# Using Bulk Document Actions

You can use bulk document actions to make changes on up to 1,000 documents at once. These actions include editing field values, starting Read & Understood workflows, and more. In PromoMats, you can also use bulk actions to generate a compliance binder and 2253 form.

An Admin must enable this functionality in your Vault. Once enabled, it is only available to users with a security profile that includes the **Document: Bulk Update** permission. See [security details][1] below.

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      <p><strong>Note</strong>: Vault does not filter bulk actions based on the types of documents selected. When you complete a bulk action, you will receive an email indicating which documents succeeded or failed. Any failed documents will include a reason. See below for help on various bulk options.</p>
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### Using Bulk Document Actions {#using-bulk-document-actions}


This video demonstrates how to perform bulk document actions:
<video controls width=860 height =504 poster="https://platform.veevavault.help/assets/images/posters/2025-using-bulk-document-actions.png" preload="metadata">
    <source src="https://platform.veevavault.help/108e9b1d-559c-4d48-918b-1e4c5b5a533c/888d7478-0aa6-4837-bc05-99825d148926/888d7478-0aa6-4837-bc05-99825d148926_source__v.mp4" type="video/mp4" >
    
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    label="English"
    kind="subtitles"
    srclang="en"
    src="/en/gr/assets/captions/24r3-using-bulk-document-actions.vtt"
    default />
    </video>

<a href="/en/gr/676803/">Details</a>



## Select Documents from the Library {#select}

To select library documents for a bulk action:

  1. Open the **Library**.
  2. Use the views, search, or filters to narrow down the list of documents. Once you've started the bulk editing process, you can deselect individual documents, but you can only access filters and search at this stage.
  3. From the Library **Actions** menu, choose which set of documents to select. You can choose only the documents visible on the current page, or all documents (up to 1000) that fit the active filter and search criteria.
  4. From the **Refine Selection** page, review the list of selected documents and deselect any that you do not want to include in the bulk edit.
  5. Click **Next**. See below for help on the various bulk options. For PromoMats Vaults, you also need go generate Form 2253.

You can select and export entire binders with the [document export bulk action][2].

## Select Documents from Binders

To select binder documents for a bulk action:

  1. Open a binder.
  2. Navigate to the section containing the documents to edit.
  3. Make sure the binder layout is set to **Compact View**.
  4. From the section's **Actions** menu above the list of documents, choose which set of documents to select. You can choose only the documents visible on the current page, or all documents (up to 100).
  5. From the **Refine Selection** page, review the list of selected documents and deselect any that you do not want to include in the bulk edit.
  6. Click **Next**. See below for help on the various bulk options.

## Select Documents from Reports

Selecting documents from a report is especially useful if you're editing fields for more than 1,000 documents. In this situation, create a report with a filter that specifies the undesired value. For example, you want to move all documents from _Site 1001_ to _Site 1002_. The report filter would specify "Site is equal to 1001." After running the report, use the maximum bulk action selection (1,000) and complete the action. Once the first action is complete, refresh the report and repeat the process.

Bulk action selection is not available on reports that use groupings.

  1. Run a tabular (not matrix) report that returns documents. These reports will have a report type like _Document_ or _Product with Document_.
  2. From the section's **Actions** menu above the list of documents, choose which set of documents to select. You can choose only the documents visible on the current page, or all documents (up to 1,000).
  3. From the **Refine Selection** page, review the list of selected documents and deselect any that you do not want to include in the bulk edit.
  4. Click **Next**. See below for help on the various bulk options.

## Select Documents from Cart

To select documents in your <a href="/en/gr/36402/">Cart</a>
 for a bulk action:

  1. Open your **Cart**.
  2. From the **Actions** menu above the list of documents, choose which set of documents to select. You can choose only the documents visible on the current page, or all documents.
  3. From the **Refine Selection** page, review the list of selected documents and deselect any that you do not want to include in the bulk edit.
  4. Click **Next**. See below for help on the various bulk options.

## Update Document Fields {#fields}

Not all fields are available to edit using bulk document actions:

* Field must be common across all selected documents.
* Field cannot have dependencies.
  * An exception: For the <a href="/en/gr/2617/#controlled-by-document-lifecycle">_Controlled by Document Lifecycle_</a>
 field dependency rule, fields included in the _Behavior of Other Fields_ option as read-only can be edited when performing a bulk action to update document fields.

To update document fields:

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Edit Fields**.
  2. Click **Next**.
  3. On the **Edit Fields** page, Vault displays editable fields.
  4. Edit a field value across all documents by clicking **Edit field** (<i class="far fa-pencil"></i>) and entering the new value. If the field is already populated on a document, this new value will replace the existing value. If you edit the field but leave it empty, Vault will clear the field across all selected documents.
  5. Optional: Reset a field to its existing values by clicking **Revert** (<i class="far fa-undo"></i>).
  6. Click **Next**.
  7. From the **Confirmation** page, review the summary of changes.
  8. Click **Finish**. When the changes are complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email.

## Start Read & Understood Workflows {#workflows}

Begin a Read & Understood workflow using this functionality. For each bulk action, you may only select a single workflow that Vault will start for all selected and valid documents. Read & Understood workflows are the only workflow type that you can start using bulk document actions.

When selecting workflow participants, Vault does not limit the list of users. You may be able to select users that are not allowed in a specific role on a specific document because of Allowed Users settings or Dynamic Access Control. When this occurs, Vault allows you to continue with the bulk action, but does not complete the invalid user assignments. You will receive a failure notification for any assignments that Vault could not complete.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Start Workflow**.
  2. Click **Next** to open the **Choose Workflow** page.
  3. Choose a Read & Understood workflow. You can only start a workflow on documents that share the same lifecycle and are in the same lifecycle state, so Vault displays the available workflows by lifecycle and state.
  4. Click **Next** to open the **Edit Workflow Details** page.
  5. Fill in workflow details (role assignees, due dates, etc.) like you would when starting the workflow for an individual document.
  6. Click **Next**.
  7. From the Confirmation page, review the summary of changes.
  8. Click **Finish**. When the changes are complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email. Once you've started the workflow, you can manage each document's workflow individually, for example, by canceling tasks for one document's workflow without affecting the others.

## Change Document States

The bulk state change action does not verify the conditions for conditional user actions until you complete the action. Therefore, Vault may display and allow you to select actions that aren't valid for all documents included in the bulk action. Documents that don't meet the specified conditions will remain in their original state. Checked out documents cannot change states.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Change State**.
  2. Click **Next**.
  3. On the **Choose State Change** page, select the new state for your documents. You can only change the state of documents that are in the same lifecycle and lifecycle state, so Vault displays only the available states by lifecycle and state.
  4. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page. Review the summary of changes before moving on.
  5. Click **Finish.** When the changes are complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email.

## Apply or Remove Legal Holds

A user with the appropriate legal permissions can perform a bulk action to apply or remove an approved legal hold.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Apply Legal Hold** or **Remove Legal Hold**.
  2. Click **Next** to open the **Edit Details** page.
  3. Select the approved legal hold you want to apply or deselect the legal hold you want to remove.
  4. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review the summary of documents.
  5. Click **Finish**. When the changes are complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email.

## Delete Documents

You can only delete _Planned_ documents, including those in a binder, unless an Admin overrides the default configuration.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Delete Documents**.
  2. To check if you have the **Delete Documents** permission on the selected documents, click **Calculate Permissions**. This will tell you how many documents you have permission to delete.
  3. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review the summary of documents you chose for deletion. This action cannot be reversed.
  4. Click **Finish**. When the changes are complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email.

## Create Document Relationships

You can use bulk actions to create inbound or outbound document <a href="/en/gr/21330/">relationships</a>
. With this action, you select a relationship type and choose to either create an inbound relationship from a chosen document, or an outbound relationship to a chosen document. When searching for documents to link, Vault excludes documents you selected for bulk action.

### How to Link to Selected Documents

When you choose the **Link to selected documents** option, you create an inbound document relationship from the document you choose.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Create Document Relationship**.
  2. Select **Link to selected documents**.
  3. Select a relationship type from the picklist. You cannot select system-managed relationship types, such as _Based On_ and _Original Source_. Some relationship types are not valid for all document types. If you select an invalid relationship type, Vault notifies you of the error after.
  4. Select a document from the picklist.
  5. Select a version if the relationship type source is version-specific. This means that the created relationship will be associated with the document you're linking from. If the relationship type target is version-specific, the relationship will always be linked to the specific target version.
  6. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page. This page provides a summary of the number documents to be updated, the relationship type created, and lists the impacted documents.
  7. Click **Finish**. When Vault completes the action, you will receive a notification via email and in the **Notifications** page within Vault.

### How to Link from Selected Documents

When you choose the **Link from selected documents** option, you create an outbound document relationship from the document you choose. We recommend using this option as a best practice.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page**,** select **Create Document Relationship.**
  2. Select **Link from selected documents**.
  3. Select a relationship type from the picklist. Vault only lists [supported relationship types][3]; you cannot select system-managed relationship types, such as _Based On_, _Original Source_ or _Attachments_. Some relationship types are not valid for all document types. If you select an invalid relationship type, Vault notifies you of the error after.
  4. Select a document from the picklist.
  5. Select a version if the relationship type target is version-specific. This means that the relationship will always be linked to the specific target version. If the relationship type source is version-specific, the created relationship is associated with the document you're linking from.
  6. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page. This page provides a summary of the number documents to be updated, the relationship type created, and lists the impacted documents.
  7. Click **Finish**. When Vault completes the action, you will receive a notification via email and in the **Notifications** page within Vault.

### Supported Relationship Types {#supported_types}

This action supports the following relationship types:

* Claims
* Components
* License Files
* Patient Labeling
* Product Labeling
* Related Documents
* Related Materials
* Related Pieces
* Related Claims
* Supporting Documents
* Translations

Your organization may have worked with Veeva Services to create additional custom relationship types for your Vault.

### Failure to Bulk Create Document Relationships

Bulk actions to create document relationships will fail in the following situations. If this occurs, Vault will send an error notification after the action completes.

* You selected an invalid relationship type for the source or target document type. You can see which relationship types apply to a specific document from the fields panel of the Doc Info page.
* You selected a relationship type that doesn't allow all document types as target documents. The documents you selected as the target did not have an allowed document type. 

## Create Batches {#create-batch}

This action supports the <a href="/en/gr/36519/">Batch Approval</a>
 feature. It creates a new _Batch_ object record and associates the selected documents with the record through their _Batch Number_ field.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Create Batch**.
  2. To check if you have the **Edit Fields** permission on the selected documents, click **Calculate Permissions**. This will tell you how many documents you have permission to add to a new batch.
  3. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review the summary of documents you chose for the batch.
  4. Click **Finish**. When the _Batch_ record creation is complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email.

## Add Documents to Binders

You can perform a bulk action to add documents to a new binder, or to an existing binder. Vault always adds documents to the top level ("root") section of the binder. If the binder's root section already includes one of the selected documents, Vault does not add that document again.

To add documents to a new binder:

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Add to Binder**.
  2. Select **Create New**.
  3. Select the document type for the binder from the **Choose document type** field**.**
  4. Click **Next** to open the **Edit Details** page and enter information for all required binder fields.
  5. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review a summary of the binder field values and documents you are adding to the binder.
  6. Click **Finish**. When the action is complete, a notice will appear in your **Notification** page and Vault will send you an email. These notices include the number of documents successfully or unsuccessfully added to the binder as well as links to each document. Documents unsuccessfully added to the binder will not stop the bulk action from completion.

To add documents to an existing binder:

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Add to Binder**.
  2. Select **Add to Existing**.
  3. Select a binder from the **Select binder to add documents to** field. You can see any binders you have permission to edit.
  4. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review a summary of the documents you are adding to the binder.
  5. Click **Finish**. When the action is complete, a notice will appear in your **Notification** page and Vault will send you an email. These notices include the number of documents successfully or unsuccessfully added to the binder as well as links to each document. Documents unsuccessfully added to the binder will not stop the bulk action from completion.

## Export Documents {#document-export-bulk-action}

With the document export bulk action, you can download source files, renditions, field values, and audit trails for multiple documents at once, including entire binders and their contents.

  1. From the **Choose Action** page, select **Document Export**.
  2. Click **Next**.
  3. Use the **Choose Artifacts** option. If you include binders in the export, Vault bases the _Follow Version Binding Rule_ on the <a href="/en/gr/5489/">binding option</a>
 set for each binder. For document exports without binders, this option exports only the latest document versions in the export.
  4. Choose a **Version Selection** option to apply to documents in selected binders.
  5. Under **Define Document Naming Rule**, select which document field to use for naming exported files.
  6. Click **Next**.
  7. Click **Next** to open the **Confirmation** page and review the summary of documents you chose for the export action.
  8. Click **Finish**. When the export is complete, a notice will appear in your **Notifications** page and Vault will send you an email. The notifications include a link to download a ZIP file containing your documents.

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      <p><strong>Note</strong>: Vault will not include the following characters in the file name of an export: <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">&lt; &gt; : " " / \ | ?</code></p>
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### Export Artifact Options {#artifacts}

For the component documents that you export, you can choose to include:

Renditions
: Use the drop-down to select the rendition types to include. Viewable rendition, which exports the (typically auto-generated) PDF rendition of your document, is the most common. If the source file is a PDF, there is no separate viewable rendition. The drop-down list includes all available rendition types. Some may not apply to the documents you've selected.

Source Documents
: This option exports the source file for a document. Source documents can be any type of file (ZIP, DOCX, CSV, etc.).

Document Fields
: This option creates a single CSV file (TXT file if localization is enabled) listing each downloaded file and the associated document fields. If you download both viewable renditions and source files, the CSV file contains a separate record for each.

Document Attachments
: This option exports attachments that exist on selected documents. Use the drop-down to select either the _Latest Version_ of the attachments or _All Versions_.

Document Audit Trail
: Select this checkbox to export document audit trails. The audit trails include all document versions. Choose between exporting these logs as a PDF or CSV. TXT export is available if localization is enabled in your Vault.

### Document Versions & Binder Selection

For selected documents, Vault downloads the content associated with the latest document version. If you do not have access to the latest version of a document, you cannot download artifacts for that document.

If you've selected binders, Vault follows the **Version Selection** setting. This may be major versions, major and minor versions, or <a href="/en/gr/5489/">versions bound to that binder</a>
. The contents of the ZIP file reflect the binder's hierarchy, with folders and sub-folders for each binder, binder section, and nested binder.

### Overlays & Signature Pages

Viewable renditions may export with or without their overlays and signature pages. This depends on your Vault's settings.

### File & Folder Naming {#naming}

Vault uses the following standards for naming files during export:

* Document file names: Selected document field, plus the file type extension, for example, _REF-0023.docx_. If the document field selected is blank, Vault defaults to _Document Number_.
* Binder folder names: _Document Name_, for example, _Compliance Pack CC-39_.
* Binder section folder names: Section name, for example, _References_.
* Document fields file: "export_summary" plus date and time, for example, _export\_summary\_2013\_05\_14\_14\_09\_00\_EDT.csv_.
* Attachment folder names: _Document Name_ suffixed with __attach_, for example, _Compliance Pack CC-39_attach_. If truncation would cause two attachment folder names to be identical, Vault replaces the last character of one of the truncated names with a numeric identifier, for example, _Compli_attach_ and _Compl2_attach_.

If an Admin has enabled the **Apply user-defined value as folder and file names in export** option, the **Export File Name** document field is editable on the Doc Info page for each document, and binder section folder names are editable when editing binders.

### Folder Path Length Restriction

Vault will truncate filenames and folder names for documents which would exceed the maximum character count specified by your Admin for in binder export settings. By default, this maximum is 230 characters. The character count includes all characters from the top level (drive letter in Windows) through the file extension. For example, the folder path "C:/Docs/CC123.pdf" is 17 characters.

### Export Size Limits

You cannot export more than 50,000 artifacts and export ZIP files may not exceed 5GB, by default. You'll see an error notification if a requested export exceeds either limit.

## About Calculate Permissions

You can click the **Calculate Permissions** link to display the number of documents you have permission to perform bulk actions on.

## Bulk Action Processing Time

Bulk changes (including role assignments) occur asynchronously, meaning that there may be a delay before you see the changes, particularly on Vaults with a lot of activity. Once you confirm a bulk action, Vault puts the changes in a queue with other asynchronous tasks. When the changes are complete, a notice appears in your **Notifications** page and Vault sends a notification email.

## Read & Understood Workflows on Older Versions

When you use bulk document actions to start a Read & Understood workflow, you may need to route a document version other than the latest. Therefore, we respect the selected version when performing these actions, even if it is not the latest. All other bulk actions act on the latest version you can see.

## Related Security & Permissions {#security}

Vault's comprehensive security settings can control which users have access to bulk document updates.

| Type | Permission Label | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Security Profile | Document: Bulk Update | You must have a security profile that grants either this permission or Documents: Bulk Delete to see the Actions menu in the Library, binders, or reports, which allows you to access bulk action options. This permission, combined with the correct document role permissions, allows access to any enabled bulk actions. |
| Security Profile | Objects: Batch: Create | You must have a security profile that grants this permission in order to use the Create Batch action. This is in addition to document role permissions that allow you to edit the Batch Number field on individual documents. |
| Security Profile | Documents: Bulk Delete | You must have a security profile that grants either this permission or Library: Bulk Update to see the Actions menu in the Library, binders, or reports, which allows you to access bulk action options. This permission, combined with the correct document role permissions, allows access to delete documents. |
| Security Profile | Documents: Download Document | This permission is required to download document source files through the **Document Export** action. |
| Security Profile | Documents: Download Rendition | This permission is required to download document renditions through the **Document Export** action. |
| Security Profile | Objects: Controlled Copy User Input: Read, Create | In Vaults using Extensible Controlled Copy, this permission is required to create the **Controlled Copy User Input** record when downloading a controlled copy. |
| Security Profile | Objects: Controlled Copy Trace: Read | In Vaults using Extensible Controlled Copy, this permission is required to view the **Controlled Copy Trace** record Vault creates from the data entered in the **Controlled Copy User Input** dialog and record. |
| Document Type | Create Binder | You can only create binders if you have the **Create Binders** permission on at least one document type. This also controls which document types you can select for a new binder. |
| Document Role | View Document | Only documents on which you have the **View Document** permission will be available for selection. However, the ability to select a document does not mean you will be able to perform all bulk actions on it. This permission is required in order to download document field values through the **Document Export** action. |
| Document Role | View Content | This permission is required in order to download renditions through the **Document Export** action. |
| Document Role | Edit Fields | You can only edit field values for documents on which you have the **Edit Fields** permission. This permission is needed if you wish to use bulk document editing, the **Create Batch** action, or the **Create Relationships** action. |
| Document Role | Edit Document | You can only edit binders (structure, not document fields) on which you have the **Edit Document** permission. This permission is needed to use the **Add to Existing Binder** bulk action. |
| Document Role | Edit Sharing Settings | You can only add users to a role or remove users from a role for documents on which you have this permission. |
| Document Role | Change Owner | You can only use the **Change Owner** action for documents on which you have the **Change Owner** permission. |
| Document Role | Change Coordinator | You can only use the **Change Coordinator** action for documents on which you have the **Change Coordinator** permission. |
| Document Role | Start Workflow | You can only start a workflow for documents on which you have this permission. If your Vault uses **Atomic Security: Document Lifecycle Actions**, you will need permission to execute each specific workflow. |
| Document Role | Change State | You can only change the state of documents on which you have this permission. This permission is needed if you wish to use bulk state change. If your Vault uses **Atomic Security: Document Lifecycle Actions**, you will need permission to execute each specific state change action. |
| Document Role | Delete Document | You can only use bulk document deletion for documents on which you have this permission. |
| Document Role | Distribute Controlled Copies | You can only distribute controlled copies of documents on which you have this permission. This permission is needed if you wish to use the bulk generate controlled copy. |

 [1]: #security
 [2]: #document-export-bulk-action
 [3]: #supported_types