What Is an Online Filing Cabinet?

A simple definition

An online filing cabinet is a place to keep documents in folders and return to them later. For a customer, that might mean finding a policy, an agreement, last year’s statement or a report without searching old correspondence.

The cabinet is the place where records belong. Automatic filing is the service that puts them there.

A filing cabinet for each customer

With Documentd, a business provides each customer with their own cabinet containing the documents it files for them. The cabinet carries the business’s branding and can be reached through its dedicated web address.

This gives the customer a familiar place to return to. It also gives a smaller business a professional document service without having to build and maintain a client portal.

Folders can reflect the records customers actually look for: a policy and year, a legal matter, a property or a reporting period. Clear document names help distinguish a final agreement from an earlier version.

How documents get filed

The business sends a document through Documentd. Documentd files the customer’s copy in their cabinet, in the chosen folder. The customer can access it securely and find it again later.

Start with web send: send a sample document to yourself and see it filed in your own cabinet. Once your company is set up, you can send from the website or copy filing@documentd.com into your normal email.

Copy-in adds filed copies of the attachments; the original email and attachments still reach the recipients as usual. It does not remove attachments from email. Email integration and the API are available for workflows that need them.

Your branding, their account

Company branding identifies where the documents came from. It does not mean the business owns the customer’s account.

Keepd is the free account that brings the customer’s filing cabinets together. It works with any email address and also holds documents the customer files themselves. A customer entering through your dedicated address sees your cabinet and can navigate to the rest of their Keepd account.

Their copies remain available independently of your systems, including after the business relationship ends.

How this compares with email and portals

Email can carry the message and the attachments. A filing cabinet takes care of the task that usually follows: saving and organising the records. The two can work together through copy-in.

A business-controlled portal gives customers access to records held within that business’s service. With Documentd, customers get their own filed copies in an account they control. For making documents available, this offers a simpler, lower-cost alternative to a portal and avoids making future access depend on an active account with the sender.

See email attachments and online filing cabinets compared.

What to look for

Consider whether the service makes it easy to:

• file documents without a technical project
• use your own branding and a recognisable entry point
• organise copies in folders that make sense to the customer
• retrieve records without the original notification
• retain access after changing provider
• download the customer’s own copy

Access controls and copy protections depend on the service and the method used to add files. In Documentd, protections against the sender altering or deleting a settled copy apply to documents filed through Documentd; direct uploads in Keepd are a separate capability.

Where Documentd fits

Documentd provides online filing cabinets for your customers, with your branding and a dedicated web address. It automatically files the documents you send, giving each customer their own organised copies.

Each company’s cabinet sits within the customer’s Keepd account. Keepd is free and works with any email address. Customers can move from your cabinet to their other cabinets and documents they file themselves, while keeping control of their own account.