follow a document
Copy for AI
Follow a document when you want to know what happens to it without checking it every day. Updates arrive in your message centre.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”The Follow button is on the Activities tab of an opportunity, quotation or invoice you can see. An account, contact or lead has no document events to follow. Your role needs View and post on the Activities row to change your choice; with View the tab only shows it.
Whoever owns a record follows it without doing anything, and that includes credit notes, receipts and refunds. You can keep that, or mute the record.
- Open the record and select its Activities tab.
- Find the button above the timeline. It reads Follow if you do not follow the record, Following if you do, and Muted if you have muted it.
- Select it and choose Follow this record.
- To stop the updates, select the button again and choose Mute this record.
- To go back to the usual rule, choose Stop following; the owner’s entry reads Default (you own it: following).
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”While you follow a record, you get an update under Updates in the message centre, such as “INV-10000318: payment recorded”, when something happens to it. These are the events: created, issued, accepted or rejected (a quotation), marked as sent, transferred, cancelled, voided, stage changed (an opportunity), payment recorded or removed, credit applied or taken back, prompt-payment discount taken, written off or write-off undone, bad debt written off, reversed or recovered, and balance changed. Updates about the same record are gathered together.
Your notification settings decide whether they are emailed. Unless you change them, only the Normal ones are — money moving on a document, or a void — as a digest; the others stay in the message centre.
Rules to know
Section titled “Rules to know”- Following changes nothing on the document and nothing for anyone else.
- You are told only about what happens after you follow.
- You are not told about changes you make yourself.
- Muting stops these document updates for that record, even if you own it. It does not stop mentions, assignments or replies on an activity, which still reach you.
- When a record is transferred, its new owner follows it from then on; the previous owner stops getting its updates unless they chose Follow this record.
- You stop getting updates on a document you can no longer see.
Why it works this way
Section titled “Why it works this way”The owner follows automatically. The person responsible for a deal or an invoice hears when money moves on it without setting anything up, so a payment, a removed payment or a void never goes unnoticed by the one who answers for it.
Following gives no access. It is a personal choice about what reaches your message centre. It does not let you see a record your role does not allow, and if you lose access, the updates stop, so a notification never carries a customer’s details to the wrong person.
Only what happens next. Following an old invoice does not fill your list with its history. The history is on the record’s Activities tab, where you can read it in order.
Muting is per record. You can quiet one busy document without switching document events off for every record you own.
Work faster
Section titled “Work faster”- Follow from where you are. The button is on the Activities tab, so you can follow a quotation while you send it.
- Get payments by email straight away. Set Document events under Normal to E-mail now in Notification settings.
- Filter your updates to documents. Choose Document events in the Type filter of Updates to see only document news; see Message centre.
- See every unpaid invoice at once. For the whole picture rather than one invoice, use Overdue and unpaid.
- Chase on time. Pair your updates with a reminder schedule from Get paid faster.
Examples
Section titled “Examples”Priya Nair looks after receivables at Lim & Co. Marcus Tan has created draft invoice PF-10000052 for Harbour Café. Priya opens it, selects Follow on its Activities tab and chooses Follow this record. She gets an update when Marcus issues it as INV-10000318, and another when the café’s payment is recorded and the invoice is paid. She archives the last update, and mutes the invoice so a later change does not reach her.
Muting an invoice you own. Daniel Lim owns INV-10000330 for Harbour Café: SGD 6,000.00 plus GST 9% of SGD 540.00, SGD 6,540.00 in all. The café pays it in three monthly instalments of SGD 2,180.00, because 3 × 2,180.00 = 6,540.00. Priya records each instalment, and Daniel does not need three updates, so he selects Following and chooses Mute this record. If Priya mentions him on the invoice, the mention still reaches him.
Common questions
Section titled “Common questions”- Do I have to follow my own invoices? No. The owner of a record follows it automatically. To stop the updates for one record, mute it.
- Does following an invoice notify the customer? No. Following changes nothing on the document and sends nothing to anyone else.
- Why did I not get an update when I recorded a payment? You are not told about changes you make yourself; the update goes to the record’s owner and its other followers.
- Can I follow an account or a contact? No. They have no document events. Follow the account’s opportunities, quotations or invoices instead.
- Why don’t I see earlier payments in my updates? You are told only about what happens after you follow. Earlier events are on the record’s Activities tab.
- How do I stop emails about documents but keep the updates? Set the Document events row to In-app only in Notification settings.