First Steps

Note

No account yet? Create one at https://papermerge.com. You can instantly sign in with your Google account.

Welcome to Papermerge! Your account is ready to use immediately — you can start uploading documents right now without any configuration.

This page explains the difference between simply storing documents and properly archiving them, and how to get from one to the other in a few minutes.

You Can Upload Straight Away

There is nothing you need to configure before uploading. Drag and drop files into the Navigator or use the upload button — your documents will be stored safely and remain accessible at any time.

Uploaded documents start in Draft state. In this state they can be freely edited, moved, or deleted. For more information about the document lifecycle, see Document Lifecycle.

When You Are Ready to Organize

Uploading stores your documents. Archiving them properly means going one step further: attaching meaningful metadata, placing them in the right folders automatically, and protecting them with retention policies.

This is where Papermerge’s structure comes in:

• Metadata fields — pieces of information attached to each document, such as a date, an amount, or a vendor name, so you can search and filter by content rather than just by filename
• Categories — group metadata fields together, apply a filing rule that determines where documents are automatically moved, and enforce a retention policy
• Retention policies — rules defining how long each document must be kept before it may be deleted

Setting up this structure manually takes a few minutes. The fastest way is to use the setup wizard.

The Setup Wizard

At the beginning there is no metadata, no categories, and no retention policies configured. You can either set these up manually one by one, or let the setup wizard do it for you in a few simple steps.

The setup wizard creates a handful of metadata fields, categories, and retention policies that you can start using right away. Of course, you can still adjust them manually to your needs, or delete them and create new ones.

If you prefer to configure everything manually, see Categories, Metadata, and Retentions.

Your Everyday Workflow

Once your categories are set up — whether via the wizard or manually — the process for every document is the same four steps:

Step 1 — Upload

Upload your document via the upload button or by dragging and dropping it into the Navigator. Newly uploaded documents land in your Inbox and are in Draft state. All documents — regardless of whether they are stored in the Inbox or in Files — are available via the Documents view, a flat list of all your documents.

Step 2 — Organize Pages from Bulk Scans (if needed)

Often scanned pages end up wrongly rotated inside the document, or if you scanned them in bulk, pages may be in the wrong order or in the wrong document. With Papermerge, you can quickly fix that: the page management feature lets you rotate, reorder, or even move pages between documents (as long as the document is still in its initial Draft state). To rotate a page, simply select it — a rotate button will appear. For details on page organization, see Organize Pages.

This step is optional — skip it if your files are already well organized.

Step 3 — Assign a Category and Fill in Metadata

Go to Documents. You will see a flat list of all your documents regardless of which folder they are in — this makes bulk categorization convenient. Sort descending by Updated At so the most recently uploaded documents appear at the top.

For each document:

1. Click the Open in Secondary Panel icon to open the document on the right side without losing your place in the list.
2. In the Secondary Panel, scroll to the Metadata section and select a Category from the dropdown.
3. The relevant metadata fields for that category will appear — fill them in.
4. Move to the next document in the list and repeat.

Every time you assign a category, the filing rule is activated and the document is automatically moved into its destination folder.

Step 4 — Archive

Once a document has a category and its metadata filled in, it is ready to be archived. Open the document in the Secondary Panel and click the Archive button in the details panel.

Caution

Once a document is archived, it cannot be directly edited or deleted. If you need to correct a mistake, you can change the document state to Superseded and create a new version in Draft state with the corrected content — the audit log will retain the full history of changes. That said, it is still good practice to review your metadata before archiving. For more information about the document lifecycle, see Document Lifecycle.

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That’s it. Repeat Steps 1–4 for every new document. Over time your archive builds itself — documents are automatically filed into the right folders, tagged with meaningful metadata, and protected by retention policies.

Customizing Your Setup

The wizard created a sensible starting point, but everything it configured can be adjusted:

• Add or rename metadata fields — Metadata → Add
• Add or adjust retention policies — Retention → Add
• Add, edit, or remove categories — Categories
• Change filing rules — edit the category and update its Target Folder (and optionally Rename Document) field

Most category changes apply only to documents you categorize from then on; already archived documents are not affected. Changing a filing rule is the exception — Papermerge re-files every existing document in that category to match the new rule.

Team Accounts

Documentation for team account setup is coming soon.