Common Setup Patterns

Sidecar can support a complete customer-required document workflow, but a workspace does not need to begin that way.

Many teams first need help with one narrower problem: keeping expiration dates visible, checking what a customer package is missing, remembering who owes a document, or identifying whose credential is expiring. Sidecar can begin with that smaller job and grow only when the surrounding work becomes real.

These setup patterns are not separate product modes. They use the same Sidecar records and can overlap inside one workspace.

Choose the question you need to answer first

What expires next?

Use Simple Document Expiration Tracking when most of the records belong to your own organization and the immediate goal is to see upcoming expirations, expired documents, and renewal attention.

This pattern begins with one internal customer record, documents, expiration dates, and Reports. Requests, contacts, waiting states, and tasks can remain unused until renewal work becomes more complicated.

What does this customer still need?

Use Customer Document Package Checklist when each customer has a recognizable list of requested documents or administrative items and you need a clear package-status view.

This pattern begins with customers, requested items, documents, and honest statuses. Communication and task features can be added later.

Who owes the next response?

Use Document Requests and Follow-Ups when the main problem is remembering what was requested, who has the ball, and when your team should follow up.

This pattern begins with customers, requested items or documents, contacts when useful, Waiting On, follow-up dates, and Activity History. Expiration tracking and internal tasks are optional.

Whose document is this?

Use Employee and Subcontractor Document Tracking when the records belong to different employees, subcontractors, companies, crews, or other managed parties.

This pattern uses tracked parties to add ownership context to documents and requested items. It can be combined with either an internal expiration program or customer-specific packages.

The patterns can be combined

A workspace may begin with one pattern and gradually use several.

For example, a contractor might:

1. Track company licenses and employee certifications under one internal customer.
2. Add outside customers with their own document package checklists.
3. Use tracked parties to show which subcontractor a COI belongs to.
4. Begin sending requests and setting follow-up dates when documents are missing.
5. Add internal tasks only when someone on the team needs a separate action assignment.

Nothing needs to be migrated into a different version of Sidecar. The same records simply gain more context as the workflow grows.

Features you can leave alone

A common setup mistake is configuring every visible feature before anyone has completed useful work.

You do not need to add:

• platforms when no customer portal is involved
• contacts when nobody is sending requests yet
• tasks when no internal action needs separate ownership
• waiting states when the next move still belongs to your own team
• tracked parties when all records belong to the workspace or primary company
• expiration dates for documents that do not expire

Unused features are not unfinished setup. They are tools waiting for a problem worth solving.

Use the normal workflow when the work becomes customer-specific

The smaller patterns are useful starting points, but customer-specific work should remain separated by customer when requirements, contacts, platforms, submissions, or follow-up history differ.

Do not place several unrelated outside customers under one internal record merely to keep the customer list short. That would make Today, Customer Detail, Waiting On, package status, and reporting less trustworthy.

Use Getting Started when you are ready to build the broader customer workflow. Use Core Concepts when requested items, documents, tasks, contacts, tracked parties, and waiting states begin to overlap.

Import an existing tracker

Each pattern can begin with manual entry or a reviewed spreadsheet import.

Before importing, decide what each row represents and use consistent customer, document, requested-item, tracked-party, status, and date columns. Sidecar shows what it understood and what it plans to create or update before anything is applied.

See Importing Data for workbook structure, preview review, preserved metadata, tracked parties, and re-import behavior.

Sidecar still tracks workflow, not approval

A smaller setup does not change Sidecar’s boundaries.

Sidecar can show that a document is current, expiring, expired, missing, submitted, ready, accepted, waiting, or not applicable based on the state your team records. It does not determine legal compliance, insurance adequacy, regulatory acceptance, employee qualification, subcontractor approval, or customer acceptance.

The point of these patterns is to make a limited workflow easier to see and maintain without pretending the software knows more than the people responsible for the review.