---
title: "Files and attachments"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/files-and-attachments"
description: "How the 4HSE document archive is organised, the difference between project and office level, and where attachments live."
---

# Files and attachments

4HSE holds a complete **file system**: documents organised in folders and subfolders, like on a computer, but subject to the permissions of the project they belong to.

## Project level and office level

[Section titled “Project level and office level”](#project-level-and-office-level)

The archive exists at two levels, and the difference decides who sees what.

-   Documents uploaded at **project level** are also visible from the archive of every office in that project. They are the general-purpose ones: a company policy, a certification, a regulation that applies everywhere.
-   Documents uploaded in an **office** concern that office alone.

Choosing the level is therefore not a matter of tidiness: it decides the reach of the document.

## Files you upload, files 4HSE produces

[Section titled “Files you upload, files 4HSE produces”](#files-you-upload-files-4hse-produces)

Two things end up in the same archive:

-   what you **upload** — see [Upload a file](/files-and-attachments/upload-a-file);
-   what 4HSE **generates**: a certificate, a completed form, a printed report. When you export a document you can archive it here rather than downloading it — see [Print or export a document](/reports/print-and-export).

Both become ordinary files once they are in: they can be moved, renamed, downloaded and linked as attachments.

## Attachments are links, not copies

[Section titled “Attachments are links, not copies”](#attachments-are-links-not-copies)

Attaching a file to an item — an action, a person, a certificate — does not duplicate it. You either upload a new file or **link one that already exists** in the archive, which means the same document can be attached in several places and updated once.

Where attachments can be placed is listed in [Where attachments live](/files-and-attachments/where-attachments-live).

## Space and formats

[Section titled “Space and formats”](#space-and-formats)

Storage is unlimited, both per office and per project, and there is no restriction on file types or extensions.

What changes is how you open them. Formats the browser can display — images and PDFs — open directly inside 4HSE; everything else is downloaded and opened with a program on your computer.

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