Asking for documents

With a document request you ask many people for the same documents — say all your clients for what their tax return needs. Each person gets a personal link, photographs or sends the documents from a phone or a computer, and you see who sent what and what is still missing.

For the managers of a company where Earlybyte has switched it on (Edit customer → Capabilities → Document requests). Requests and Clients then appear in the sidebar.

Clients: whom you ask

Clients holds the people you ask for documents. They are not mScan users: they never sign in and do not count towards your users. Earlybyte can set a limit (Client quota).

• Add client: first name, last name, email; client number, language and other columns (e.g. Phone) are optional.
• The list shows either Requests (each client's open requests and progress) or Client data (number, language, other columns); search finds names, emails, numbers and other columns, and a click on a column's name sorts by it (again to reverse).
• Clicking a client opens their panel: Documents — every request they are in, with each document asked for, its state and what they sent (click a request to work on it there); Client — their details and other columns, with Save (the pencil opens this tab directly); Requests — each request with how far they got and when they were sent and opened it. Delete client works only for someone in no request.
• Possible duplicates: clients with the same email, or the same name (in any order, without accents), are marked Possible duplicate; the tab Possible duplicates lists only them. Their panel names the look-alike, with two choices:
• Not the same person — two people (a couple sharing an email): the pair is no longer marked.
• Merge… — shows both side by side; wherever they differ, click the value to keep. It also says what happens: the client you opened is kept, the other's requests, documents and links go to them, and the other is deleted from the list. In a request both were in, the two become one — the further state of each document counts — and only one link keeps working. Audited as Clients merged. An import row whose email belongs to two clients is skipped (add the client number, or merge them first), so it never updates the wrong one.
• Import from Excel or CSV: an Excel file (.xlsx, its first sheet) or a CSV file (separated by ; or ,) — drop it anywhere in the import window, or click the drop area to choose one. Download template in the import window gives you one with the right columns and an example row. The first row names the columns: First name, Last name and Email are needed, Language and Client number are optional. Every other column stays with the person and can be used in mails, e.g. {client.Phone}.
• First you see what would happen: Added, Updated, Unchanged, Skipped (with the reason, such as "no email") and which rows were merged. Only Import saves.
• People are recognised by client number, else by email: known ones are updated, new ones added. An import never deletes anything, and an empty cell overwrites nothing.
• Duplicate rows in the file are merged: the first wins, later ones only fill gaps.
• Export to Excel writes the same columns — work on the list in Excel and import it again.

The Requests list sorts by a click on a column's name (request, state, clients complete, last change); a second click reverses the order.

The search field above the list finds a request by name or state.

Creating and sending a request

1. Requests → New request, give it a name ("Steuern 2026").
2. List: the documents you need, e.g. Lohnausweis 2026, with a hint for the person ("from your employer, all pages"). Mandatory off means "optional — only if they have it". The name is also the file's name in the zip.
3. Clients: Add from client list, New client (added to your list too) or Import from Excel or CSV — the people are added to your list and to this request.
4. Settings: Expires — when the links stop taking documents: Never — close it by hand, On a date or After a number of days (from the first send) — and your own words for the mail, with {client.first_name} and other columns. With custom branding (switched on by Earlybyte), the page your clients open shows your company's logo at the top instead of mScan's.
5. Send…: everyone not sent the list yet. Before you send, the window lists who gets a mail and what each one is asked for. The request is then Open.

Each person gets a mail with their personal link, as a button and as a QR code (for the phone, when the mail is read on a computer). The mails and the page behind the link are in the person's language (the Language column of the client list), else in your company's language — see language and appearance.

Who sent what

The Clients tab shows every person in one of three views: Documents (progress, "7 of 9", and what is still missing), Client data (client number, language, other columns) and Link & mails (when the list was first sent, the last mail, when they first opened their link, their last upload). Search above the table finds a person by name, email, number or any other column; a click on a column's name sorts by it. mScan notices the opening when the link's page loads; the mails carry no tracking and nobody learns whether a mail was read. Filter by Missing something, Requested again, Complete, Not opened yet or Nothing sent yet, select people and Send: whoever sent nothing yet gets the whole list, everyone else just what is still missing — what you asked for again first, with your note. The link stays the same. Each row shows when a mail last went out, so nobody is reminded three times in a day.

Clicking a person opens their documents right under their row: each document asked for with its state and the buttons below, and every file they sent — open it, or Download the PDF (straightened when that is done). Click the row again to close it. Open client there opens their panel, in four tabs:

• Documents — each document asked for:
• Note for the client ("page 2 is missing") — the document is asked for again: it counts as missing and comes first on their page with your note; their next upload clears it. Edit note changes the text, Delete note takes it back (the document is Sent again if their file is there, else Missing). Saving a note mails nothing: Send notes (under the opened client) mails them now — their link, the noted documents first with the note, then what else is missing.
• Received on paper and Not applicable — done without a document.
• The documents themselves: open (in the request's dossier), Download the PDF, Move to another document or person, Delete (restorable until removed for good).
• Ask for another document: one for this person only ("Kontoauszug UBS 31.12.").
• Upload for the client: a better copy, or one that came on paper, as a PDF.
• Client — name, email, client number, language and the other columns (e.g. Phone): edit, add or remove them and Save. It is the person's own record, so every request and the client list show the change; their link stays the same.
• Link & mails — their link (with a copy button), when the list was first sent, the last mail, when they opened the link and their last upload. Replace link is for a link sent to a wrong address: the old one stops at once.
• Requests — every request the person is in, with how far they got; click one to open it.

Below the tabs: Send (Send again once they have their link) and Remove from request. Close, the ✕ or Escape closes the panel.

You can add documents later too: they are then missing for everyone and marked New on each person's page. Nothing is sent until you press Send.

The documents: the request's dossier

Each request has its own dossier: one group per person, each document with the document it was sent for (Requested document). There you see, download and share the documents like in any dossier. Download zip gives a folder per person with files named after the document asked for (Muster Anna/Lohnausweis 2026.pdf, a second copy Lohnausweis 2026 2.pdf) and, if ticked, an Overview.xlsx — who sent what, when.

Request documents do not appear under Documents and go through no pipeline: mScan reads nothing from them. Photos are only cropped and straightened — by Earlybyte's own software on its own servers, with no other company's AI. If a photo is badly cropped, open the document and use Crop by hand (as on any document, see Documents); the photo is then cut where you say — with no model at all — and straightened again, and your crop is kept. Request documents are never copied for training, whatever your company agreed otherwise.

Closing, copying, deleting

• Close — the links take nothing more; the overview and documents stay. Reopen opens it again (with a new last day if the old one has passed). With On a date or After a number of days mScan closes it by itself.
• Copy — a new draft with the same list, people, deadline (a past date moved on by a year) and text. Not copied: documents, states and links; documents asked of single people only if you tick it.
• Export progress — the people with their progress and each document's state, as Excel.
• Export to Excel (on the Clients tab) — this request's people in the same format the import reads: add or change columns (a phone number, a client number), then Import from Excel or CSV — the people are updated, not added twice.
• Delete — deletes the request, its dossier and its documents (the documents stay restorable for your retention period). Deleting the request's dossier means the same.

What the people see is under Sending documents.