Document types and compliance reminders
Manage the document types your team uses on vehicles, set retention for scanned documents, and configure compliance reminder timing.
The Documents & compliance page is where you decide which document types your team uses on vehicles, how long scanned documents are kept, and how ImportOps reminds you about expiring documents.
Before you start
- You need to be an admin.
- You're on Settings → Documents & compliance.
Document types
The document types list is what your team picks from when attaching a document to a vehicle. A sensible default list covers most imports: bill of sale, import permit, customs clearance, inspection certificate, and so on. You can:
- Add a type by typing a label and clicking Add.
- Mark a type as reminder-eligible with the toggle next to each entry. Reminder-eligible types can show up in compliance reminders when their expiry dates are approaching. Use this for documents that genuinely expire (inspection certificates, insurance) and leave it off for one-time documents (bill of sale, import permit).
- Remove a type you don't use.
- Save to apply your changes.
Changes take effect immediately for new document uploads. Existing documents keep whichever type they had at upload.
Document scan retention
Scanned documents (images or PDFs uploaded to a vehicle's Documents area) are retained for the length you choose:
- 12 months
- 24 months
After the retention period, scans are removed. The document record itself stays so your audit trail is preserved; only the underlying file is removed.
Choose retention based on your regulator's requirements. If you aren't sure, 24 months covers most jurisdictions.
Compliance reminders
Compliance reminders alert your team when documents that are marked reminder-eligible are approaching expiry. Three settings control them.
Notifications mode
- Off: no reminders.
- In-app: reminders appear as notifications inside ImportOps.
- In-app and email: the same reminders also go out by email.
Lead days
The number of days ahead of expiry the reminder fires. A lead of 14 means a document expiring in two weeks triggers a reminder.
Set lead days high enough that you have time to act. For documents that take weeks to renew, use 30 or 60.
Email frequency
- Daily: one email per day summarising everything that needs attention.
- Weekly: one email per week covering the coming period.
Daily works well for active teams. Weekly is less noisy for admin-heavy roles.
Good practice
- Only mark genuinely expiring types as reminder-eligible. The goal is actionable reminders, not a scrolling list.
- Set lead days to match the renewal time for the slowest type in your list. If you need 30 days to renew an inspection certificate, set lead days to 30.
- Turn on email reminders for at least the admin role so nothing falls through.