Tag-Based Organization¶

Tags are the foundation of document organization in Records Manager. A well-designed tagging strategy makes your documents instantly searchable and manageable.

Tag Philosophy¶

Tags are permanent. Well-tagged documents are findable documents.

Unlike folders where a document can only exist in one location, tags allow documents to exist in multiple contexts simultaneously. An invoice can be both financial and tax-deductible and 2024 and relate to a specific trust.

Tag Categories¶

Records Manager uses several tag categories:

Domain Tags¶

Identify the entity or context:

• household - Personal records

• corporate - Business records

• unit-trust - Unit trust documents

• discretionary-trust - Discretionary trust documents

• family-trust - Family trust documents

• project - Project-based documents

Category Tags¶

High-level document classification:

• financial - Money-related documents

• medical - Health and medical records

• insurance - Insurance policies and claims

• legal - Contracts and legal documents

• hr - Human resources records

• compliance - Regulatory and audit documents

• reporting - Financial statements and reports

• governance - Trust governance documents

• household - Home and utility records

• vehicle - Car and vehicle records

• pet - Pet-related documents

• identity - Identity documents

Document Type Tags¶

Specific document identification:

• invoice, receipt, contract

• tax-return, bank-statement

• insurance-policy, insurance-claim

• trust-deed, trustee-resolution

• distribution-minutes

Status Tags¶

Document state or purpose:

• tax-deductible - Claimable on tax return

• paid, unpaid - Payment status

• pending - Awaiting action

• archived - No longer active

• critical - Important documents (FTE, trust deeds)

Temporal Tags¶

Time-based organization:

• 2024, 2023, 2022 - Financial years

• q1, q2, q3, q4 - Quarters

• january, february, etc. - Months

Tag Suggestion System¶

Records Manager automatically suggests tags based on:

Filename Analysis¶

File: "medical-receipt-dr-smith-2024.pdf"
Suggested tags:
*   medical (from "medical")

*   receipt (from "receipt")

*   2024 (from "2024")

Content Analysis¶

File: "scan001.pdf" (content includes "Tax Return for 2023")
Suggested tags:
*   tax (from content)

*   2023 (from content)

Domain Patterns¶

Each domain has characteristic tag patterns:

Household:

financial: tax, income, expense, investment, superannuation
medical: doctor, hospital, pharmacy, insurance, receipt
insurance: home, contents, vehicle, health, life

Corporate:

financial: accounts-payable, accounts-receivable, expense, revenue
hr: employee, payroll, leave, performance
compliance: audit, report, certificate, permit

Trusts:

governance: trustee-resolution, minutes, variation
financial: distribution, income, capital-gain
regulatory: abn, tfn, ato, lodgment

Tagging Workflow¶

Upload Tagging¶

When uploading documents, tags are suggested automatically:

User: "Upload medical-receipt.pdf"
AI: "Suggested tags:"
    "  - medical (category)"
    ""
    "  - receipt (document type)"
    ""
    "  - 2024 (year)"
    ""
    "  - tax-deductible (potential deduction)"
    ""
    "Accept these tags? (yes/no/modify)"

Adding Tags Later¶

Apply tags to existing documents:

User: "Tag documents 1234, 1235 as tax-deductible"
AI: "Applying 'tax-deductible' tag to 2 documents..."
    "✅ Complete"

Bulk Tagging¶

Tag multiple documents at once:

# Tag all search results
bun run RecordManager.ts search --query "office supplies" --tag "expense"

Tag Strategies by Domain¶

Household Domain¶

Essential Tags:

financial, medical, insurance, legal, household, vehicle, pet, identity

Year Tags:

2024, 2023, 2022, etc.

Household-Specific:

# Financial
tax, income, expense, investment, superannuation, dividend, loan, mortgage

# Medical
doctor, hospital, pharmacy, receipt, referral, test-results, prescription

# Insurance
home, contents, vehicle, health, life, claim, pet-insurance

# Household
utility, maintenance, warranty, manual, rate-notice

# Vehicle
car, registration, lease, insurance

# Pet
vaccination, microchip, vet, pet-registration

# Identity
passport, license, medicare, citizenship, marriage, divorce

Corporate Domain¶

Essential Tags:

financial, hr, legal, compliance, corporate, reporting

Corporate-Specific:

# Financial
accounts-payable, accounts-receivable, expense, revenue, purchase-order

# HR
employee, payroll, leave, performance, pay-slip, timesheet

# Compliance
audit, report, certificate, permit, license

# Reporting
balance-sheet, cash-flow, income-statement, equity

Trust Domains¶

Essential Tags:

governance, financial, regulatory, [trust-type]

Unit Trust Tags:

unit-trust, unit-registry, distribution, unitholder, unit-transfer
capital-account, unit-statement

Discretionary Trust Tags:

discretionary-trust, beneficiary, distribution, pre-eofy, streaming
trustee-resolution, minutes, variation

Family Trust Tags:

family-trust, fte, family-trust-election, beneficiary, interposed-entity
trustee-resolution, pre-eofy, distribution-minutes

Critical Trust Tags:

critical - For FTE, trust deeds, appointments
permanent - For documents never to be deleted

Tag Organization Principles¶

1. Category First¶

Always include a category tag:

Good: medical, receipt, 2024
Bad: dr-smith-receipt

2. Add Context¶

Include domain and purpose tags:

Good: household, financial, tax-deductible, 2024
Bad: receipt, 2024

3. Use Consistent Naming¶

Establish tag naming conventions:

Good: tax-deductible (always hyphenated)
Bad: tax_deductible, taxdeductible, Tax Deductible

4. Tag for Findability¶

Tag for how you'll search, not just describe:

Good: tax-deductible (you'll search for this)
Bad: receipt-from-dr-smith-in-march (too specific)

5. Year Tags Are Essential¶

Always tag with financial year:

Good: 2024, tax, income
Bad: tax, income (which year?)

Tag Management¶

Creating Tags¶

Tags are created automatically when needed:

User: "Tag 1234 as new-tag"
AI: "Tag 'new-tag' created and applied to document #1234"

Renaming Tags¶

Rename through paperless-ngx UI for bulk changes:

1. Access paperless-ngx

2. Go to Tags section

3. Edit tag name

4. All documents update automatically

Merging Tags¶

Combine similar tags:

1. Identify duplicates: receipt and receipts

2. Choose primary tag

3. Use Tag workflow to reapply

4. Remove unused tag

Deleting Tags¶

Remove unused tags through paperless-ngx: * Tag deletion doesn't delete documents

• Documents simply lose that tag

Tag Cleanup Workflow¶

Find Untagged Documents¶

User: "Find untagged documents"
AI: "Found 23 untagged documents:"
    "  #4567: [Untitled]"
    "  #4568: scan001.pdf"
    "  ..."

Organize Poorly Tagged Documents¶

User: "Organize household documents"
AI: "Found 15 documents with inconsistent tagging:"
    "  #5678: Only tagged 'receipt' → Suggest: financial, receipt, 2024"
    "  #5679: Only tagged 'pdf' → Suggest: remove 'pdf', add appropriate tags"

Tag Best Practices¶

DO¶

• Use lowercase: tax-deductible, not Tax-Deductible

• Hyphenate multi-word: tax-deductible, not tax deductible

• Use year tags: Always include 2024, 2023, etc.

• Tag by category: Always include category tag

• Tag for search: Tag how you'll search later

• Be consistent: Use same tags for similar documents

DON'T¶

• Don't over-tag: 3-5 tags is usually enough

• Don't use vague tags: document, pdf, file are useless

• Don't tag for content: Content search finds words; tags find categories

• Don't create single-use tags: Tags should apply to multiple documents

• Don't tag everything: Not every document needs every relevant tag

Tag Examples by Document Type¶

Invoice¶

File: "invoice-acme-supply-2024-03-15.pdf"
Tags:
  * financial (category)

  * invoice (type)

  * 2024 (year)

  * unpaid (status)

Medical Receipt¶

File: "receipt-dr-smith-2024-02-20.pdf"
Tags:
  * medical (category)

  * receipt (type)

  * 2024 (year)

  * tax-deductible (purpose)

Insurance Policy¶

File: "home-insurance-policy-2024.pdf"
Tags:
  * insurance (category)

  * home (type)

  * household (domain)

  * 2024 (year)

  * insurance-policy (type)

Trust Deed¶

File: "smith-family-trust-deed.pdf"
Tags:
  * family-trust (domain)

  * governance (category)

  * trust-deed (type)

  * critical (importance)

  * permanent (retention)

Tax Return¶

File: "tax-return-2024.pdf"
Tags:
  * household (domain)

  * financial (category)

  * tax-return (type)

  * 2024 (year)

  * tax (purpose)

Advanced Tagging¶

Entity Tags¶

For multi-entity management:

entity:smith-family-trust
entity:jones-unit-trust
entity:abc-corporation

Workflow Tags¶

Track document processing:

uploaded:2024-03-15
processed:2024-03-16
reviewed:2024-03-17

Sensitivity Tags¶

For document classification:

sensitivity:public
sensitivity:confidential
sensitivity:secret

Tag Maintenance Schedule¶

Weekly¶

• Tag new uploads properly

• Fix any mis-tagged documents

Monthly¶

• Review tag consistency

• Merge duplicate tags

• Remove unused tags

Quarterly¶

• Audit tag usage

• Identify tag gaps

• Update tag conventions

Annually¶

• Archive old year tags

• Create new year tags

• Review entire tag structure