Available to Patriot HR Software
With Patriot HR Software, you can manage and share documents with employees by uploading them as Company-wide Documents, such as a company handbook, or Individual Employee Documents like performance reviews and confidential memos. Documents you share appear to employees in their employee portal. Documents you upload and choose not to share will only be viewable for admins.
💡 Need an employee's signature on a document? You can now request an electronic signature (e-signature) directly from the upload flow described below. See How to Request an Employee E-Signature on a Document for the full signature request, tracking, and audit trail process.
Employees can also upload and share documents within their employee portal. See our help article for Viewing and Managing Documents in the Employee Portal for more information.
💡 You can create a custom Employee Handbook in the HR Center! It's free for customers who subscribe to Patriot HR.
Don't have the HR Software yet? Try it free Settings > Company Settings > Add or Cancel Software.
Adding and Sharing a Companywide Document or Link
Go to Payroll > Human Resources > Employee Documents
Select the Shared Companywide tab
Click + Add Document
Choose how you want to add the document:
Add File or URL — upload a file or link an external website (steps below)
From Template — select a document template you've already created and reuse the template, including any e-signature fields already placed on it
Create New Template — build a new reusable template with the same upload and naming steps below, saved for future use on the Templates tab
💡 Choose Add File or URL with Request E-Signature checked if you need employees to sign the document. See How to Request an Employee E-Signature on a Document for that flow, or How to Create and Manage E-Signature Templates to reuse a document you share often.
If you chose Add File or URL, upload the document:
Drag a file into the upload box or click Choose File to browse for one
Accepted file types: .txt, .doc, .docx, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .pdf, .rtf, .xls, .xlsx, .csv, .tif, .tiff, .pages, .numbers, .odt, .ods (25 MB max)
To link a website instead, choose Website, enter the address, and click Test Link to confirm the link works
Check the box to Request an E-signature, if needed, otherwise leave this unchecked
Enter a friendly Document Name (e.g., "Employee Handbook"). This name will be displayed to your employees.
You will also be able to manage the display of documents on the document list
Enter a Description of the document. This will be shown to employees if shared.
Click Next → continue, or Place Fields → if you checked Request E-Signature. See our help article on how to place signature or date fields on a document.
The display in portal toggle is on by default. If you do not want to share a document, toggle this off.
If the any employees do not have portal access you will see a notification.
The Send email notification is toggled on by default, toggle off if you do not want an email notification being sent to employees.
You can write your own email content or change the email subject line if desired.
The default email reads:
Hi {Name},
{Your Company Name} has shared a document with you. Sign into your portal to review the document.
[Review Document]
Adding Documents to an Individual Employee Record
You can share a document to one or many specific individuals on the Shared Individually tab in the Document Library. Go to Payroll > HR > Document Library.
You could also share to just one employee on their employee record Go to Payroll > Employee List > {Employee Name} > Documents
Click the Shared Individually tab
Click + Add Document
If you are in the Document Library, will Select the employee you want to share the document with. Toggle the Show Inactives to display inactive employees.
Click Continue.
Choose how you want to add the document — Add File or URL, From Template, or Create New Template — the same three options described in the companywide section above. See How to Create and Manage E-Signature Templates for details on the template options.
If you chose Add File or URL, upload the document:
Drag and drop your file into the upload area or click Choose a File to browse your computer
Make sure the document is in an acceptable format (e.g., .pdf, .docx, .jpg)
To link a website instead, choose Website and enter the website address. Click Test Link to make sure the link works. The web page will appear in a new window.
Check the box "Request E-signature" if you want a digital signature of acknowledgement. This box is disabled if the file you upload is not a pdf.
Enter a Document Name (e.g., "Employee Handbook")
Enter an optional description
Click Next → continue, or Place Fields → if you checked Request E-Signature.
If you checked Request E-Signature follow the steps to add a placement of name, date, or initials) to continue
The display in portal is toggled on by default. If you do not want to share a document, toggle this off.
If the any employees do not have portal access you will see a notification.
The Send email notification is toggled on by default, toggle off if you do not want an email notification being sent to employees.
You can write your own email content or change the email subject line if desired.
The default email reads:
Hi {Name},
{Your Company Name} has shared a document with you. Sign into your portal to review the document.
[Review Document]
Click Next → to finish sharing a document to this employee.
Managing Your Document List
You can view all company shared files and files shared to individual employees in either of these places:
Payroll > HR Software > Document Library — view all shared company and files added to employees, as well as if they are displaying in the portal or private files. This is also where the Signature Status tab lives if you've requested any e-signatures, and your Signature Templates live as well.
Payroll > Employee List > Employee Name > Documents — view company and files on the individual employee record.
Your document list will display the document links or files and when each was uploaded. For individual employee documents, the number of documents shown to each employee.
Reorder Documents and Links
You can reorder the document list to appear in a certain order to employees when they view the documents in their portal.
Place your cursor at the left of the row, over the 3 blue dots.
Click and drag the row to another position.
The update will automatically save.
Delete an Employee Document
Click the trashcan icon in the row of the document you want to delete permanently. Keep in mind digitally signed documents cannot be deleted or unshared.
💡 To keep the document as an admin you can simply uncheck the "Display to employee(s)" box.
Confirm the deletion by clicking the "Delete Document" button in the pop-up modal, otherwise, click "Cancel."
This document will no longer appear to the employee through their employee portal or to you as an admin.
Note: You cannot edit an attached document. To make a change, you need to remove the original document and upload the edited document.
⚠️ If a document required an e-signature and at least one employee has already signed it, the trashcan icon is replaced with a lock icon and the document can't be deleted, to protect employees' signed records. See How to Request an Employee E-Signature on a Document for details.
How to View Employee Uploaded Documents
Employees can securely share documents to you through their employee portal. You will receive an email when an employee has shared a document with you.
Go to Payroll > Employee List > {Employee Name} > Documents
Click the Uploaded by Employee link on the right side navigation.
Uploaded documents will be in the Uploaded by {Employee Name} section with the most recent upload on top.
You can sort the documents by date in either ascending or descending order.
You can also search for a document name in the search bar.
To delete a document shared by the employee, click the trashcan icon.
A confirmation message will appear. The document will no longer be visible to you or the employee in their portal.
Click the "Delete Document" button to finalize the action, otherwise, click cancel.
An email will be sent to the employee that the document was deleted.
