Uploading documents

Step 1 of 4.

What this is for

Getting the case file into Ordernize. You can drop in loose files, whole folders, or ZIP archives. You do not need to sort or rename anything first. Sorting is the software’s job.

Steps

1. Open the case and click the upload button (the icon on the left edge).

2. Add the documents, three ways:

   • Drag files straight from your computer onto the dashed area.
   • Drag an entire folder onto it. Ordernize walks the whole folder tree, including subfolders. See the filename warning below before you do this.
   • Choose Files or Choose Folder to browse instead.

   ZIP archives are unpacked automatically.

3. Click Upload.

4. Leave the tab open until the upload finishes. Once uploaded, processing continues on the server and you can close the tab.

What Ordernize accepts

PDF, DOCX, DOC, TXT, RTF, ODT, JPG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, TIF, XLSX, XLS, CSV, PPTX, ZIP.

Anything else in the folder is skipped. Ordernize tells you how many were skipped, but not which ones, so if you are reconciling against a production index, check the count against what you sent.

Two files with the same name

Within one upload batch, Ordernize keeps the first file of any given filename and skips the rest, even when they sit in different subfolders and are genuinely different documents. It warns you: “N file(s) skipped — duplicate filename in batch”, naming them.

This matters on productions organised as one folder per account, where every folder holds a statement.pdf or 2024.pdf. Dragging the parent folder in one go will silently reduce those to a single document.

Either upload one account folder at a time, or give the files distinct names before you start. If you see that warning, stop and check what was dropped.

Limits per batch

• 500 files
• 500 MB total after ZIPs are unpacked

Larger productions go up in several batches. There is no limit on how many batches a case can have.

One document per PDF

Each PDF should contain a single document. Do not combine multiple documents into one file.

A PDF holding a bank statement, a tax return and three court filings gets one classification and one Bates number, and there is no way to pull those documents apart afterwards.

A multi-account bank statement is different and is handled properly: it is one document about several accounts, so it keeps one Bates number but is listed under each account in the Inventory of Documents. Seeing the same Bates number twice under two accounts is correct, not a duplicate.

What Ordernize cannot do is split a scan-everything-into-one-file PDF back into separate documents. If the production arrived as one giant PDF, split it before uploading.

What good looks like

• The document count on the case matches what you sent.
• Anything skipped was skipped for a reason you recognise (a .msg, a stray .DS_Store).
• Documents begin moving through processing on their own. You do not have to start anything.

Pitfalls

Do not rename files to help it. Filenames are a hint, not the basis for filing; the contents decide. Well-named files are fine, badly-named files are fine.

Re-uploading the same file is safe. Identical files are recognised and not duplicated, so if you are unsure whether a batch went through, send it again.

Uploading more later is normal, but it can reopen Accounts & owners with new names, and it changes your reports. Re-export after a top-up.

Next: Processing and retries