Vaults
Who sees what, with three rights instead of a table.
In nexpaper every document lies in a vault. Everybody has one of their own that, at first, only they can see, and for everything that belongs to several people there are shared ones. Who may read, edit or manage in a vault is set with one click. Beyond that, single documents go to people, or by link to people without an account.
Everybody has a vault of their own
It comes into being with the account and is called “My vault”. Lena files her tax papers and doctor's bills there, Tom his, and Greta, Lena's mother, has one of her own with her account. Nobody else sees what is in it unless the person shares it. Not even the operator who set up the instance.
Always the manager
In their own vault a person automatically has the right “Manage”. They can share it with whom they like, and take any right away again.
At first only for you
A new vault is quiet at first. What lies in it does not turn up in anybody else's archive, in the search or in a number.
Your uploads go here
Out of the box everything you upload lands in your own vault. Under “My account”, “Upload” you choose another vault as the target, and rules may move it afterwards.
Shared vaults for everything that belongs to several people
Household, car, holiday flat, a small business: for these the operator creates a vault under “Vaults” with “Create a shared vault”, gives it a name and an icon and hands out the rights. In the example the first one is called “Home”.
Lena, Tom and Greta in the vault “Home”
Lena manages “Home”. Tom may edit, so he uploads, files and changes fields. Greta may only read. She sees the insurance policy and the tenancy agreement but cannot change anything. Each person sees in the list which right they have in which vault.
- Icons: person, house, car, sun, folder or briefcase. The icon helps in the list, nothing more.
- Members: up to 500 per vault, and up to 200 vaults per server.
- Leaving: A member can leave a shared vault on their own. Whoever manages it can delete it, and the documents then go to another vault.
Read, Edit, Manage
There are no more levels, and that is on purpose. Each builds on the one before, and a vault always has at least one person who manages it.
| Right | What the person may do |
|---|---|
| Read | Look, search and download. Also write notes on documents. |
| Edit | Also upload, file, change fields, edit pages, move and put into the trash. |
| Manage | Also share, give rights, make rules, organise and delete the vault. |
The rights are checked on the server with every request, in the query itself. What someone may not see answers as if it did not exist. Even the numbers in filters and in the search reveal nothing about vaults someone does not see.
Every vault has an inbox of its own
New things wait in the vault they belong to. The inbox shows you the inboxes of all vaults in which you may file, with the vault and the sender of the file beside each entry. Whoever may only read in a vault does not see its inbox.
In a shared vault everyone who may edit sees the same. When Tom files a letter, it is filed for Lena too.
Rules belong to the vault as well. Whoever manages it makes them, for instance “Everything from Wiesental Energy is an invoice”. A rule, however, puts a document only into a vault in which the uploading person may file, and never into somebody else's personal vault.
Handing on a single document
Sometimes somebody should see just one letter and not the whole vault. Then you share the single document.
With a person here
On the document you choose “Share”, then “With people here” and a person. As the right you give “Read” or “Edit”, never “Manage”. Whoever owns the document or manages the vault may do this. For the other person it appears under “Shared with you one by one”, without them seeing the vault, and “Stop sharing” takes it away again.
On the “Vaults” page you see at a glance what is shared with you one by one and which links to the outside are still open.
A link for the tax adviser that expires by itself
For people without an account, such as the tax adviser, the insurer or the landlady, there is a link. It shows only this one document, cannot be guessed and can be withdrawn at any time.
How you make one
- Open the document and choose “Share”
There you find the area “By link to the outside”.
- Fill in “For whom”
For instance “Tax office”. The entry is your reminder of whom the link belongs to.
- Choose “Valid until”
At most as long as the operator allows. The operator sets 7, 14, 30 or 90 days, and out of the box it is 30.
- Tick “Allow downloading” or not
Without the tick the document can only be looked at.
- “Create link”
The link is copied. You send it on by mail or message.
What the recipient sees
The page says who shared, and shows the title, the sender, the pages as pictures and the date until which the link is valid. “Download” and “View in the browser” appear only with permission; otherwise it says “Shared for viewing only, without downloading.” A sentence explains that the person who shared sees when the link was opened.
A link that no longer works says only that. It does not reveal whether it ran out, was revoked or never existed.
What you see and what ends it
The link shows until when it is valid and how often it was opened. The opening is also noted in the document's history, at most once every ten minutes per link. “Revoke” ends it at once. It also ends by itself when the document lies in the trash or when the person who made it may no longer share. Up to 20 links per document are possible.
Good to knowThe operator has a latch for this. Under “Settings”, “Sharing” they can switch off “Allow links to the outside”, and all existing links stop working at once. They also see how many are open right now. A link leads to your server and works only for people who can reach it. If you run nexpaper in your own network only, you had better send the tax adviser the downloaded ZIP.
A ZIP instead of many links
If the tax adviser should get a whole year rather than one document, an export is the better way. In the archive you choose “Export”, the period and the vaults, and nexpaper packs a ZIP. If you like, you release it as a link that the tax adviser opens without an account.
Only what you may really see
An export contains only documents from vaults that you may see yourself. If your access to one of them ends, the link ends too. The ZIP holds the searchable PDFs, if you like the originals and the e-invoices as XML, plus a list as CSV. An export in the DATEV format is not included.
Packing runs in the background. You are told when it is ready, and an export stays for seven days.
You can see what has happened
Every document keeps a history. It says who did what and when: created, read, proposed, changed, moved, shared, opened as a link, deleted, brought back. The contents are not in it, only the fact.
That settles questions before they turn into arguments. Who moved the invoice? When did the tax office open the link? Everyone who may see the document sees the history.
What “personal” means, and what it does not
A personal vault means that nexpaper shows it to nobody else, not even to the operator in the app. The app says so itself.
What it does not mean is that the documents are encrypted on the server. They lie as readable files in a folder, so that they stay yours without nexpaper. Whoever runs the server themselves can see them there. The same goes for the recognised text and the search index in the database.
If that is not enough for you, protect the server's disk, for instance with an encrypted drive. That is up to whoever runs the server. nexpaper itself encrypts only its own secrets, such as the mailbox password or the AI key.