Upload your first compliance certificate

Before you start

• The certificate file — PDF preferred, but JPEG / PNG / WebP work too.
• Make sure every page is legible (signature, dates, certificate number visible).
• Maximum file size: 20 MB.

Step 1: Open the property's compliance view

1. From the left nav, click Properties.
2. Click the property you want to add a certificate to.
3. Click the Compliance tab.

You'll see every obligation that applies to this property — Gas, EICR, EPC, etc. Each row shows the current status (red / amber / green / grey) and an action button.

Step 2: Upload the file

1. Find the obligation you want to satisfy — e.g. Gas Safety.
2. Click Upload.
3. Pick your file from your computer or phone.

What PropFlow checks

• File extension — must be PDF, JPEG, PNG, or WebP. Some installations also accept HEIC, HEIF, and TIFF.
• Magic bytes — PropFlow inspects the file's actual content with libmagic, not just the extension. Renaming virus.exe to certificate.pdf fails the check with: "File content does not match the declared file type."
• Size — under 20 MB.

Step 3: Confirm the dates

For PDFs and images, PropFlow uses Claude's vision model to read the dates off the certificate. You'll see pre-filled fields:

• Issue date — when the certificate was signed off by the engineer.
• Expiry date — when the certificate is no longer valid. For Gas Safety, this is typically 12 months after issue.
• Certificate number — the engineer's reference / serial number, where extracted.

Always sanity-check what was extracted. OCR is good but not perfect — smudged scans, handwritten dates, or unusual layouts can confuse it. Edit the fields if anything's wrong.

Step 4: Submit

Click Save (or Upload certificate). PropFlow:

• Stores the file in your organisation's private documents bucket (Supabase Storage). The path is {org_id}/{property_id}/{document_type}/{file_id}_{filename}. Access is via signed URL, not public.
• Links the document to the compliance obligation.
• Sets the obligation's status to Compliant (green) and updates its last_completed to today's date in Europe/London time.
• Recomputes the deadline from the expiry date you confirmed.
• Resets the reminder counter so the new renewal cycle starts from zero.
• Writes an audit-log row capturing who uploaded the certificate and when.

The obligation row's coloured dot flips from grey (or red) to green as soon as the upload completes — no refresh needed.

Same pattern for every obligation

The upload flow is the same regardless of certificate type — Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, PAT, Fire Risk Assessment, Legionella, etc. The only differences:

• The default renewal period (Gas = 12 months, EICR = 5 years, EPC = 10 years, etc.). PropFlow knows these and pre-fills the expiry date if you only provide the issue date.
• Event-based obligations (Tenancy Deposit Protection, How to Rent guide) don't have an expiry — they go green once the document is in.

If something goes wrong

• "File content does not match the declared file type." — your file is actually a different format than its extension suggests. Re-save the file from its source application (e.g. re-export from your PDF reader) and try again.
• "File exceeds 20 MB limit." — compress the PDF. Most PDF editors have a "Reduce file size" option. Online tools also work.
• "Failed to extract dates" — OCR couldn't read the certificate. Fill in the issue and expiry dates manually.
• Upload completes but status doesn't change — refresh the page. If still stuck, contact support.

Next steps

• Replace an expiring certificate — the renewal flow, slightly different from first upload.
• The compliance dashboard explained — what the colours and counts mean.