Overview
A project's Documents tab holds the writing that goes with the work: proposals, briefs, meeting notes. You write them right in Beeswax, every editing session is kept as a version, and each document exports as a PDF in the same style as your invoices. Documents are separate from the files you upload on the Files tab.
Every new document starts with New Document. (Template documents created with older versions of Beeswax still appear in the list and keep working.)
Writing a Document
Open the project, choose the Documents tab, then New Document. You land straight in the editor, with a document called Untitled document. Type over the title to name it.
There is no Save button:
- A moment after you stop typing, Beeswax saves your work, and the status beside Done changes from Saving… to Saved.
- If it says Offline — changes not saved yet, keep the page open until it says Saved again. Changes that haven't reached Beeswax are not kept if you close the page.
- The toolbar has headings (H1) and subheadings (H2), bold, italic, strikethrough, numbered and bulleted lists, and tables. Numbered lists count in levels (1., 1.1., 1.2.), so a document reads in sections.
- When you're finished, choose Done. Everything you wrote in that session becomes one version in the document's history, and you're taken to the document page.
A new document has no versions until its first editing session ends; that session becomes v1.
One person at a time
Only one person edits a document at a time. While you have it open in the editor, anyone else who opens it sees "Name is editing" and reads it without being able to change it. When you choose Done (or close the tab), the next person can start; someone already waiting in the editor gets it straight away.
If an editor leaves the page open and walks away, or their connection drops, Beeswax stops hearing from them. After about a minute and a half, Take over editing appears for the next person with edit access. Taking over keeps the previous editor's last saved words as a version in their name, so nothing saved is lost.
You can also read and edit documents from an AI assistant connected through the Beeswax MCP. Each change it makes is saved as a version, like any other editing session. An assistant can't edit while someone has the document open in the editor.
Document Workflow
A new document is a Draft. Open the ⋯ Actions menu on the document page to move it along:
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Being written. Can be edited. |
| Published | Marked ready to share — a label for your team. Publishing doesn't send the document anywhere or change who can see it. |
| Finalised | Content is locked, and Beeswax keeps the exact copy. |
| Archived | No longer needed. Stays in the documents list, marked Archived, and can't be edited again. |
- Publish appears while a document is a draft.
- Finalise Document locks the content, so the copy you sent for signature can always be found again.
- Start New Revision (on a finalised document) returns it to Draft and opens the editor. The finalised copy stays in the version history.
- Archive is one-way: an archived document can't be revised or brought back.
Version History
Every editing session is one version: open, write, Done. Very long sessions also save an automatic checkpoint every half hour. You never have to save a version yourself.
Open the history from Version History in the Actions menu, from the version number (v4) on the documents list, or from View all on the Version History card beside the document. Each row shows the version, who saved it, when, and the state the document was in. From there you can:
- Add note to label the versions that matter ("Sent to Hartley", "Reworked pricing"). Notes can be edited later, or cleared by saving an empty note.
- View any version as a read-only page, and Download PDF of it.
- Compare two versions: added lines show in green and removed lines in red.
- Restore an earlier version's words. Restoring saves them as a new version, so the one you replaced is still in the history.
- Delete an old version you no longer need.
Restoring only works while the document is a draft or published, and while nobody — you included — has it open in the editor. The current version can't be deleted, and neither can the copies kept when a document was finalised.
PDFs and Email
From the Actions menu:
- Preview PDF shows the document in your invoice theme, with your logo and colours, so it looks like a sibling of your invoices and quotes.
- Send PDF emails it. Add recipients from the project team or your contacts, or type any address; add CC recipients and a message, then choose Send.
To download a PDF, open a version from the version history and choose Download PDF.
Privacy
Every new document starts Private. Use Switch Visibility in the Actions menu to make it Public, or back again.
- Owners, Super Admins, Managers and Accountants can see every document on projects they can open, private or public.
- Basic and Client users only see documents that are Public, on projects they can see.
Publishing a document doesn't make it public: visibility is set separately.
Permissions and Plans
Writing and changing documents — creating, editing, publishing, finalising, archiving, switching visibility, sending, restoring, adding notes and deleting versions — needs a Manager role or above (Owner, Super Admin, Manager or Accountant). Basic and Client users can open public documents, preview them and look through their history.
The Documents tab is part of paid plans and the free trial; it isn't available on the Free plan.