If your policies already exist as documents, don't retype them. The policy creation chooser offers five ways in — pick a starting point, land in the same editor, and publish from there. You need the policy-management permission for all of them.
What are the ways to create a policy?
Open Operations → Policies and start a new policy. The chooser offers:
| Entry point | Best for |
|---|---|
| Template | Standard policies (code of conduct, health & safety…) pre-filled with your business's name and details |
| AI assistant | Drafting a policy conversationally — available when your business has the AI assistant enabled |
| Upload | An existing PDF, Word (.docx), or HTML file, up to 50 MB |
| Paste | Text copied from anywhere |
| Blank | Writing from scratch |
How do I upload an existing policy document?
Choose Upload
From the policy chooser.
Drop in the file
PDF, .docx, or HTML, up to 50 MB. Anything else is rejected up front.
Title and categorise it
Give it a title and pick a category — code of conduct, health & safety, privacy, harassment, attendance, social media, confidentiality, employee handbook, or other.
Let Owneli extract the content
The document's text is pulled into the policy body for you to review.
Save as a draft
Check the extraction — headings and lists occasionally need tidying — then save. It publishes like any other policy.
Paste and the AI helper
Paste is the same flow minus the file — paste the text, title it, save the draft. The AI assistant drafts a policy in conversation, template-first, using your business's details; like every AI surface in Owneli it produces drafts for your review, never published text. See the general pattern in Build an email or form with the AI helper.
Common questions
My scanned PDF imported as gibberish or nothing. Why?
Extraction reads the document's text layer. A scan that's just images has none — run it through OCR first, or paste the text.
Does uploading publish the policy?
No. Every entry point lands on a draft. Review it, then publish deliberately — see Policies.
Why don't I see the AI option in the chooser?
The AI assistant is enabled per business in settings; when it's off, that card doesn't appear.