Using the Document Management Conversion Utility

The Document Management Conversion Utility is a very simple application that does one simple thing…. it renames folders.

This utility is used to rename folders from a 3rd party document storage system to match the Projects, Categories, and Years that WorkSpace uses/expects.

Before Proceeding, please be sure to have the following setup completed:

1. All Project Definitions are 100% completely setup and configured to their final, permanent state
2. All Document Categories are 100% completely setup and in their final state
3. You have a current backup of both your WorkSpace Database and your existing Document Management folder structure.
4. You have a fast and stable network connection between your Workstation and your SQL Server, and your Workstation and your File Server. Any network instability of any kind can cause major issues with the conversion process and has the potential for data loss. NEVER PERFORM THIS ROUTINE WHILE ON A WIRELESS NETWORK!

To properly use this tool, you must know the following:

1. How the folders are setup? (Client/Year/Category, Client/Category/Year, etc)
2. Are the year folders prefixed? (Lacerte uses the ‘TY’ prefix, such as ‘TY14’ for 2014)
3. Where are your folders located?
4. Did your old system utilize Projects?
5. Did your old system utilize Categories?

For #1, you need to know this so you can setup the ‘Folder Layout’ section of the utility. This informs the Conversion tool on how to expect the data to flow.

#2 is used to remove tax year prefixes from the Year folders. If your old system used a Prefix on the year (such as the TY prefix Lacerte uses by default), then Check this option and enter in the prefix that your system used. The application will remove the prefix and append the necessary data to the folder so the WorkSpace Document Management system can properly identify the Year of each document.

#3 is simply the folder path to your document management folder, which is the root folder that contains all of your client info.

#4 and #5 are very important. If your old system did not track (or you did not use it to track) projects or categories, then you do not need to do anything…. you are done and can now click the ‘Process’ button to begin the renaming process. If your old Document Management system DID use projects or Categories, please follow these steps:

For Projects:

1. Find the ‘Project Mappings’ section on the Document Management Conversion utility.
2. The list box contains an item for each and every Project definition that is contained inside of your Office Tools WorkSpace database.
3. For each Project Definition in the list, use the drop-down box below the list to select the corresponding folder name (you can type in the name or use the drop down selector to choose).
4. Selecting the correct existing folder names will build a map for the application to use for renaming. So if (for example) your Office Tools Project definition is called ‘1040 Individual Tax Return’, but in your old system it was called ‘1040 Individual Return’, you would search for and select the ‘1040 Individual Return’ item from the drop down box. You will then see the mapping between the OTP Project and the existing folder inside the list box. It should change from ‘1040 Individual Tax Return –> 1040 Individual Tax Return‘ to ‘1040 Individual Return –> 1040 Individual Tax Return‘.
5. Once you have finished creating the mapping for each and every project definition in the system, you can proceed on to Categories.

For Categories:

1. Find the ‘Category Mappings’ section on the Document Management Conversion Utility.
2. The list box contains an item for each and every Document Category that is contained inside of your Office Tools WorkSpace database.
3. For each Category in the list, use the drop-down box below the list to select the corresponding folder name (you can type in the name or use the drop down selector to choose).
4. Selecting the correct existing folder names will build a map for the application to use for renaming. So if (for example) your Office Tools Document Category is called ‘Invoices’, but in your old system it was called ‘AR’, you would search for and select the ‘AR’ item from the drop down box. You will then see the mapping between the OT Document Category and the existing folder inside the list box. It should change from ‘Invoices –> Invoices‘ to ‘AR –> Invoices‘.
5. Once you have finished creating the mapping for each and every document category in the system, you can proceed on to the final step.

Final Step: Processing the Document File System

Once you have setup all of the options and created the project and category mappings, you can click the ‘Process’ button to begin the renaming process. This can take anywhere from 1 to 60 minutes, depending on the number of Clients, Project Definitions, and Categories you have in the system.

Once the renaming process has completed, you can then use the ‘Global Document Reindex’ feature inside of WorkSpace to import all of the documents into the system. The Global Document Reindex can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours, depending on the number of documents in the system.

The Global Document Reindex also works best when it is run on the physical server that your document management folder is stored on.

When the Global Document Reindex process has completed successfully, you will be able to search, filter, assign, review, edit, and share your documents just as if they were manually added to the system via a drag & drop.