Building a request

The two kinds of checklist item

Every line on a request is one of two things.

• A document — something the client uploads. Pick the document type (passport, bank statement, tax form, and so on) so the AI check knows what it should be looking at.
• A question — something the client types or picks. Use these for the details that don't live in a file: a reference number, a date of travel, a yes/no.

Questions come in three shapes:

Answer type	Use it for
Text answer	Anything open-ended — a name as it appears on a document, a note.
Pick one	Mutually exclusive choices. You supply the options.
Pick many	Choices where more than one can apply.

Labels and instructions

The label is what your client reads, so write it in their words, not yours. "Bank statement — last 3 months" collects faster than "Supporting financials".

Instructions are the optional line underneath. This is the highest-value field on the whole form and most people skip it. Use it to pre-empt the mistake you keep seeing: "All pages, including the blank one. A photo of the screen is fine as long as the balance and your name are legible."

Required vs optional

Every item is required by default. Mark an item optional when it genuinely may not apply — a client can finish without it, and reminders won't chase them for it.

Templates

If you ask most clients for the same things, save the checklist once under Templates and start future requests from it. A template holds the items — labels, instructions, document types, required flags — not the client.

Changing a template does not change requests already built from it. That's deliberate: a request you've sent is a record of what you asked for, and it shouldn't shift under a client mid-upload.

Most firms end up with one template per service. Start from the one you send most often rather than trying to model everything up front.

You don't have to start from a blank list. ChaseDocs ships a set of starter templates — client onboarding and KYC, annual financials, company incorporation, travel and visa documents, student application and visa packs, and an agency onboarding brief and website content pack. Pick the closest one when you create a request, or save it to your own templates first and edit the labels to match how you word things. They're deliberately generic, so renaming an item to your market's actual document is expected, not a workaround.

Group requests

When one booking involves several people — a travel party, a family, a company's directors — use a group of people instead of a single client. You build the checklist once and everyone in the group gets their own copy of it, with their own link.

Why it works this way:

• Each person uploads their own passport under their own name. Nothing gets mixed up.
• Your dashboard collapses the whole party into one row, so a 12-person booking doesn't bury every other client.
• The group's progress reflects its least-advanced member — the person actually holding you up.

Group requests are available on every plan. Note that your plan's cap counts people, not bookings: a 40-passenger party is 40 active requests, because it's 40 sets of messages and 40 documents to check.

Editing after you've sent

You can add items to a live request — useful when a client's answer reveals you need one more document. They see the new line the next time they open their link.

You can also remove an item you asked for by mistake. It disappears from the client's view and stops counting toward their progress, so nobody gets chased for a document that no longer exists.

Due dates

A due date is optional. Setting one adds a reminder the day before, and marks the request overdue on your dashboard once it passes. It doesn't lock anything — a client can still upload after the date.