If you’re moving to a document management system from Windows folders, there’s one rule that shapes the whole migration: every client document has to belong to a Client and a Matter. No exceptions.
On a file server, you can make a folder called “Johnson Stuff” and drop whatever you want in it. A DMS doesn’t work that way, and that’s on purpose.
This Is the “Management” in Document Management
A Windows folder structure stores your documents. A document management system (DMS) manages them.
In a DMS, every client document is profiled with a Client and Matter. That’s what lets you search across a matter, secure it, and find everything filed to it without hunting through someone’s personal folder naming scheme. In NetDocuments, those documents live in the Client Cabinet.
We usually populate the Client and Matter tables from your practice management or billing and accounting system. That way the Clients and Matters in your DMS match the ones you’re already billing against.
Only Client Documents Belong with Your Clients and Matters
If a document isn’t client-related — admin files, scans, forms, templates — it doesn’t go with your client documents. In NetDocuments, those go into a folder-based cabinet, where a folder structure works just fine.
That part is easy. The hard part is the next one.
What If You Have Client Documents but No Client or Matter?
Sometimes you’ve got a folder of client work, but that client or matter was never opened in your practice management system. Maybe it’s old, maybe it was informal, maybe it just never got set up.
The DMS needs a Client and Matter to put it under. Here are your options.
Option 1: Open Them in Your Practice Management System
Create the real Clients and Matters in your practice management system, let them flow into your DMS, and import the documents where they belong.
This is the cleanest result. Everything lands in a real Client and Matter, and your billing system and DMS agree. The cost is the time it takes someone at the firm to open them.
Option 2: Create Dummy Clients and Matters
Come up with placeholder Clients and Matters in your DMS so the documents have somewhere to go.
It gets the documents in, and they’re still searchable by Client and Matter. The tradeoff is that you now have Clients and Matters in your DMS that don’t exist in your practice management system, and someone has to keep track of what they are.
Option 3: Import Them into a Legacy Folder Structure
Put them in a folder-based area of the DMS using the same folder structure they have today. In NetDocuments, that’s a folder-based cabinet.
This works if you don’t plan on ever moving them in with your active Clients and Matters. Here’s why that matters: in NetDocuments, you can move documents between cabinets, but you cannot move folders between cabinets. If you change your mind later, you’re moving documents, not folders, and the folder structure doesn’t come with them.
Option 4: Create a Catch-All Client and Matter
Create one catch-all Client and Matter and import everything there. The folder structure still exists inside it, so nothing gets flattened.
This is the best option if you do plan on moving them into real Clients and Matters once they exist. The documents are already with your client documents, so moving them is just reprofiling to the right Client and Matter.
The catch is volume. Depending on the amount of documents, a catch-all matter can get unwieldy.
Option 5: Don’t Import Them at All
Leave them out of the migration. When the Clients and Matters get created later, bring the documents into the DMS yourself.
You don’t have to drag them in one at a time. In NetDocuments, the folder import tool is built into ndOffice, and you can upload 30,000 documents at a time with it. In a previous post, I covered how the folder import tool works in ndOffice 4.0.
The tradeoff is that the work lands on your staff, and it only gets done if someone remembers to do it.
Which Option Is Right for Your Firm?
It comes down to one question: will these documents ever need to live under a real Client and Matter?
- Yes, and you can open them now – Option 1.
- Yes, but not right now – Option 4.
- No, they’re reference only – Option 3.
- You need Client and Matter searching but won’t open them in billing – Option 2.
- You’d rather not migrate them at all – Option 5.
You can mix these.
What you can’t do is put client documents in a DMS without a Client and Matter. Decide before the migration, not after.
Need Help Moving to a Document Management System?
If you’re planning a move from Windows folders to a DMS and aren’t sure how to handle the documents that don’t line up with your practice management system, we can walk through your folder structure and help you pick the right approach — usually in a single call.
Schedule a free consultation at go.oncehub.com/optconsult.
Craig Bayer is the founder of Optiable and has rolled out NetDocuments for over 600 law firms since 2010, specializing in firms with 10 to 150 users.
CONNECT WITH CRAIG → https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigbayer/