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Message Attachments

Send and receive files in messages, choose whether clients can upload through the portal, and save or delete received attachments.

Use Attach files below the message box to add files to a new message or reply. Files received from clients appear with their message in Conversations. Click a filename to download it.

Message attachments support PDF, PNG, JPG/JPEG, and plain-text files, with up to 10 files and 7 MB total per message. This guide covers files attached to messages, rather than forms, signed documents, or source material used to prepare notes.

Choose whether clients can upload in the portal

Client portal attachments are off by default. To allow them:

  1. Open Settings → Portal.
  2. Turn on Allow clients to attach files to portal messages.
  3. Click Save Portal Settings.

Clients will see Attach files below the message box when starting a conversation or replying in the portal.

Turning this setting off blocks new portal attachments, including uploads from a page a client already had open. Clients can still send text-only messages. If an upload is blocked, they can remove the selected files and send the message again.

This setting does not remove existing attachments or stop clients from downloading files already shared with them. It also does not change attachments sent by staff or received in email replies.

Send a file from the practice

  1. Open a new message or reply in Conversations.
  2. Write your message and check its delivery badge. Where switching is available, click Email or Secure message to choose the method for this message. (default) marks the starting method; portal-only delivery cannot be switched to email.
  3. Click Attach files below the message box and choose the files.
  4. Review the filenames. Use the Remove control beside a filename to take it out before sending.
  5. Send the message.

For a secure message, clients open the portal to download the files. The generic notification email does not include the message attachments. When you choose ordinary email delivery, attachments travel by email. Choose the delivery method appropriate for the information and your practice’s communication policy.

See Choose email or secure delivery before sending for badge controls, defaults, and delivery restrictions.

Receive attachments by email

When a client replies through PracticeRunner’s email reply routing, an accepted reply can include supported attachments. They appear with the reply in Conversations. Unsupported files or files over the limits can cause the reply to be rejected. If a reply does not arrive, ask the client to contact your practice or use the portal, if uploads are enabled.

The portal attachment setting does not control what clients attach in their own email app. Email replies travel through ordinary email, even when the original notification points to a secure conversation.

If you choose Send replies directly to my inbox in your profile’s messaging preferences, those direct replies and their attachments stay in your outside mailbox. They are not automatically imported into PracticeRunner.

If you choose Full message content for email copies of messages received in PracticeRunner, supported attachments can be included in the copy sent to your mailbox. Notification-only emails do not include them. See Secure Messaging with Clients for these separate settings.

Save a received file to a client profile

  1. Open the client’s message in Conversations.
  2. Beside the file, click Attach to client profile.
  3. When the action changes to Attached to client profile, click it to open the profile.

PracticeRunner saves a separate copy to the sending client’s profile, including when the conversation involves more than one client. It does not create a case-owned document or save the file to every participant’s profile.

The saved document starts in the Other category and is internal only. Review its title, category, date, and client visibility in the profile’s document area. Staff may also see a client-owned document through related couple or family profiles; that does not change who owns it.

The original attachment stays in the conversation. Saving the same attachment again does not create another profile copy. Deleting the profile document alone does not delete the conversation attachment.

Delete a received attachment

Only delete files your practice is permitted to discard under its record-retention policy. PracticeRunner does not decide how long your practice must retain a particular document.

  1. Open the client-sent message in Conversations.
  2. Click the small trash button beside the attachment.
  3. Read the confirmation. If a copy was saved using Attach to client profile, choose whether to also delete the saved copy from the client profile. This option is unchecked by default.
  4. Click Delete attachment, or Cancel to keep it. You can also press Esc to cancel before deletion starts.

Deletion is permanent. The file and its older stored versions are removed, and a dated notice identifies the staff member who deleted it. PracticeRunner also records the action in its audit history. The message text and other attachments remain.

For an attachment received through email reply routing, deletion also removes PracticeRunner’s stored original email copy, which contains another copy of the attachment. The conversation’s message text and its other extracted attachments stay available.

A saved profile copy is kept unless you select the additional deletion option. Copies already delivered to email inboxes, downloaded elsewhere, or held in independent backups are outside this action. A deletion notice or audit entry is not a replacement for a document your practice needs to retain.

If deletion reports an error, retry the action. Some copies may already have been removed before the error, so an error does not mean the file was fully preserved.