How to collect files from clients without chasing them

Collecting files from a client usually goes the same way. You send an email listing six things. Two arrive the next day, attached to a reply. One comes through a file transfer service a week later. You then spend ten minutes working out which three are still missing, and write the email that starts "just following up".

The files were never the hard part. The hard part is that neither of you can see, at a glance, what is outstanding. A Nemi room fixes that by putting the list where the files go: one page for one project, with a line for each thing you need, which the client answers in place.

Why do clients need chasing at all?

Rarely because they are slow. Usually because the request lives in an email thread they read once, and the question they actually have when they sit down to do it is "what do you still need from me?" A shared folder does not answer that. A folder tells them where to put things, not which things are missing, and it tells you even less: an empty subfolder called Logos could mean the logo is coming, or that it arrived as an attachment you have not found yet.

So a room has no folders. It has a list. The client opens the link and reads, in your words, what is still needed and how many of them are done. Every line is answered on that page, and the count updates for both of you.

Files or confirmations: what is the difference?

Every line is one of two kinds. Lines you write while creating the room ask for a file, and a line you add later in the room's Requests tab can be either. A line answered with a file shows an Upload button: the client picks the file, it lands in the room and in your workspace, and the line is marked as provided with the name they typed. A line answered by ticking it, for anything that is not a file, shows Mark as done: confirming an address, agreeing a date, approving copy.

The client can tick and untick a confirmation. They cannot tick a file line, and that is deliberate. The answer to "signed contract" is a signed contract, and a line that could be ticked without one would leave you reading a finished checklist with nothing behind it. If guest uploads are switched off, a file line cannot be answered at all, and the page says Send this by email instead of offering a button that would not work. You, as the owner, can tick or reopen any line yourself, for the times something arrives by another route.

Why does removing a file reopen its line?

Try it in the figure: deliver the contract, then remove the file from the room on the owner side. The line goes back to outstanding, and the count drops by one.

The alternative is a line that still says "Provided by Sander" and points at nothing. That is the most expensive state a checklist can be in, because it is wrong in the comforting direction: you find out the contract is missing when you need it, not when it went. An open line is honest, and it is the client's cue to send it again. The same holds if the file is deleted from your drive rather than from the room: the next time the list is read, the line is open again.

A checklist that reads as finished with nothing behind it is worse than one that reads as open.

How do I set up a room for a client?

1. 1

   Press New room and give it a name

   The name is the heading the client sees, so name it after the project rather than the file: Acme Q3 handoff.
2. 2

   Write what you need back

   Under What do you need back?, add a line per thing, named the way you would say it out loud. These lines are answered with a file. For anything the client should simply tick, add the line afterwards from the room's Requests tab with This one needs a file switched off.
3. 3

   Decide the terms

   A note for the client, a colour, an expiry date and a password are all optional. Let guests upload files to this room is already on; leave it on, or no line that asks for a file can be answered.
4. 4

   Add your own files

   Add from drive puts files you already have on the page, the brief or the first drafts. The room points at them rather than copying them.
5. 5

   Send the link

   Copy it, or let the client scan the code beside it. They need no account, no invitation and no app.

From then on, your list of rooms shows each one as a row with its count, so you can see which client still owes you something without opening anything, and each line that is provided arrives in your notifications with the name of whoever provided it.

Where do the client's questions go?

Into the room, if you want them there. The Messages tab is one thread per room, shared by you and everybody who has the link: plain text, in order, and not editable after it is sent, because a thread a client reads has to be the thread they were sent. It is not live chat. The page checks for new messages every twenty seconds or so while it is open, which suits a conversation that moves a few times a day. The point is that the question about line three is asked next to line three, rather than in a reply to an email from last Tuesday.

Should I use a room or an upload link?

Nemi has both because they answer different requests. An upload link is a drop area into one folder of yours. You choose who may upload (anyone with the link, signed in Nemi users, or only the accounts you list), a maximum number of files and total size, an expiry, and whether you get an email when something arrives. It is the right tool when you need a pile of files and do not much mind which: photos from an event, entries for a competition.

How many rooms can I have, and how much can a client send?

The limit is on rooms that are active, meaning their link still works: Free 1, Starter 3, Creator 10, Pro 25, Max unlimited, Business unlimited. Archiving a room ends its link, keeps it readable to you, and gives the slot back at once. A room holds up to 50 requests, which is more than a handover should need. Guests can upload until the room holds 100 files or 10 GB, counting yours. Each file is also checked against your own plan's largest file, and everything a guest uploads counts against the storage of the workspace the room delivers into, never theirs: they may not have an account at all.

As for what a room records about the client: the name they typed, which is optional and not verified, the files they sent, what they wrote and which lines they answered, all shown to you. Opens are counted, as a number of visits and a number of separate visitors, without identifying anybody and with less detail than a traced share link (how link statistics work without tracking is a post of its own). Section 3.19 of the privacy policy sets it out in full, and it is written for the client to read too.

For the overview see Rooms; for every button, requests and messages and what a room is in the help centre; and for the other direction, upload links. When it is your turn to deliver, how to send large files securely covers the link that goes the other way. Plans are on the pricing page.