A property damage report arrives through a public website form. The customer uploads three photographs of the damaged panel and a scanned incident log. The form creates a case. But the photographs stay in the form system, attached to a submission record the operator cannot see from the case view. The operator receives a text summary and a note that instructs them to open another system to find the files. That handoff breaks the chain of evidence at the first step.
The operator now must locate the submission, verify that the photographs match the case, download the files, and re-attach them to the case manually. The original submission timestamp is lost. If the operator attaches the wrong file or misses one, the case record is incomplete. Every subsequent reviewer - a supervisor approving a repair estimate, a compliance lead auditing the claim - works from a record that does not contain the original evidence. The gap is common and it is costly. A case that should carry its own proof carries only a reference to it.
Latch closes this gap by capturing files submitted through configured form fields and attaching them directly to the case. When a form field is marked for file upload, any accepted file becomes a permanent case attachment. The attachment appears in the case evidence, travels with the case through its lifecycle, and appears in the timeline alongside status transitions, notes, and approvals. The operator does not leave the case to find the file. The evidence is where the work is.
The configuration layer is deliberate. A public form can enable attachments, set how many files are accepted, and use image or file fields for the evidence the workflow needs. File-size and type checks run during submission. Files that pass validation are stored with the form submission and linked to the created case. The operator sees the original filename, type, and attachment in the case instead of a text-only reference to another system.
Timeline placement matters. When an operator opens a case that began with a web form attachment, the submitted file is available in the same case context as the intake details and later activity. A photograph of a damaged panel, a scanned invoice, or a signed authorization remains available as the timeline grows. A supervisor reviewing the next action can open the same file without asking anyone to forward it. Later reassignment, notes, and resolution activity stay connected to the evidence that initiated the work.
When the configuration matters. Configure file fields on any public form where the operator needs the original attachment to make a decision or prove a step. Damage reports, warranty claims, onboarding documents, signed agreements - any intake where a file is the primary evidence, not a supplement. If the form collects only structured data such as an account number or a drop-down selection, file fields add unnecessary complexity and should be omitted. The goal is to remove the cross-reference step, not to turn every form into a file collector.
What can go wrong without it. An operator working from a text summary may mischaracterize the evidence. A supervisor approving an action based on a description rather than the photograph may authorize work that the evidence does not support. An auditor who cannot see the original file cannot confirm that the file the operator attached later is the file the customer submitted. Each of these failures creates a control gap that is expensive to remediate after the fact and impossible to prove during an audit.
Failure modes to anticipate. The validation rules must match the file types the submitter is likely to send. If the configuration accepts only JPEGs but customers regularly send PNGs, legitimate submissions fail at intake. If size limits are too low, customers with high-resolution photographs cannot complete the form. The submitter must receive a clear error message that explains what is wrong and how to correct it; a generic failure message causes abandoned submissions. Test the form with the actual file types and sizes the team expects real customers to submit, not with ideal files.
Honest limitations. This feature preserves files submitted through configured Latch web-form intake. It does not retroactively recover files from earlier submissions or from a separate form system that never sent the file. The attachment is evidence, not an editable document. If a submitter sends the wrong photograph, an operator can add the corrected evidence later while the original submission remains part of the record.
This capability does not change how email attachments work. It addresses the specific gap that opens when a public form is the intake channel. Cases that arrive through email already preserve context as described in preserving email context in a case and the email ingestion pipeline and operational triage. The form attachment feature closes the same gap for web-originated work, ensuring that the intake channel does not determine whether the original file survives the handoff.
The operating principle is traceability from the first point of contact. A case that opened because of a photograph should carry that photograph for everyone who touches it. When an auditor asks to see the original submission, the operator does not say "it is in the form system." They scroll to the top of the timeline and the file is there.
Read more in the July product update, and see how the pattern extends across intake channels in moving mailbox triage into governed case handling.