Organising matter files and versions in one store
How a small law practice can organise client and matter documents with folders, tags and versions so everyone opens the latest draft.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Legal businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every practice has had the moment. A draft goes to the other side, and only afterwards does someone notice it was the version from before the client's comments. Two fee earners had saved their own copies, one called "final" and the other "final revised", and nobody could say which was current.
The cure is less about software than about agreeing one place and one structure, and then using a store that keeps old versions without letting them compete with the current one. This is how to set that up in Achekam's Document Centre.
The real cost of hunting for the latest draft
The obvious cost is time: a secretary searching three mailboxes for the signed copy, a candidate attorney re-doing work on the wrong draft. The less obvious cost is risk. A superseded draft sent to opposing attorneys, or an unsigned agreement filed as though it were signed, can do more damage than any amount of lost time.
Both come from the same root: more than one place where a document might live. The first decision is therefore that matter documents are kept in one store and nowhere else. Copies on desktops and in personal mailboxes are where the wrong version comes from.
A folder per client, a sub-folder per matter
Document Centre is a folder-based store. You can upload single files or whole folders, preview, download, rename, move, tag, archive and search. Uploads go in batches of up to 25 files, with a default limit of 100 MB per file, so a large scanned bundle may go up in a few batches.
A structure that holds up well in small practices:
- A client folder, named as the client appears in your records.
- A matter sub-folder inside it, named with your matter reference and a short description.
- Inside each matter, the same handful of folders every time, for example Correspondence, Pleadings or Agreements, Client documents, Drafts and Signed.
Keep those inner folders identical across matters. A colleague covering for someone on leave should know where to look without asking.
Use tags for things that cut across folders: a document type such as "affidavit" or "lease", or a status such as "awaiting client". Use search for everything else. Tags only help if the practice agrees a short list and sticks to it.
Upload a new version, not a new file
When a draft changes, upload it as a new version of the existing document rather than as a separate file with a new name. Achekam keeps the earlier versions, so the history is there when you need to see what the client's comments changed, while the document people open is the current one.
A simple naming rule makes this work: file names describe the document, never its version. "Sale agreement, farm property" is fine; "Sale agreement v4 FINAL" invites a second "final".
Close a matter by archiving it
When a matter ends, archive its folder instead of deleting it. Archived documents are out of the way of daily work but still there when a former client asks for a copy, when a fee dispute arises, or when your record-keeping rules require the file to be kept. How long a closed file must be kept depends on the rules that apply to your practice and country; put that period in your own written policy. In South Africa, section 16 of the ECT Act sets out when keeping a record electronically satisfies a legal duty to retain information, including its accessibility, integrity and origin.
Fingerprints and malware checks on every file
Three things happen to every upload:
- A fingerprint. Each stored file gets a SHA-256 fingerprint, a value calculated from the file's exact contents. Change a single character and the value changes.
- File-type control. Executable files are refused by default, which keeps programs posing as documents out of the store.
- A malware check. Every upload is checked. Where the server is configured for ClamAV, that scanner is used; otherwise a built-in heuristic check runs. Ask your administrator which applies to your workspace.
None of this replaces care with attachments from unknown senders, but it means the store does not quietly accept whatever is dropped into it.
Sharing outside the practice
When a document must go to the client or the other side, share it from the store instead of attaching a copy. Achekam e-mails a personal link that can carry an expiry, an optional one-time code and a choice about whether downloading is allowed, and the share can be revoked later. The copy you sent stays tied to the version on file.
Signed mandates arrive in the store by themselves when they are signed electronically: the signed PDF and its completion certificate are filed back into Documents.
What the five document menu entries open today
The Documents menu shows Client Folders, Engagement Files, Shared Documents, Evidence Vault and Document Templates. Today all five open the same document store, with no filter applied. A file "put in" Evidence Vault is in the same store as one "put in" Client Folders; your folder structure is what organises them, not the menu entry you clicked. Tell new staff this on their first day so nobody believes a document is somewhere separate when it is not.
A filing rule on one page
- Every matter document is saved in Document Centre, in the matter's folder.
- The inner folders are used the same way on every matter.
- New drafts go up as versions; file names never contain "final" or a version number.
- Tags come from the agreed list.
- Documents leave the practice by shared link, not attachment.
- Closed matters are archived, never deleted.
For the signing side, see getting a client mandate signed electronically. If you also take deposits online, collecting a fee deposit online before work starts covers how payments reach the books.
Agree the inner folders this week, set them up on your busiest matters first, and move the others across as each one next needs attention.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
