Document imaging systems are sold as hardware with software attached, and for a small firm the order is the other way round: decide the filing rule (client, matter, Bates number, retention date on every page), size the load, then buy the scanner that clears the backlog in a week of afternoons and the software that applies the rule on arrival. The free document capture worksheet on this site prints the backlog pages, the scanner hours to clear them at your scanner's speed, the daily scanning minutes and the pages a retention period keeps; Batesio Pro applies the rule to every page that lands and holds the record.
The scanner: speed against the backlog
Twelve boxes at the worksheet's default of 2,500 pages is thirty thousand pages; at forty pages a minute that is twelve and a half hours, at twenty it is twenty-five. The worksheet takes the rated speed, halved for documents that need preparation, and prints the hours, so the scanner is bought for the backlog it must clear rather than the brochure.
The rule: filing on arrival
Every scanned page carries the client, the matter, the number and the retention date the moment it is captured. An imaging system that scans to a folder and leaves the naming to a person has produced a second backlog, digital this time.
The record: what the archive will hold
A hundred and fifty pages a day at a seven-year retention is over a quarter of a million pages held at any time, on the worksheet's defaults; the record must be searchable at that size and exportable per client. Dropbox, cited below, prices a Standard team plan at $15 per user per month for storage; the record is the part that finds the page.
Questions people ask about document imaging systems
Do we need a document imaging system or just a scanner?
The scanner clears the backlog; the system files what it scans. Without the rule applied on arrival, the scanner creates a digital pile.
What resolution and format should we scan at?
Whatever your regulator and your own readability test require; the worksheet sizes time and volume, not image settings, and the vendor's guidance applies.
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