Knowing When It's Read
Once you have shared a document, FlowEdge shows you whether your client has opened it, how many times, and how long ago. It is the signal that tells you when a follow-up is worth sending.
Where to Look
The read summary appears in three places, all showing the same wording:
- In the share dialog — open the document and click Share
- In the editor header — once the document has been opened at least once
- On the client’s page — beside each document in the client’s document list
What It Says
If nobody has opened the document yet:
Not opened yet
Once it has been opened:
Opened 3 times · last 2 hours ago
The time is always relative — just now, 5 minutes ago, 2 hours ago, yesterday, 4 days ago — rather than an exact timestamp.
💡 Tip
A proposal opened several times over a few days usually means it is being shared internally or discussed. That is a good moment to follow up — and a better one than following up on silence.
What Does Not Count
Some things deliberately never register as an open:
- Your own preview. The Preview button in the share dialog opens the same page without recording anything, so you can check your work freely.
- Opens while the link is revoked. Nobody can see the document, so nothing is counted.
- A second open within two minutes of the previous one — see below.
What the Count Can and Cannot Tell You
Read tracking is a useful signal, but it is not an audit log. Three things are worth knowing before you rely on it:
Opens within two minutes count once. This stops a refresh, a double-click, or a redirect from inflating the number. The trade-off is that two different people opening the document inside the same two-minute window are recorded as a single open.
A link preview can register an open before a human reads it. Some email and chat apps fetch a link to build a preview card. If that fetch loads the page fully, it can be counted — so an open occasionally appears slightly before your client actually looks at the document.
FlowEdge does not record who opened it. No IP address, no browser, no device, no location. That is a deliberate design choice, and it means the count cannot distinguish your client from their colleague, or from you opening the live link instead of using Preview.
⚠️ Important
Treat the open count as a signal, not as proof. It is a good reason to pick up the phone. It is not evidence that a specific person read a specific thing at a specific time, and it should not be used as though it were.
Using It Well
✅ Best Practice
Let the tracking decide the timing of your follow-up, not its tone. “Just checking you got this” works whether or not it has been opened. Telling a client you know they read it three times rarely lands well.
Next Steps
- Record the outcome in Deal Status.
- Not shared a document yet? Start with Sharing a Document.
- See your wider activity in the Dashboard Overview.