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. Ask for anything: the item's name and description are what the AI check reads it against.
• 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."

Document type

Every document item starts as Any document, and for most items that is the right answer. An engagement letter, a company profile, a photo of a signboard — none of it has to fit a list. The AI still checks every upload: that it is readable, that nothing is obviously missing, and that it is plausibly the thing your item asked for. That's why the label and description are worth writing well — they are the specification.

The short list of named types is there for the checks that only make sense for one kind of document, not to constrain what you can ask for:

Type	What picking it adds
Passport / National ID	Validity is checked against the dates on the request — the passport must still be valid six months after the start date. Give the request a date range, or this check reports itself as not checked.
Bank Statement	The period check knows to expect a monthly statement.
Tax Form	The period check knows to expect an annual filing.

Picking a type adds to your own wording, it never replaces it — so name the period in the item itself ("Bank statement — Apr to Jun 2026") whenever it matters. A type can't carry a period, and without one the period check reports itself as not checked rather than guessing.

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 job involves several people — a family, a company's directors, a whole group — 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 group into one row, so a 12-person group 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 groups: a 40-person group 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.