Best Document Management Practices 2025
Are you seeking best document management system practices to keep track of all your documents? To keep things organized, use a centralized data repository to store all your files in a single system. Here are the 20 features asset managers should look for in a document management system.
Document management systems (DMS) enable your company to store, organize, and distribute documents digitally, eliminating the need for paper. Too much paperwork impedes your productivity and workflow.
Best Document Management Practices
Whether you’re considering adopting a digital document management system (DMS) for your business or improving your current system, focusing on best practices can yield a more effective, profitable solution.
Document generation is a vital aspect of doing business. As a result, it’s ideal to have a document management system that provides your company with the tools to create, secure, and share critical documents. With a document management system in place, you will find it easier to store and access critical information.
This enhances your business’s efficiency, increases employee productivity, and improves your offerings by eliminating the obstacles associated with paper.
Even though most people are aware of the benefits of employing corporate document management, many still wonder: What are the best practices for efficient document management?
If you’re thinking the same thing, here’s a rundown of the finest and most proven corporate document management methods.
1. Maintain Consistency
The first best practice for document management is to optimize your file organization since DMS depends on how you build your folders. When you organize your folders, everyone with access to them can find the document they need.
Use many tags for each document and be consistent in how you list your tags, such as how you write the date or who owns the document. Organizing your documents will save you a lot of time when looking for specific files.
2. Create a Naming Scheme
Document naming is another area where uniformity is essential. When everyone labels documents differently, they become hard to locate. To make it easier to find documents, create a naming standard that everyone using the document management system will follow.
When a file is misnamed, it is easily lost and forgotten; therefore, make sure your staff understands which naming standard to follow. Keeping your naming convention consistent will make all files searchable and improve your office processes.
3. Make Automation a Priority
Manually executing standard procedures slows down your workplace workflow needlessly. Automating operations such as indexing and data storage is one of the best practices of a document management system. Automation ensures the same procedures are followed for each completed process, saving your personnel time and effort.
You may also use document management software to automate notifications to your staff, ensuring that everyone stays on track. To achieve maximum productivity, prioritize the automation procedures that work best for your firm.
4. Protect Your Data
To maintain document confidentiality and compliance, you should implement role‑based access controls (RBAC). After all, 74% of data breaches involve a human element, such as misuse of permissions. Assigning user roles helps minimize risk and maintain clear permission boundaries. Additionally, define access permissions at the project or folder level so that external contractors or part-time staff don’t access internal documents unnecessarily.
Use secure access protocols, such as two-factor authentication, and enforce electronic signatures for document approvals to ensure the authenticity of every transaction. Checked-out documents should be locked to prevent simultaneous access and version conflicts or unauthorized edits. All these steps help your business meet regulatory requirements across sectors such as healthcare, finance, and legal services.
Also, enable encryption both at rest and during file transfer. This protects documents from interception or tampering. Combine these technical safeguards with a well-defined document control policy and regular permission reviews to reinforce long-term data protection.
5. Simple Access
Your data should be easily accessible and safe from anywhere, at any time, and on any device. Your files will be easily accessible from any of your devices if you use an online-based document repository. The solution should be simple to download and upload.
6. Filtering and Searching
It might be difficult to find a certain document in a vast database. Clicking or scrolling through different folders does not make the most of your or your employee’s time. Your system should have filtering and search capabilities. With just a few character inputs, you should be able to discover or filter down your document. You shouldn’t even have to use the search function. It should already be indexed for you.
7. Tagging
You should be able to quickly tag or label your documents to organize, search, and categorize them. Organizing your documents using terms like permits, operations, finances, invoicing, and construction will make your life easier in the future.
8. Grouping
The option to link your documents to projects, compliance events, work orders, or tasks will help your employees remain on top of their day-to-day responsibilities.
9. Exporting/Importing
There are several instances in which you need to be able to export or import all project-related paperwork easily. Whether onboarding new projects or de-boarding existing ones, having the option to import or export information with a single button press would significantly speed up the process.
10. Integration
Check to see whether you can interact with other software systems. For example, you may be content with the capabilities of Dropbox, Box, or SharePoint. When you have hundreds of thousands of files and don’t want to abandon your current solution but still want to retain all project-related materials in one location, Integration allows you to mirror your existing repository on another platform.
11. Retention of Data
In the event of an inadvertent deletion or system failure, the system should retain historical data and backups. To minimize data loss due to personnel turnover, you should implement a system to track all documents throughout your project’s lifespan.
12. Permission
To build a portfolio and grant project-level rights to distinct users, the system needs portfolio and project-level permissions. Perhaps some of your employees should have administrative permissions, others edit rights, and specific external contractors read-only access. The platform should make it simple for you to set these rights.
13. Identify Key Performance Indicators and Set Goals
Many businesses will implement some document management, but will not consider defining goals or determining how to monitor success. Because document management solutions have several business uses, you must be particular. Do you want to save money on storage? Are you attempting to increase teamwork? Or are you seeking methods to make it easier for people to discover documents? Before implementing a solution, define key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress toward your objectives. For example, your existing system may take 10 minutes to process an invoice, but after a few months of using the new system, it may take only 2 minutes.
14. Determine the Most Important Business Processes and Systems to Automate
The capacity to automate operations to save time and effort is one of the most significant advantages of digital document management. Concentrate on the most vital business initiatives, such as enhancing customer response times, using accounting systems to obtain payment discounts, or speeding up a critical procedure.
15. Consider Other Automation Possibilities
Once you’ve identified which business activities should be automated, look for methods to simplify workflows by connecting data collection with databases, apps, and notifications. You can make the information searchable by automating how you capture documents, using processes to recognize document type and route it to the relevant individual.
16. Improve Paper-Based Processes
Many firms make the mistake of trying to digitally replicate paper processes rather than adopting a new strategy to eliminate inefficiencies. When establishing digital processes, consider why you used a particular method in the past and whether those steps are still necessary in this new environment.
17. Keep the User Interface Simple
A DMS is intended to assist with resolving many issues, but not every function needs to be on every user’s screen. A decent system should allow customization so that only the most valuable aspects are displayed to match each user’s needs. Simplifying the interface makes it easier for people to do required activities without being bombarded with extraneous details.
18. Inform Your Customers
When discussing and dealing with clients, having a document management system helps efficiency. And, if you’re going to employ this system, your clients must be aware of it.
Then, you should provide your clients with an explanation of what the document management system is, how it will benefit everyone, and why they should use it.
Some of the benefits of a company document management system must always be mentioned, such as how it saves time by enabling faster, safer document retrieval. When designing an explanation for your clients, be sure to present it in a variety of formats, emphasize the mutual benefits, and avoid overemphasizing security.
19. Understand Your Industry’s Record Retention Requirements
Many firms struggle with storing documents for longer than necessary. This is frequently due to a lack of information about the standards governing how long records must be preserved or the agony of deleting the documents.
Because hard drives are less expensive, it’s become increasingly simpler for users to save documents indefinitely using paperless systems. Holding documents that have passed their maturity date, on the other hand, is a liability for your company.
To avoid such scenarios, you should become familiar with the standards governing document retention.
These standards are either legal, state, or federal, and they influence the type of document your company should accept when developing a document management system. It should also specify how long these documents should be kept, which is usually seven years in the banking industry.
However, examine your compliance manual first to become more familiar with the retention rules for specific documents.
20. Sharing Files
One of the most common questions you may have when looking for document management system best practices is, “Is my data secure?” Did you know that one of the most popular ways we share data with the rest of the world is through email?
The most common way to share files with others is via email. Mailing or FedExing your documents is another typical (though sluggish and expensive) method of sharing working documents. In most cases, companies’ strategies for exchanging documents with clients or coworkers are insecure, costly, and unreliable.
Best Practice is to transfer information containing social security numbers, birthdates, full names, and other sensitive information by email, but this is no longer safe and is typically forbidden by securities companies and enterprises. Mail and FedEx may be costly and unpredictable when it comes to on-time delivery.
Moreover, Document management should be accompanied and supplemented by the following:
- Incident management is used to track events before and after the COD.
- Task management enables you to assign tasks to users and link documents or procedures.
- Work orders are used to track O&M requirements.
- Contract management is the process of connecting the real contract to the agreement’s terms, prices, and summary.
- Shadow Billing is used to keep track of incoming invoices from the off-taker, ISO, or utility.
FAQs
Below are frequently asked questions that dive deeper into document security, automation, policies, audits, and user onboarding.
What is role-based access control in a document management system?
Role-based access control (RBAC) is a security feature that assigns permissions to users based on their roles within an organization. For example, a marketing coordinator might only have access to campaign files, while HR staff can view personnel documents. RBAC helps protect sensitive information by preventing unauthorized access. It is also essential for meeting industry compliance standards, such as HIPAA or ISO. By limiting who can view, edit, or share specific files, RBAC reduces the risk of data breaches and accidental changes.
How does automation improve document workflows?
Automation streamlines document-related processes by eliminating manual steps such as sending approval emails, tracking changes, or updating version logs. With tools like automated workflows, digital signatures, and smart notifications, documents move faster through review and approval cycles. This reduces human error, improves turnaround times, and ensures deadlines are met. Automation also provides consistent results, making it easier to track progress and audit performance later. It enables teams to scale document operations without increasing manual work.
Why are audit trails important for document control?
Audit trails record every interaction with a document, including who accessed it, what actions were taken, and when. This level of transparency is essential for accountability, especially in industries with strict compliance requirements such as finance, healthcare, or manufacturing. Audit trails provide a clear, time-stamped record in the case of a dispute, error, or compliance investigation. They also support internal quality checks and help identify unauthorized edits or outdated files, reinforcing data integrity across the system.
What should a document control policy include?
A strong document control policy should cover access permissions, version management, storage structure, and retention timelines. It should also define naming conventions, review frequencies, and compliance protocols. For example, your policy might require a specific file-naming format or mandate document review every six months. It should outline how changes are approved and who is responsible for enforcing the policy. This ensures consistent document handling and simplifies audits and training across departments.
How do regular audits help maintain document management systems?
Regular audits help identify issues such as outdated files, unauthorized changes, or broken workflows within your document management system. These reviews verify that your documents remain accurate, secure, and compliant with internal policies or external regulations. Audits also reveal opportunities to improve processes by eliminating redundancies or delays. Scheduling monthly, quarterly, or annual audits keeps your documentation current and your team accountable, thereby improving quality and performance over time.
How can you improve user adoption of document management tools?
Improving user adoption starts with effective onboarding and role-specific training. Offer short, hands-on sessions and provide easy-to-understand reference materials. Choose tools with a clean, intuitive interface and ensure integration with platforms users already know. Identify internal champions who can support peers and answer questions in real time. Gathering feedback and refining the system based on user needs helps boost confidence, satisfaction, and long-term engagement.
If you are new to document management and looking to learn more, we recommend taking our Technical Writing Certification Course, which covers the fundamentals of managing technical documentation.
