Manage Project Documents Systematically with GLOBODOX

Organize projects using Stack Types and save each project as a Stack.
Link all relevant documents to the project ID without moving from the original folders!

Why use document management software to manage project documents?
Using document management software is a great way to manage project documents digitally. It lets you organize your project documents in several ways and retrieve them quickly too. Though there are plenty of project management applications available, switching between the application and the related documents is not an efficient way of working. What you need is software that will both store the project documents and allow you to manage them too, using the same application. GLOBODOX is an enterprise document management solution that stores your documents in its databases and offers a range of ways to manage these documents.

How to manage project documents using GLOBODOX
Project documents are best managed in GLOBODOX using Stack Types. For example, to manage projects, you could create a Stack Type and name it ‘Projects’. You would then store each project as a distinct Stack. Your projects would have a name or ID. To store documents connected with a project – say, ‘Office Renovation’ – all you need to do is link those documents to that project (in this case, the stack named ‘Office Renovation’). Most of your documents will be stored in some folder or subfolder. Some documents may not be part of any folder. The beauty of this system is that even though you link them to a stack, the documents will not get deleted from their original location. To refer to the relevant document, you simply need to double-click the link, and the document is there in front of you!

Documents are usually stored in folders or tagged so they can be easily tracked with other documents of the same type for quick retrieval, reporting, etc. But some documents may not be part of any such category but are created exclusively as part of a project. These documents have a closer association with the project stack. GLOBODOX offers you the option to relate such documents to the project instead of linking them. So in the example above, you may have received several E-brochures in PDF format from different furnishing companies. As office renovation is a one-off project, you need not store the E-brochures under any document category. But you can ‘relate’ all the brochures to the Office Renovation project. When the project is over, you have the option to move the brochures to a different location (e.g. to a folder) in case the stack is being deleted. That’s because if the stack is deleted, all documents that are related to the stack will get deleted, but documents that are only linked to a stack will stay in their original locations. However, if the stack is retained in GLOBODOX, you can leave these E-brochures untouched or move them if you wish.

More ways of managing project documents using GLOBODOX
Good document management software should allow you to manage project documents in multiple ways. That’s because each document has its own unique identity apart from being linked to a project.

• • Store documents by Folders
    

Documents connected to a project can be organized into department wise folders; e.g. Invoices from the renovation contractor can be stored under the ‘Accounts’ department folder – ‘Accounts Payable’ subfolder, while the area wise renovation plan can be stored under the ‘Operations’ folder – ‘Rosters’ subfolder to manage employee seating arrangements and schedules during the renovation period.

• • Assign tags
    

This is one quick way of classifying documents; e.g. checks received can be tagged as ‘Received’. Once deposited or cleared, change the tag to ‘Deposited’ or ‘Cleared’ or drag the document onto the respective tag in the navigation pane. This will automatically update the document’s tag suitably.

• • Use Document Types to segregate
    project documents; e.g. store all checks paid to the contractor under the ‘Checks’ document type. You can create unique indexing fields for each type; e.g. for ‘Checks’, you can create fields and store details like Date Issued, Payee, etc.
  • Stack Types
    

The stack type ‘Projects’ discussed earlier in this article is just one example. You can even create stack types like ‘Customers’, ‘Employee Appraisals’, ‘Vendors’, etc.