Metadata

Metadata is structured information about your documents — data that describes the document’s content, origin, or purpose. Unlike the document text itself, metadata is stored in defined fields that can be searched, filtered, and used for automation.

Examples of metadata:

• Invoice number, date, and amount
• Contract parties and expiration date
• Receipt vendor and payment method
• Employee name and department

Why Use Metadata?

Metadata transforms Papermerge from simple file storage into a powerful document management system:

1. Structured search — Find documents by specific criteria, not just keywords in the text
2. Compliance — Track important dates for retention periods
3. Consistency — Ensure all documents of a type have the same information

Metadata Fields

A metadata field defines one piece of information you want to capture. Each field has a name and a type that determines what kind of values it can hold.

Field Types

Type	Description	Example Values
Short Text	Free-form text which fits in one line	”INV-2024-0042”
Long Text	Free-form text which spans over multiple lines	”Note for me: This document may need an extra review. Ask my boss. “
Integer	Whole numbers	42, 1000, -5
Number	Decimal numbers	19.99, 3.14159
Monetary	Currency amounts	149,99 Euro, 1250.00 USD
Date	Calendar date	2024-03-15
Date & Time	Date with time	2024-03-15 14:30
Year & Month	Year and month only	2024-03
Boolean	Yes/No	true, false
Select	Single choice from list	”paid” (from: paid, unpaid, overdue)
Multi-Select	Multiple choices from list	”urgent”, “reviewed”
URL	Web address	https://example.com
Email	Email address	[email protected]

Creating Metadata Fields

To create a new metadata field:

1. Navigate to Metadata
2. Click Add
3. Enter a name (e.g., “Invoice Date”)
4. Select the field type (e.g., “Date”)
5. For Select/Multi-Select types, define the available options
6. Save the field

Tip

Use clear, descriptive names. “Invoice Date” is better than “Date” because it’s unambiguous when you have multiple date fields.

Team accounts only

If the current user has management access to one or more cabinets, a Select Cabinet dropdown appears when creating a metadata field. Selecting a cabinet scopes the field to users who can access that cabinet; leaving it empty makes the field available to the entire team.

Select and Multi-Select Fields

Select fields let users choose from a predefined list of options. This ensures consistency — everyone uses the same values.

Select — Choose exactly one option:

• Payment Status: paid, unpaid, overdue
• Priority: low, medium, high
• Department: Sales, Engineering, HR

Multi-Select — Choose one or more options:

• Tags: urgent, reviewed, approved, archived
• Categories: personal, business, tax-relevant

When creating a Select or Multi-Select field, you define the available options. These can be added, edited, or removed later.

Assigning Fields to Categories

Metadata fields are connected to documents through categories. When you create a category, you select which metadata fields apply to documents of that type.

For example:

• Invoices category: Invoice Number, Invoice Date, Amount, Vendor
• Contracts category: Contract Number, Start Date, End Date, Parties
• Receipts category: Date, Amount, Vendor, Payment Method

A single field can be used in multiple categories. The “Amount” field might appear in both Invoices and Receipts.

Filling In Metadata

When you open a document that has an assigned category, the metadata panel shows all fields defined for that category.

To fill in metadata:

1. Open the document
2. Look for the metadata panel (usually on the right side)
3. Enter values for each field
4. Save the document

Fields can be filled in at any time while the document is in draft state. Once a document is archived, metadata can only be changed by creating a new version.

Searching by Metadata

Metadata enables precise document searches. Instead of searching for “invoice 500” in the document text, you can search for:

• Invoice Amount = 500
• Invoice Date = 2024-03-15
• Vendor = “Acme Corp”
• Payment Status = “unpaid”

This returns exact matches rather than documents that happen to contain those words somewhere in their text.

Search Operators

Depending on the field type, different operators are available:

Type	Operators
Text	equals, contains, starts with
Number/Monetary	equals, greater than, less than, between
Date	equals, before, after, between
Select	equals, is one of
Boolean	is true, is false

Metadata and Retention

Date-type metadata fields can serve as the retention pivot — the starting point for calculating when a document expires.

For example, if your Invoices category has a 10-year retention period with “Invoice Date” as the pivot, a document with Invoice Date = 2024-01-15 will expire on 2034-01-15 (or 2034-12-31 with end-of-year extension).

This is more accurate than using the upload date, especially when you’re digitizing old documents.

See Data Retention for details.

Best Practices

1. Plan your fields — Before creating fields, think about what information you need to capture and how you’ll search for it.

2. Use appropriate types — Don’t use Text for dates or numbers. Typed fields enable proper sorting and comparison.

3. Keep names consistent — Use the same field across categories when the meaning is identical (e.g., one “Amount” field, not “Invoice Amount” and “Receipt Amount”).

4. Use Select for controlled values — When there’s a fixed set of valid options, use Select instead of Text to ensure consistency.

5. Document your fields — Use the description field to explain what each metadata field is for, especially for fields that might be ambiguous.