Eleven months after you bought it, the dishwasher stops draining. It might still be under warranty. The paper that would tell you is in a kitchen drawer, or in the box the dishwasher came in, or already in the recycling.

If the warranty is in Documents, you type "dish" into the search, open it, and read the day it ends. Documents is the part of Zulma that keeps the papers a home collects: warranties, manuals, inspection reports, insurance, invoices, receipts and permits.

One list for the whole home

Documents shows everything on file for your home in one list. That includes what you add there, and also what you have already added elsewhere in Zulma: the documents on your projects and the receipts on your home's history. Each one says where it came from, so a receipt you attached to "Furnace service" still shows that it belongs there.

Pills across the top sort the list by kind: warranties, manuals, inspection reports, insurance, invoices or receipts, permits, leases, property tax or assessment, and anything else. Each pill carries a count. Tap Warranties and the list shows only the warranties.

Add it once

Press Add, or drag a file onto the page. It can be a PDF or a photo, including one taken on an iPhone, up to 20 MB.

Give it a name you would search for, like "Dishwasher warranty", and pick the kind. Add the date on it and, for a warranty, the day it ends. For an insurance policy, add the day it renews.

Then say what it is for. Link the warranty to the dishwasher in your home's systems, and it shows up there as well as in Documents. A document can belong to a system, a room or other space, a project, or an entry in your home's history.

A reminder before it runs out

Once a warranty has an end date, or a policy has a renewal date, Zulma reminds you on Today and on your calendar 30 days before, and again on the day. The reminder uses the name you gave it: "Warranty ends: Dishwasher warranty". A month is usually enough time to book the repair while the warranty still covers it.

Ending soon, in the column on the left, lists every warranty and policy that ends in the next 60 days, and any that already has.

A folder for every project

Every project you start gets its own folder in Documents, named after it. Zulma makes it for you, on every plan. The project's photos go in, along with the documents you add to it and the receipts for the payments you record. Rename the project and the folder is renamed too.

Closing a project does not close its folder, so a receipt that turns up a month later still has a place to go.

When a business sends the invoice

A business on Zulma can invoice you through Zulma, and the invoice can go straight onto your home's record. It waits in your inbox under Keepsafe, and on Today, and nothing goes on your record until you answer. The figures come from the invoice itself. You give it a name for your record, and it is ready to add.

Choose Add to my home record and it goes on your home's history, and into the project's folder if it was for a project. Choose Don't add it and it stays off your record, and Zulma deletes it in 30 days.

Open anything without leaving

Tap a document and it opens inside Zulma. You scroll a PDF page by page, and a photo opens large. The arrows take you to the next file, and Download saves the original.

The list can be sorted by name, by last edit or by size. Switch to the grid to see a small picture of each photo.

Find it again

Type into Search files and the list narrows as you go. It matches a document's name, its kind and what it is linked to, so "dish" finds the dishwasher warranty and anything else you linked to the dishwasher.

Recent shows what was added or changed in the last 30 days. Star a document from its menu and it waits for you under Favourites. Stars are personal, so a co-owner keeps their own.

More with Zulma+

With Zulma+ you can make folders of your own. Make one for the kitchen, put another inside it for the appliances, and give each a colour. A file sits in one folder at a time, and the views on the left still look across every folder, so nothing you file away gets lost. Everyone on the home sees the same folders.

Search also reaches the words inside your PDFs. Search "drain pump" and Zulma finds the page of the manual that mentions it, shows you the line, and opens the manual at that page. If a PDF is a scan with no text in it, Zulma tells you its words can't be searched yet.

And at tax time there is the tax-ready export, free on every plan. For any year with records, Zulma gathers what you spent on the home that year into one download: a PDF, a spreadsheet and a folder of receipts. Everything goes in unless you take it out. If you work from home, you enter how much of the home you use for work. A home you rent out gets its own rental section. Zulma gives no tax advice and works out no deduction. It puts the records in order for you or your accountant.

Who can see your documents

Only you and anyone who co-owns the home with you. Someone you invite to help with the home, or just to look, does not see them.

If a business needs your furnace manual, share it. A business can be shown your warranties and manuals and nothing else, until the share ends, which you can do at any time.

Where to find it

Documents is in My Home at app.zulma.ca, which is free for up to 3 homes. Zulma+ adds your own folders and searching inside PDFs.