Using Auto-filing to create complex structure

Auto-filing is the best practice for getting content into the FileHold Library. By taking the time and effort to tag documents with rich metadata, auto-filing can determine where the document or record should be stored. This reduces or eliminates misfiling and simplifies the filing process. Auto-filing is simple to set up for basic automation, but with a major upside to incorporating more dynamic functions to create more intricate structures.

Library structure in FileHold focuses primarily on permissions and user access and less on organization. FileHold uses schema (document use type) and metadata (information about the content) to provide the context for the library. Metadata lets users locate, organize, and identify documents and records with ease, so relying on Library structure to provide this service is redundant and extra effort with minimal benefit. The library structure of Cabinets and Folders provides a simple way to apply groups or users and set the level of access based on their group role.

But, as FileHold is configurable software, it can be used to simulate the robust filing structure of paper-based documents: in fact, this is why the organizing tool of Cabinets/Drawers/Folders provides a visual analog of that physical structure. For some organizations, team members don’t like to use search and prefer to browse for content. Creating lots of folders to accommodate this can be a burden for administrators. This is where auto-filing can really help – not only can it put the document in the right place, it can also create that place for the document to be stored to eliminate the need for administrators to create it.

This blog assumes you are comfortable with the basics of creating auto-filing templates with merge tags. If you’re not comfortable using these standard features, there are links in our Knowledge Base to get you started, as well as some videos from recent webinars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mde49fTO5xU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQCCNDPIXM

Scenario 1 – Filing by Vendor name in groups

For the first scenario, we suppose we need to file our invoices just like we might with paper – a filing cabinet for each year, and a folder for every vendor. We can start with the caveat that this level of structure is not necessary, since any document or record can be located with a search by vendor name. But, if we really want this structure, here’s how we can configure our auto-filing template:

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All invoices will be filed in the AP Cabinet, in a drawer named after the year, and in a folder named after the vendor: very simple and just using merge tags. If you’re wondering why I’m not creating a Cabinet for the year, it’s because creating a cabinet requires a very high level of access in FileHold (Cabinet administrator or greater), but creating a folder only requires the user to be a Publisher: this means that any Publisher can add documents using this rule regardless of the invoice year – and saving administration involvement is the goal here!

(Also, note that all auto-filing templates in this article use the Library properties tab to allow the rule to create folders.)

The potential issue is volume. If there are hundreds of vendors, this rule will create hundreds of folders in the drawer of each year. This means, for those users who insist on browsing the library instead of searching, there will be a lot of scrolling up and down to find the particular folder they need. This is a perfect use case for folder groups that can gather folders to make them more compact. There are no practical limits to how many folder groups can be used, so we could make a folder group for all the companies starting with A, and another for all the B’s, etc - but in this case we will cluster our folders into larger groups, such A-D and E-I. We are no longer using the vendor name for the folder group, just the first letter – and we need some assistance with this in the folder group tab of the auto-filing rule.

Let’s start with looking at the for this revised template for the folder group clusters:

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AF Cluster summary

We have the same Cabinet (AP), Drawer (Invoice year) and Folder (Vendor name) rules as before, and several new Folder group rules. The auto-filing template, when applied to documents, will apply the rules in sequence. The order is important here, where we want to apply the more universal rules later and the specific rules earlier.

Here is the first rule:

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Auto-filing rule detail

It’s easiest to explain what is happening by going from the bottom to the top. The Target string is what we want to use for the rule: in this case, the metadata field for the invoice vendor. Next up is the regular expression, the programming logic that tells the rule what to look for: the first letter of the vendor name if it’s an A, B, C, or D. Next is the rule description, which is blank but could include details as needed. Finally, the Folder Group name, which is “A-D”. This is a text field, no different from the Cabinet rule for “AP”. If the Vendor name matches A, B, C, or D, the file will be put into the A-D folder group; if there is no match, then we move to the next rule.

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AF Folder Group summary

The next rule applies the logic to E-I, then J-M, then N-S, T-W, and finally XYZ. There are two different XYZ rules; the first one does the same logic as those above:

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The second rule has no regular expression or target string – it just tells the auto-filing script to put all the documents into one folder group, “XYZ & Misc”.

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This works as a catch-all – any Vendor whose name starts with a number, a lower case letter, or a punctuation mark would be filed under Misc. This rule needs to be at the very end of the sequence of rules, or else every document would end up here.

When executed, the rule will create the structure if none exists. Three sample dummy documents, for the vendors “Alpha Co”, “Foxtrot Inc”, and “eBravo”, were exported from SmartSoft Capture and brought in with a managed import: the resultant library structure was created by the auto-filing rules, not manually by an admin:

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Feel free to copy any or all of the formulas above and try this rule for yourself.

Scenario 2 – Filing with minimal folders

In our second use case, the organization realized it does not need a breakdown by year or a folder for each vendor: first, they are using events to automatically archive invoices after two years and delete them after seven, so the gathering by year is redundant; second, a folder for each vendor is overkill since they often only have a couple of documents per folder; they decide to gather them by the first letter of the vendor name so instead of hundreds of folders, they will have, at most, 26. If automated, folders are not created when there are no vendors – so if we have no X, Y, or Z companies, there is no name to create any of those folders. This method will vastly reduce the total number of folders needed.

This auto-filing summary is minimal: no folder groups, a stock cabinet and drawer designation, and only two folder rules. Because of the Event rules, we can do away with chronological drawers.

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AF First Letter Summary

The folder definition has two rules – the first is doing most of the work.

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AF Rule first letter

We have our Target string still pointing to the Vendor field, but now the regular expression is using a new function – we’re naming the value that we find “First Letter”. In the Folder name, we use the ‘replace’ merge tag to use that value for the folder name – so now if it’s a standard character of A through Z upper case, it creates a folder with that name. The second rule is the catch-all - if the name starts with anything other than an uppercase A-Z, such as a number, it goes into Miscellaneous. Feel free to copy and adapt!

Once we export our three test documents, we see a simpler structure created without any additional effort from users or administrators, and both browsers and searchers are satisfied:

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For those wondering about gathering the invoices by vendor name within the folder, we can create a custom view to group all the invoices by Vendor Name. This Custom view will cluster the vendors together, and sort them chronologically, so users who browse the folder will see logical layouts.

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Custom view for Invoices

Auto-filing is a standard feature of FileHold. If you’re comfortable with regular expressions, you can create your own templates that can perform even more intricate operations. FileHold’s Professional Services team can assist with any advice you may need.

This content can also be seen in the video below.