By Sierra Jahoda
Technical Writer

Laserfiche document relationships keep associated documents at a user’s fingertips. Business processes often involve multiple documents that, while related, must be processed and stored in different areas of the repository. While separate filing locations may make sense organizationally, it can be cumbersome for users to move between related documents.

Document relationships offer a convenient way to indicate that two Laserfiche entries are related. These relationships link documents together so that one can be accessed directly from the other without altering the folder structure.

For example, in a purchase order business process, a company may file its completed purchase orders in the PO folder in their repository. However, when the company receives an invoice for the products, the invoice must be filed based on the company or vendor that sent the invoice.

Since purchase orders and invoices are correlated, a document relationship can connect the two documents. With this relationship, each document can be quickly accessed from the other: the purchase order can be opened directly from the invoice (see below) and vice versa.

Document relationship information is stored in a document’s metadata and can be accessed from the Metadata dialog box or the Document Viewer’s Metadata Pane. The relationship type and reverse relationship, such as “Invoice” and “Purchase Order,” provide a fast and easy way to see how the documents are related.

Document relationship definitions are created in the Laserfiche Administration Console. Once a document relationship has been defined, it can be applied to documents in the desktop Laserfiche Client or Web Access. To learn more, see Document Relationships in the Laserfiche online help files.

Note: Document Relationships do not bypass standard Laserfiche security. For example, if a user is granted rights to a purchase order, but not to the related invoice, the user will not be able to access the invoice from the purchase order.