An older archive is a project with its own list, its own counts, and an approval at the end. The boxes already have an order: a file number, a date, a box label. That order has to survive the import. The date on the paper is stored on the file, and retention can use that date.
"Destroy the paper after the counts match."
The rule that keeps an archive project honestStart with the spreadsheet
Records rooms and scanning companies usually already have a list: box, file number, the date on the paper, and page count. That spreadsheet is the project. Bring the files in from a drive or a network folder your administrator has approved, and match the columns to your fields and to the document date.
When there is no spreadsheet, the file name often carries the same facts, as in BOX14_FILE102_1998-04-12.pdf. TurboDMS can read those parts of the name. Preview the import first. It should list missing files, extra files, duplicate rows, and values that do not fit your fields, before a single document is saved.
Check the counts before anyone shreds a box
The spreadsheet says how many files and pages you expected. TurboDMS accounts for each one as received, failed, or set aside, with a reason on the failures. The paper is ready for a destruction decision when every expected file is one of those three.
- Retry the failures. Running the import again keeps files already saved and picks up the rest.
- Remove a bad import. If the spreadsheet was the wrong year or the folder was the wrong drive, remove what that import created and start again.
- Check a sample, then approve. The sample looks for blank pages, unreadable scans, and rows that do not match the file. Approval is the moment the folder opens to the people who should see it. Until then, only the project team and administrators can see it.
Keep a report with that approval: who imported the files, the SHA-256 hash of each original, and when it was approved.
Keep the original scan
When you ask for a searchable PDF, that is the file people open, so a name or a clause can be found in the PDF itself. The scan that came from the scanning company stays a separate file for administrators, with the hash recorded when it arrived. Legal hold and deletion requests cover that original as well as the PDF people open. You can also skip the searchable PDF and keep the scan as the file people open. The spreadsheet is then how they find it.
Search finds the words after text recognition, once that step has run. For how search works day to day, see full-text search and OCR.
Keep today's scans moving
A large import of older records can run for days. The invoices scanned this morning still need to be filed and findable. Run the older import in the background, and let the copier folder and scan-to-email use the normal path: numbering, filing, and workflows, the same as a web upload. Email-to-folder capture covers the mailbox side of that daily path.
How TurboDMS does this
On the Custom on-premises plan, TurboDMS treats one box or one delivery as one import. You bring in the folder and the spreadsheet, preview it, retry failures, and remove the import if the delivery was wrong. Cloud plans include OCR search of files you upload. This project is on the Custom on-premises plan. The product page is scanning and digitization.