Documents, policies and announcements

This chapter covers the three places MusterHR keeps company paperwork and company messages: the document vault, where employees file ID proofs, certificates and agreements and HR verifies them; policies, where HR publishes a policy version and employees read and acknowledge it on the record; and announcements, the company and department feed. It is written for everyone — employees will mostly need My documents and Policies, HR will need all of it.

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Who can do what

Uploading your own documents, reading policies and using My space all depend on the self-service permission, which the Reporting role alone does not hold. If a page named here is missing from your sidebar you do not have permission for it — see Roles and permissions. Every rule is enforced on the server; hiding a menu item is only tidiness.

Managers hold the permission that reads acknowledgement coverage, but the screen that shows coverage sits inside Manage policies, which needs the policy-management permission. In practice, coverage is an HR Ops and Super Admin view.

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The document vault

Go to My space → My documents. This is your own file: ID proof, address proof, education and experience certificates, bank and tax papers, and the agreements you signed. Only you and HR can open these files.

Categories

Every file is filed under one category, chosen when you upload it.

What you can upload

MusterHR accepts PDF, JPG or PNG files up to 10 MB. Nothing else is accepted — a DOCX, a HEIC photo from an iPhone or a ZIP is refused with "Only PDF, JPG or PNG files are allowed." An oversized file is refused with the size stated, and an empty file is refused too. The check runs in the page as soon as you pick the file as well as on the server, so on mobile data you find out before the upload starts rather than after.

Uploading a document

1. Go to My space → My documents.
2. Choose a Category from the dropdown.
3. Click the File field and pick your PDF, JPG or PNG. The helper line under the field changes to show the file name and size once one is chosen.
4. Click Upload. On a slow connection the button shows "Uploading…" and a note of how much is being sent.

The file appears in the table below with the status Pending and a version number. HR is not notified by email; the file waits in their verification queue.

Statuses on your documents

You get an in-app notification when a document is verified or rejected, linking straight back to My documents.

If a document is rejected

The rejection reason HR typed is shown on the row, word for word — for example "The scan is too blurry to read." Upload the corrected file in the same category. It is filed as a new version (v2, v3 and so on) rather than replacing the old one, so the rejected file stays in the list with its reason. That is deliberate: the history of what was submitted is part of the record.

Opening a file

Click Download on the row. MusterHR generates a signed link that expires five minutes after you ask for it and opens the file in a new tab. Two things follow from this:

• A link you copied, mailed to yourself or bookmarked stops working within minutes. Come back and click Download again.
• Every view is recorded. Each download is written to the document's access log and to the audit trail as a sensitive read, with who opened it and when. This applies to HR opening your file just as much as to you opening it.

HR: filing documents for someone else

Open People → Employees, open the person, and scroll to Documents. The panel works exactly as it does for the employee, with the same categories, the same file limits and the same short-lived, logged download links. A file you upload there also starts as Pending and joins the verification queue — uploading is not the same as verifying, even when HR does both.

Worth knowing. There is no delete button on either panel. A file uploaded into the wrong category cannot be removed from the interface by the employee or by HR. Upload the right file in the right category and treat the wrong one as history; if it must actually go, that is a job for your administrator.

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Verifying documents

Verification is an HR Ops and Super Admin job. Go to People → Verify documents. The dashboard also carries a Documents to verify figure that links here.

The queue lists every document in the company still sitting on Pending, oldest first, with the employee's name and code, the category, the file name and a Waiting badge. The badge counts up in the units a reviewer thinks in — "just now", then hours, then days — and anything three days or older is highlighted so it does not quietly rot.

Verifying a document

1. Click View to open the file through a short-lived link. Check it is the right document, readable, unexpired, and in the right name.
2. Click Verify.

The row leaves the queue immediately and the employee sees Verified with a notification.

Rejecting a document

1. Click Reject. A dialog opens showing the employee, the category and the file name so you cannot reject the wrong row.
2. Type a Reason, or click one of the ready-made reasons — "The scan is too blurry to read", "This is the wrong document for the category", "The document has expired", "The name does not match your employee record" — which fills the box for you to edit.
3. Click Reject document.

A reason is required. Leaving it blank returns "Say what is wrong — the employee sees this and has to know what to fix." Write it as though the employee is reading it, because they are: the text appears verbatim on their My documents row and is the only instruction they get.

Both decisions are written to the audit trail and to the document's access log, and both notify the employee. There is no "un-verify" and no way back to Pending — if you verify something in error, ask the employee to upload a corrected file as a new version.

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Policies

A policy in MusterHR is a piece of company text with versions. Employees see one version — the published one — and their acknowledgement is recorded against that specific version. That is what makes publishing meaningful: it is the moment a version becomes the thing people are agreeing to.

For employees: reading and acknowledging

Go to Company → Policies. The heading tells you where you stand — "3 policies awaiting your acknowledgement" or "You're up to date on all policies" — and each row shows the policy, its category, its version and the date it takes effect.

To acknowledge one:

1. Click the policy to open it. The version and effective date sit under the title, and a one-line summary sits above the text where the author wrote one.
2. Read it.
3. Tick I have read and understood this policy and agree to abide by it.
4. Click Acknowledge.

What is recorded: your name and work email as they stand at that moment, the version label, the date and time, and the IP address and browser you used. You cannot undo this yourself — the page says so before you click. If you acknowledged something in error, tell HR.

The page then confirms it, for example "You acknowledged version 1.0 on 12 Aug 2026, 15:42 IST. HR holds a record of it."

If a new version of a policy is published later, that policy returns to Not acknowledged and you are asked to acknowledge the new version. Your acknowledgement of the older version stays on record against the older version; it does not count for the new one.

If Policies shows "No employee record linked", your sign-in is not attached to an employee record, so no policy is addressed to you. Ask HR to link it — see Employee records and profiles.

For HR: writing a policy

Go to Company → Policies and click Manage policies, or open /policies/manage from the ⌘K command palette.

1. Click Start a draft to open the New policy form.
2. Fill in the fields below.
3. Click Create draft.

The draft is created and nothing reaches employees. Open it from the list to finish it.

Editing a draft and setting the effective date

On the policy's page, a draft appears in a card headed Draft (v1.0) with the full text ready to edit. Alongside the title, version label and summary you get two more fields:

Click Save draft as often as you like. Employees cannot see a draft at any point.

Publishing

Click Publish on the draft card, or next to the draft in the Versions list.

Publishing does four things at once: the version becomes the one every employee sees, the previously published version is marked Archived, the effective date is fixed (to the date you set, or to today), and everyone the policy applies to gets a notification asking them to acknowledge it. Anyone who had acknowledged the old version is back to Not acknowledged on the new one.

A published version cannot be edited. The card above the text changes to New version and offers to start the next draft from the current text.

Publishing a corrected or updated version

1. Open the policy under Manage policies.
2. In the New version card, edit the Title, Version label (suggested as the next whole number, e.g. 2.0) and Policy text, and add a Change note if it helps you.
3. Click Create new draft version. It stays a draft, hidden from employees.
4. Edit and save it as often as needed, then click Publish when it is ready.

The Versions list shows every version with its status and, for published ones, the date it went out.

Who has acknowledged

The Acknowledgement coverage card on the policy's page shows a count — for example "Acknowledgement coverage — 2/6" — over the active employees the policy applies to, and lists them.

• By default it shows only the people still to acknowledge, because that is the reason to open it. Click Show all 6 to include those who have, each with the date they did it; Hide acknowledged goes back.
• On a policy covering more than 25 people, a Find someone box searches by name or employee code.
• On a draft the card explains that coverage starts once a version is published.

The Acknowledged column on the Manage policies list is a quicker version of the same figure.

Worth knowing. The two figures do not always agree. The Acknowledged column on the Manage policies list counts all active employees as the denominator; the coverage card on the policy's own page counts only the people the policy is addressed to. Where a policy is addressed to everyone they match. Where it is not, trust the coverage card — and read the list column as a rough indicator.

Worth knowing. The policy forms do not offer an audience picker or a switch for "no acknowledgement needed". A policy you create in MusterHR is addressed to every active employee and asks for an acknowledgement. If you need to reach one department only, an announcement is the tool that targets one.

Archiving a policy

Click Archive policy at the top of the policy's page and confirm. It leaves every employee's policy list straight away and this cannot be undone — nothing in MusterHR brings it back. The policy stays in your Manage policies list marked Archived, and acknowledgements already recorded against its versions are kept.

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Announcements

Go to Company → Announcements. This is the feed of company and team updates: office closures, a new policy going live, a benefits change, a Diwali holiday reminder.

The feed

• Pinned posts sit in their own section at the top. Everything else is grouped by the month it was published, newest first.
• A small dot next to a title marks a post you have not seen. Opening the page marks the whole feed read, so the dots are gone next time.
• Long posts are clipped to a few lines with a Read more link.
• Use Search (title or message text) and the Category dropdown, then Apply; Clear resets both.
• Fifteen posts load at a time. Show older (N more) loads the next fifteen.

Categories are General, Policy, Event, Holiday, Benefits and Urgent. Urgent, Holiday and Event are colour-coded on the badge.

You see posts addressed to the whole company plus posts addressed to your own department. A sign-in with no employee record attached sees company-wide posts only.

Writing an announcement

Go to Company → Announcements and click Manage announcements.

1. Click Start a draft.
2. Fill in the fields below.
3. Click Create draft. Nobody sees it yet.
4. Open the draft from the list, review it, and click Publish.

Publishing sends an in-app notification to everyone it is addressed to and puts it in their feed straight away. There is no scheduled publishing — it goes out when you click Publish.

Department targeting for managers

A manager can post only to a department they are recorded as the head of. Being someone's reporting manager is not the same thing: the Department dropdown lists the departments where you are set as head, and nothing else. If the list is empty, ask HR to record you as the department head, or ask them to post it. A manager also sees only their own announcements under Manage announcements; HR Ops and Super Admin see everyone's.

Editing, statuses and archiving

To take a post down, open it and click Archive, then confirm. It leaves everyone's feed straight away and this cannot be undone. Setting an expiry date does the same thing gently: the post drops out of the feed after that date without anyone having to remember.

A draft can be edited by its author, and by HR Ops or Super Admin.

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Where this connects

• Documents collected during hiring, and the joining paperwork a new starter submits, are covered in Hiring, offers and onboarding.
• The employee record these documents hang off — and change requests against it — is covered in Employee records and profiles.
• Notifications about a verified document, a policy to acknowledge or a new announcement all land on the bell in the header; see Getting started.
• Downloads, verification decisions, policy publishing and archiving are all written to the audit trail; see Reports, settings and administration.
• Returning company property on exit is in Assets and offboarding.