Guide
A document collection portal or a spreadsheet
Most companies start with email and Excel. That works with a handful of contractors. With a few dozen it stops working, always at the worst moment: during an audit or a handover.
Working in a spreadsheet
You send a message, wait, add a row. Someone sends a document to a different inbox or in reply to an old thread and the row no longer matches. The policy expiry date sits in a cell somebody has to remember to check. When the person running it leaves, the knowledge stays in their mailbox.
Working through a portal
You send a link. The contractor opens it on a phone, photographs the document and sends it, with no account. The file lands against the right item and the status updates itself. The expiry date is watched by the system, which warns you 30 days before the deadline.
Where the spreadsheet loses
Chasers. In a spreadsheet a reminder is another email you write by hand. In a portal it goes out on its own. The second thing is security: attachments in mailboxes have no access control, while files in a portal stay with one organisation and one permission list. Data and backups stay in the European Union.
When a spreadsheet is enough
With a few regular contractors and documents without expiry dates, a spreadsheet is fine. The problem starts when the number of items grows, documents expire, or more than one person runs the collection. Then the cost of manual work passes the cost of the tool.
What you gain by switching
One list of gaps instead of searching threads. A review queue where you accept or reject with a reason, and the sender sees the decision right away. An export of the full set of files with statuses when an audit comes.