How to track documents efficiently: a complete guide to document tracking

You often create documents to close a deal — contracts, proposals, quotes.

The next thing you do? You send them over using email or via a messaging app.

You then need to verify if a person received your document.

You can get a tool to track email open rate or see if a recipient has indeed received your message in an app.

But did they do more than open it?

How much time did they spend reading it? What page did they spend most of the time on?

Document tracking provides these insights.

As part of a comprehensive document management system, this feature offers insights into how users interact with your document.

This article is about document tracking, its benefits and the ways to effectively track your docs using PandaDoc’s document management system.

Let’s start!

What is document tracking?

Document tracking is the ability to monitor the status, activity, and engagement of a document after it has been sent, including when it was opened, how long each section was read, and whether it has been signed or returned. Modern document tracking software provides real-time notifications and analytics so teams can follow up at the right moment instead of guessing.

Not all tracking is the same when it comes to document management: basic tracking tells you whether a document has or has not been opened. More advanced tracking tells you how much time a prospect spends on each page, gives you a map of their engagement, and provides a complete recipient activity history. 

You can use document tracking internally for things like version control and approval status, and you can use it externally to track sent documents like proposals, contracts, and NDAs. 

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What is document tracking software?

Document tracking software is a tool that provides real-time visibility into the status and engagement of documents sent for review, approval, or signature.

It focuses on sending notifications when a document is opened, tracking how long recipients spend on each section, showing which recipients have viewed the document and which haven’t, and logging the full activity history of a document.

This software doesn’t just give you basic email read receipts. It confirms that an email was opened, not that the attached document was read. 

Some of the best document management software includes PandaDoc, Docusign, and Adobe Sign, but the tracking depth will vary significantly by platform. 

For an even closer look, check out our guide on contract tracking. 

Can you track when a document is opened?

Yes, with document tracking software, you can receive a real-time notification as soon as a recipient opens your document. 

In contrast, an email read receipt will tell you that the email was opened. It won’t tell you if the attached document was viewed. For example, a document sent as a link via PandaDoc shows exactly when it was opened, by whom (if there are multiple recipients), and how long they spent reading each section.

This level of tracking depth can be really useful in sales. Say a rep sends a proposal out on Monday and gets a notification on Wednesday afternoon when the prospect opens it. The rep can act on that activity immediately with a follow-up call 30 minutes later while the proposal is still fresh in the prospect’s mind. This beats the random “day 5 follow-up” formula that many teams still use. 

Ready to get started on better tracking? Check out our recipe on how to set up real-time document tracking in PandaDoc. 

How do I know if someone has opened my document?

In PandaDoc, you’ll receive an email notification as soon as your document is opened. You’ll also be able to check the document’s activity history at any time in the dashboard.

PandaDoc surfaces document activity in four ways. It provides:

• Real-time notifications when documents are opened via email or as an in-app alert

• The document activity log, which shows you every open event with a timestamp and recipient attached

• Time-per-page analytics, showing how long the recipient spends reading each section

• The PandaDoc AI Assistant, which answers natural-language questions like, “Has [Recipient] opened [Document]?” and returns the status directly

When it comes to external documents like proposals or contracts, the recipient’s inbox history shows all the documents sent to that contact with a status for each. 

Know that if you sent the document as a PDF email attachment, however, you won’t have any of this data. 

Benefits and features of document tracking

Document tracking has extensive advantages — let’s dig in.

Audit trails

When we detect an issue in a document, the first thing we do is go to a record of changes.

This feature is available in a document management system as well.

When you share access to a document with multiple users, you can see a record of every user interaction.

Who opened it and when, what changes they made in a document and where.

If there is unauthorized access to a document, it will be shown in an audit trail as well.

This is what makes an audit trail such a favorite feature for teams that manage policies and contracts.

Control sharing

When you create policies and sensitive documents, you need to be careful with whom you share these docs.

With a document management system in place, you can determine a list of collaborators, recipients, and decide what they can do with a document: view, comment or full editing capabilities.

Easier collaborations

We all create documents faster when collaborating with teams and departments.

In a DMS, you can chat with people using a private or public chat when drafting a common document, or leave suggestions on a page.

Tracking progress

Document tracking helps to see what progress has been made on a document.

If you have already sent a document for review, there is no need to write an email asking about the progress.

You will see this information in your dashboard. You can also enable automatic reminders that will be sent to those who may be slowing down progress.

Security

Many document management systems put security front and center.

They follow important regulations under HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, FDA Good Manufacturing Practices or ISO 9000/9001 to provide you with more secure experiences when creating documents.

See also

7 HIPAA documents that you can send with PandaDoc

Third-party integrations

As a rule, DMS includes third-party integrations to boost productivity of teams.

Such tools like a CRM, accounting software or a calendar enables a seamless transfer of information across all your departments.

How to track documents

1. Track documents manually (spreadsheet method) 

This method would work by creating a shared spreadsheet with columns for document name, recipient, date sent, date opened (entered manually after follow-up confirmation), status, and next action. 

A manual tracking system can work for very small teams with fewer than ten active documents at a time. But the tradeoff is having no real-time data and having to rely on manual updates. 

Plus, you’ll have no depth to your engagement data, and the entire system breaks down quickly when your volume grows. This is not ideal for any growing business who wants the freedom to scale. 

2. Use email read receipts 

Using email read receipts will cover you in some ways. Email read receipts will notify you when an email is opened, but not when an attachment is read.

This option comes with several limitations, including not getting a confirmation that the PDF was opened. Plus, you won’t get time-per-page data, which is beneficial for making smarter follow-ups, and you won’t have multi-recipient visibility.

This feature is also frequently blocked by recipient email clients, in which case you won’t get any meaningful data. 

3. Use document tracking software (recommended) 

This is the best option for most use cases. Platforms like PandaDoc provide real-time tracking at the document level, not the email level. This gives you a whole lot more data to work with. 

You’ll get notifications whenever a recipient opens a document, time-per-page analytics, recipient activity history, engagement heatmaps, and AI-powered status queries.

Document tracking software is great for any team that’s sending more than 10 documents per month externally for review, approval, or signature, which doesn’t take that long to reach, in many cases.

Learn more about document management best practices for more ways you can better manage your business documents. 

PandaDoc’s document tracking features

PandaDoc offers specific capabilities to make tracking your business documents a whole lot easier. Some key features include:

• Real-time open notifications: As soon as a recipient opens your document, PandaDoc sends a notification. This feature is configurable by channel, including email and in-app.

• Time-per-page analytics: PandaDoc will show you exactly how long each recipient spent on each page or section, whether it’s pricing, terms, or scope. This shows you what a prospect reads carefully and what they skipped, which gives you information to act on. 

• Recipient activity history: For each document, you can see the full timeline of who opened it, when, and how many times.

• Multi-recipient tracking: If a document was sent to multiple signers or stakeholders, you’re able to track the activity for each recipient independently.

• AI Assistant status queries: You can ask PandaDoc a question like, "Has [Recipient] opened [Document]?" in plain language and get a current status answer without navigating to the document manually. 

• Engagement heatmaps: These are visual summaries of which sections of the document received the most attention from the recipient when reviewing. 

Ready for more actionable ways to win deals? Check out our recipes on:

• Set up proposal tracking in PandaDoc

• Use document intelligence for sales coaching

Pipeline automation with document engagement dataSee who's reading your documents and what they're spending time on. Try PandaDoc free →

PandaDoc document tracking vs. sending via email attachment

Let’s start with a quick comparison:

The difference matters most when the stakes are high. For example, with a proposal, a contract, or an NDA. Knowing whether a prospect spent eight minutes on the pricing section or skipped it entirely changes how you follow up.

Stop following up blind. Start a free PandaDoc trial and get real-time visibility into every document you send.

Document tracking for specific use cases

Tracking proposals

When it comes to proposals, you want to watch the openings, time spent on the pricing page, and multi-stakeholder engagement. Did only the gatekeeper open it, or did the decision-maker also view it? 

A proposal opened multiple times by multiple recipients is progressing, whereas a single brief open by one recipient is likely stalling. For a step-by-step setup, check out this proposal tracking recipe.

Tracking contracts

For contracts, the signals to watch are signature progress, which parties have signed versus who's outstanding, and time-to-sign trends. 

A contract that’s been opened 5+ times without signing often indicates an unanswered question or concern. This might be worth a proactive call before the deal stalls. 

Learn more about contract tracking, or set up closed-won notifications when a contract is signed so your team knows the moment a deal closes.

Tracking internal approval documents

With internal approval documents, you need to be able to see approval status, who has reviewed a document versus who's still outstanding, and where bottlenecks are forming in the approval chain. 

PandaDoc's approval workflow and status tracking surface this without manual chasing. See how to set it up with this contract approval workflow.