How to organize DiliTrust folders?

In this article, we will see the best practices for organizing folders on DiliTrust, what questions to ask yourself to define your tree structure, etc.

The folder tree, that is to say the organization of your documents in folders will allow you to:

• Ensure the confidentiality of contracts by defining the users who will have access to them;
• Make it easy to find a contract.

In this article we will see:

• How folders work on DiliTrust
• Questions to ask yourself before creating your folders
• Some examples of typical architecture

How folders work on DiliTrust

The main logic to have in mind when creating the architecture of its folders is that a folder will be accessible to users / teams in consultation or editing. We therefore have the following diagram:

• 1 Folder>
  • Access to 1 or more user(s) and / or
  • Access to 1 or more Team(s)>
    • Access to view the contracts or
    • Access to edit the contracts.

The concept of a team is therefore closely linked to the organization of folders. It facilitates the configuration of access to folders by performing it by user groups, rather than user by user. You must create your teams according to your folders in order to be able to configure which team has access to which folder.
To learn more about the teams, see the dedicated article.

Once you decided who has access to your folders, you will need to decide which type of access is given.
On DiliTrust, users can have two types of access rights:

• Writing rights on folders / documents: the user can label, modify or delete information on the summary sheets, he can modify, move, add documents to the file, and finally he can also send documents for validation / signature.
• Read rights on folders / documents: the user can only view / consult them within the folder.

To find out more about configuring access rights, see the dedicated article.

Questions to ask yourself before creating your folders

Before creating your folders, it is important to have decided on the architecture of the folders that you want to set up.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• How are contract access rights currently managed? Should we keep the same operation?
• What are the restriction regarding access rights (level of confidentiality, use by the various teams concerned)?
• For each team, who must access the contracts?
• Do we need differentiated access rights by user population?
• Does the management of access rights respect the outline of an internal organization?

Finally, as a subsidiary question: does the folder I plan to create have any utility? We recommend limiting the number of folders to be created. Indeed, our powerful search engine makes it possible to search very quickly and easily for a document on DiliTrust, so there is no need to multiply sub-folders. Via the search engine, it is possible to carry out searches by keywords, type of document, clause, key element, etc.

Some examples of typical architecture

The objective of your architecture is to configure access to contracts for your users and to organize your documents. It should make it easy to find contracts while managing your confidentiality requirements.

When setting up the file architecture, it is important to think of the access rights in parallel, so that both are aligned. See dedicated article for more information.

Here are some examples of typical architectures, depending on:

• Legal expertise

The organization of folders is determined by legal expertise. In this case, the tool is mainly used by legal professionals, lawyers and legal teams.
Access to the tool is controlled by these legal professionals and non-lawyers have access to it on request.
For example, the main folders will therefore be: Trade, intellectual property, antitrust, companies, real estate, etc. And the sub-folders will then be organized by internal clients (Finance, HR, Purchasing, etc.), by regions, by names of projects, etc.

• Internal clients / Departments

The organization of the folders is determined by the internal clients of the lawyers. In this case, the tool is used in close contact with non-lawyers who must have easy and constant access to documents. Access to an entire folder will be given to a team without fine distinction within the team.
For example, the main folders will therefore be: Finances, Purchasing, Marketing, etc.
Subfolders can then be organized by regions, project names, etc.

• Types of documents

The organization of the files is determined by the types of documents. In this case, lawyers and non-lawyers are considered equal contributors.
This organization can be useful when a type of document can be created by several contributors.
For example, the main files will therefore be: leasing, commercial contract, loan contract ...
Subfolders can then be organized by partner, suppliers, counterpart, etc.
Note that in this type of use, the interest is to classify and arrange the files, because the search engine allows you to sort your documents by type of document, supplier, etc.