# Your first upload

The Vintage team sets up **every new organization's first portfolio** by hand. You upload and map your files as normal, and at the point you would reach Review, the upload comes to us. We look over the columns, finish the setup with the same screens you would use, and email you when your portfolio is ready. This is a service, not a check: it applies to every new organization, and it is not a judgement on you or your data.

It happens once. After your organization is set up, every upload works as described in [How uploading works](/uploading/how-uploading-works/), and organizations that are already set up are never affected.

## What you do

1. **Choose your files and remove personal information** exactly as usual. See [Choosing files](/uploading/choosing-files/) and [Removing personal information](/uploading/removing-personal-information/). Personal information is removed in your browser before anything is sent, as for every upload.

2. **Wait for processing, or leave.** You are emailed when the files are ready for column mapping.

3. **Map your columns** and press **Continue**. This saves your mapping and hands the upload to the Vintage team. See [Mapping columns](/uploading/mapping-columns/).

That is all. You do not see the Review step for this upload, and nothing claims you did.

## The screen you see when the upload is with us

After you press **Continue** on Column Mapping, the uploader ends on a screen headed **Your first upload is with us**. It says that your mapping is saved, that there is nothing for you to come back and finish, and that we will email you when your portfolio is ready. It offers **Back to uploads** and, for an admin, **Invite teammates**.

There is no spinner and no progress bar on this screen, because nothing it could show you would be a real measure of our work. The progress rail still shows how far the upload got, with Column Mapping marked done.

## While your portfolio is being set up

Until setup is complete, a few things are different for everyone in your organization:

| What | While setup is in progress |
|---|---|
| **Navigation** | **Modeling**, **Portfolio**, and **Fields** are hidden. Going to one directly shows a page headed **Your portfolio is being set up**. **Upload** and **Settings** work as usual. |
| **Where you land** | An admin or editor lands on **Uploads**. A viewer lands on the page explaining the wait. |
| **Upload History** | The upload reads **In verification**, with a note that nothing there needs you. Its action is **Open upload**, not Resume, because there is nothing to pick up. Uploads already accepted during setup read **In verification** too. |
| **The handed-over upload** | It cannot be edited, re-analyzed, added to, deleted, or accepted while it is with us. Reopening it shows the "with us" screen again. |
| **Other uploads** | You can keep uploading. Each new upload is mapped as usual and handed over at the same point. |
| **Column Mapping** | Works as usual, with two exceptions: changing an existing field's type is unavailable, and the per-field statistics (coverage, ranges, sample values) stay hidden. Those describe the portfolio that is not open yet. |
| **"Your portfolio is updated" email** | Held. It would point at a Modeling screen that is not open yet. It is not lost: the email sent when setup is complete takes its place. |

## The Vintage support member on your Team list

To finish the setup, a member of the Vintage team **joins your organization as an editor** and works through the ordinary product screens: the same Column Mapping and Review you would have used. Joining is not an invitation, so you are not emailed about it and nobody has to accept anything.

That person appears on your **Team** list in Settings, tagged **Vintage support**, with the ordinary **Remove** control on their row. Your admin can end that access at any time, exactly as for any other member. When the work is done, the Vintage team member leaves the organization and the row disappears. See [Team and organization settings](/account/team-and-organization-settings/).

## If we hand an upload back to you

If something about an upload needs your attention, we return it to you with a note. The upload unfreezes: its row in Upload History changes from **In verification** to **Mapping**, with a **Resume** button, and resuming it opens **Column Mapping** as usual, with our note shown above the mapping under **A note from the Vintage team**:

> We looked over this upload and have sent it back to you with a note. Make any changes you need, then press Continue and we will pick it up again.

Below that is our note, **quoted exactly as we wrote it**, attributed to the Vintage team and dated. Make the changes, then press **Continue**: the upload comes back to us and the "with us" screen returns. Handing one upload back does not complete your setup; the rest of it is still with us.

## When your portfolio is ready

When setup is complete, we verify your organization. At that moment:

- **Modeling**, **Portfolio**, and **Fields** open for everyone in the organization, and their navigation entries reappear.
- **Every member** is emailed **Your portfolio is verified and ready**, with an **Open Modeling** button. Everyone receives it, not only the person who uploaded, because the setup kept those screens closed to all of you.
- The held **Your portfolio is updated** email is not sent as a second message. It would say the same thing about the same upload.
- From then on, uploads behave normally, including the Review step.

Your organization is never verified while any upload is still with us, so the email always means the setup is truly finished. Each member receives it once.

**Use the wait to invite your team:** Admins can invite teammates while setup is in progress, so they are ready the moment Modeling opens. Invited teammates start as viewers unless you choose editor. See [Team and organization settings](/account/team-and-organization-settings/).

## Related

- [How uploading works](/uploading/how-uploading-works/)
- [Upload History](/uploading/upload-history/)
- [Mapping columns](/uploading/mapping-columns/)
- [Team and organization settings](/account/team-and-organization-settings/)
- [Emails Vintage sends](/reference/emails-vintage-sends/)
- [Quickstart](/getting-started/quickstart/)