The Result

Clara, Martin and Ella spent about 30 minutes planning and setting up Papermerge. Here is what changed for them.

Before and After

	Before	After
Where documents are	In three places: the office folder, Clara’s email inbox and a shoebox under the shop counter	In one digital cabinet that all three can reach
Filing a document	Whoever has it puts it somewhere	Upload it and choose its category; Papermerge files it in the right place with right configuration
Finding documents	Searching through folders and the shoebox: 40 minutes on average	Filtering by category and metadata: 3 minutes at most
Invoices for the tax advisor	Martin collects them by hand and always misses a few	One filter by category and invoice date gives the complete list
The inspector’s visit	Nobody is sure where the latest pest control report is	Filter by Checked By, sort by Record Date
Keeping and discarding	Nobody knows what may be thrown away, or when	Papermerge knows when each document expires; Clara approves deletions once a year
Changes to documents	A page can get lost or swapped without anyone noticing	Archived documents can’t be changed, and the audit trail records who did what

What the Team Didn’t Have to Do

• Design a folder structure. Each category’s target folder creates it.
• Agree on file names. Metadata, not file names, makes a document easy to find.
• Track deadlines. Retention periods calculate when each document may go.

What’s Next

The setup grows with the bakery:

• Forward documents by email. Invoices that arrive by email can go straight to Papermerge with Inbound Email, without downloading and uploading them.
• Add categories. Delivery notes, for example, can reuse the existing metadata fields, such as Supplier and Total Amount.
• Keep some documents private. Employment contracts, for example, could go into a second cabinet that only Clara can see. See Cabinets.

Back to the Rosewood Bakery overview.