docEvault is built around one core loop: you request documents from a contact, they upload them through a secure portal, and you review, approve, and act on what comes in. Everything else in the product exists to support that loop.
The four pieces
Contacts are the people you collect documents from — clients, applicants, vendors. A contact never creates a docEvault account and never sets a password. They reach their documents through a private link instead.
Requests are checklists. A request lists each document you need, and it is addressed to one or more contacts. If you send one request to five contacts, each of them gets their own private copy.
The client portal is what your contact sees. It is a single page scoped to just their request, with no login. They upload, you get notified.
Reminders chase the contact for you on a schedule, by email and — on plans that include it — by text, up to the request's deadline.
What a typical run looks like
- Add the contact, or pick one you have worked with before.
- Create a request, either from scratch or from a saved template.
- Send it. The contact receives an email with their portal link. (On Professional and Enterprise you can schedule it for a later date instead, and nothing reaches them until then.)
- They upload. Each item moves from Requested to Under Review.
- You approve each file, or send it back with a note asking for a better copy.
- When you're satisfied, you mark the request complete. The portal stops taking uploads and the contact is told it's done.
Along the way, docEvault sends the follow-ups so you are not the one emailing someone for the fourth time about a missing bank statement.
Seeing one person's work
The dashboard and every contact's page share a Created By filter. Set it to yourself or any team member and the counts, the request table and the contact's request lists narrow to what that person created. Former or Unknown Member catches requests whose creator has since left the team or that arrived through the API. Everyone is the default, and your choice is remembered in that browser.
What makes it different from email
Every document is encrypted in transit and in storage. Your organization can also turn on end-to-end encryption: it generates its own encryption keypair in the browser, the private key is protected by a passphrase only your organization knows, and docEvault's servers then store documents they cannot read.
Your contact still doesn't have to install anything, create an account, or remember a password. That asymmetry is the point: the security burden sits with the firm, not with the client who just wants to send you a copy of their driver's license.
Beyond collecting
Once a document is in, two more workflows are available on the same file:
- E-signatures — place signature, date, and text fields and send it out for signing.
- Fillable forms — publish a form your contact completes in the browser, no printing or scanning.
Everything in docEvault is scoped to your organization. Documents, contacts, templates, and message sequences are shared across your team once you invite members.