A Collection Link is a private share link that lets other people send files into your account. They open the link, enter a short verification code, and upload — they do not create an account or sign in.

When to use a Collection Link

Use it whenever the files you need are on someone else's device and you would rather not have them email the files back and forth or walk over to your desk. A few common cases:

• You are an accountant and ask each client to send this month's invoices and receipts.
• You run a small team and collect expense receipts, delivery notes, or timesheets from staff.
• You need signed contracts or ID pages from people outside your company, one at a time, over several days.

Everything the sender submits lands in your own Files list, tagged as coming from the Collection Link, and follows the same processing rules as your own uploads.

Creating and sharing the link

Your account has one Collection Link. You turn it on and share it — there is nothing to install on the sender's side.

1. Open the settings. On the dashboard, open the Add via menu next to the upload button and choose Collection link. The same dialog opens from Settings on the Collect Link card in the upload panel, under Or receive via.
2. Turn it on. The Enable Collection switch at the top of the dialog controls whether the link is live. The link, code, and other settings appear once it is on.
3. Copy the link. The Share Link field holds the full URL; the Copy button copies it. Send it however you like — chat, a form, a printed sheet.

While the link is on, the Collect Link card on the dashboard shows it with a Copy button and a status such as On, Auto on, or Needs template. Turn Enable Collection off when you are done collecting; the link then stops accepting submissions and visitors see a page saying the link is no longer active.

What the person you share it with sees

The sender never reaches your dashboard or your files. They get two plain pages.

Step 1 — the verification page

Opening the link shows a page titled Submit to your name with a single Verification Code field and a Continue button. There is no sign-up, no email confirmation, and no password — just the code you share alongside the link. If the code is wrong, the page reports how many attempts are left; after five wrong attempts the code entry is locked for 15 minutes and the button reads Too many attempts.

Step 2 — the upload page

After the correct code is entered, the upload page opens. It shows:

• Your Note for Collectors, if you set one, in a highlighted box at the top.
• An optional Label field the sender can fill in to tag what they are sending; the label is prepended to each filename so you can tell the files apart.
• A drag-and-drop upload area that accepts images, PDFs, Word (.docx), and text (.txt) files, plus a Take Photo button for shooting a document with a phone camera.
• For a PDF, a page picker so the sender can submit only the pages you need.

When the upload finishes, the page confirms files submitted and offers Submit more files so the same person can keep sending. If your collection is holding too many unprocessed files at once, the page tells the sender that the owner needs to process the existing files first.

Making received files process automatically

By default, files that arrive through the link wait for you to start processing, exactly like your own uploads. If you know in advance which template and mode you want, turn on Auto-Process in the Collection Link dialog so each batch of arrivals starts on its own.

1. Switch on Auto-Process in the dialog.
2. Choose a Document Type: To Table to extract columns, or To Word to return the whole page as an editable document.
3. If you chose To Table, pick a Template. This is the column set the sender's files will be read against — see Templates & Columns for how templates and their columns work.

Two things are worth knowing about the setup:

• To Table needs a template. Without one, the app cannot know which columns to extract, so it shows a warning and marks the card Needs template; files still arrive, but they just wait for you to process them. To Word does not need a template, because it returns the whole page rather than specific columns.
• Auto-processing uses credits like any other run. Each received file is charged at your account's credits rate when it is processed. If the account has no credits available, the files stay queued until there are.

Files are not processed the instant one arrives. The app waits about a minute after the last file lands, so a group that comes in together is treated as one run, then starts it automatically. If you delete the template you had selected, the app clears the choice and tells you to pick a new one the next time you open the dialog.

Where the received files arrive

Files submitted through the link join your account like any other upload. They are grouped into a batch alongside the other inbound sources, so a run of submissions can share the most recent batch while it is still unprocessed and has room; once processing starts on that batch, or it fills up, the next submission begins a new batch. See Batches for how batches are grouped and named.

To find them, use the Source filter in the Files panel and choose Collect Link; each such batch also carries a C badge so you can spot it at a glance. The batch capacity and file-size limits that apply are the same as for your own uploads — see Limits & Specs.

Common questions

Does the sender need an account?

No. They need only the link and the verification code. They cannot see your files, your batches, or your results.

How do I stop accepting files?

Turn off Enable Collection in the dialog. The link stops working immediately and visitors see a page saying it is no longer active. Your existing files and batches are untouched.

Can I change the code without sending a new link?

Yes. Use the refresh button next to the Verification Code to generate a new one. The link itself stays the same, and the old code stops working for new attempts — share the new code with anyone who still needs to submit.

What is the note for?

It is optional guidance shown to the sender at the top of the upload page — for example, which documents you are expecting this month. It is set in the Note for Collectors field of the dialog and can be up to 200 characters.