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Metadata-driven document management

Find documents by what they are

A supplier agreement belongs to the supplier and to the project it was signed for. A folder tree makes you pick one. In M‑Files you save it once, say what it is, and it appears under both, and among the agreements expiring this year.

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Three screens from M-Files: one recorded issue opened to the corrective action, the change request, the process diagram and the document linked to it, the vault's list of views, and the metadata card of a procedure with its class, approver and dates
No folders, no doubles

Folders or metadata

Metadata is what M‑Files knows about a document: what it is, which customer, project or contract it belongs to, who owns it, and the dates that matter. Metadata-driven document management files a document by those details instead of by a folder path, and that one change is behind every row in this table.

Metadata (M‑Files)Folders
One copy, shown under every customer and project it belongs to
Found by the customer, the type or the year Partial
A project plan inherits its project's permissions Partial
Every change kept as a version, with the current one first
A view for each team or person, without moving anything
Existing files brought in without moving them by hand

Existing files: with connectors, part of the Intelligent Metadata Layer, M‑Files shows content from network folders and SharePoint Online alongside the vault without moving it, and with the M‑Files Metadata Agent, metadata can be added to existing documents in bulk. Coming from SharePoint, where libraries use metadata columns alongside folders? M‑Files vs SharePoint compares the two and says when to keep both.

In practice

Chores that go with the folders

  • Naming files by rule — Nobody types "2026_Contracts_Final_v3" again. The document type, the customer and the date are fields you fill in, and M‑Files keeps the versions.
  • Remembering where it went — You stop asking where it was saved and start asking what it is. Filter by customer and document type, whoever saved it and whenever.
  • Keeping copies in step — The project folder, the customer folder and the email attachment become one document with one version history.
The M-Files web client with a customer opened to its documents and emails beside the metadata card of its framework agreement, with class, customer, contact person, dates and the workflow band at Approved
Views

Documents arranged for your job

A view is a list that fills itself: the active projects you have a stake in, the documents you edited recently. Some are set up for the whole company or a team, and you add your own. The documents never move, so a new team needs no reorganising.

  • New documents turn up by themselves — Save a document and it appears in every view it matches. Nobody files it a second time.
  • Views for each team — An administrator gives each group the views its work needs. A search you keep repeating can be saved as a view of your own.
  • Familiar to folder people — Views open like folders, and with the desktop client for Windows the vault appears as a drive in File Explorer.
Two screens from M-Files: the list of common views, from governance documents and tasks to change requests and recorded issues, and the governance documents view opened with its procedures and policies
The views a company shares, and one of them opened: the published governance documents.

See a new document land in the right views

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The Views home of an M-Files vault: the common views from governance documents and tasks to change requests and recorded issues, and the other views below
Old habits

When folders still feel natural

Nobody has to stop thinking in folders on day one. Views open like folders and fill themselves, so the habit carries over while the filing underneath is metadata.

  • The vault as a drive — With the desktop client for Windows, the vault and its views appear as a drive in File Explorer, so the people who live in Explorer keep their way of working.
  • Views that open like folders — A view for a customer opens to its contracts, projects and emails the way a folder would, except that it fills itself and the same document can sit in several views at once.
  • When one place is enough — A document that belongs to one project and nothing else sits as comfortably in a view as in a folder. The difference shows the day it also belongs to a supplier, a customer or an audit.
Getting there

Five decisions we work through with you

  1. List the document types

    Contracts, drawings, procedures and invoices each become a document type in M‑Files.

  2. Decide what describes each

    A contract has a counterparty, a start and end date, an owner. Those become the fields people fill in.

  3. Connect to your systems

    Customers come from the CRM and projects from the ERP, so nobody types a name twice.

  4. Assign people and workflows

    Decide who is responsible for each document type, who works on it with them, and which workflow it follows.

  5. Start with a pilot

    Begin with one area and expand as more teams come on board.

Next step

See the same document from three sides

Book a demo and see one agreement under its customer, its project and its expiry year, with views and permissions working from the same fields. After that we can start quickly, with a pilot on your own use cases.

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Questions about metadata

What is metadata in document management?
The details a system holds about a document: what it is (a contract, a drawing, a procedure), which customer, project or contract it belongs to, who owns it, and dates such as the signing date or the next review. A file share holds a name and a path. M‑Files holds these details as fields and uses them for search, views, permissions, workflows and deletion rules. Why M‑Files explains the thinking behind it.
Who fills in the fields?
People do, with help from the system. When a document is saved to M‑Files, its fields open to be filled in, and a template can fill in details such as the customer name when a document is created from it. With the M‑Files Metadata Agent, M‑Files suggests the values for the fields your administrators choose, and can add metadata to existing documents in bulk, for example during a migration. It is licensed separately.
What else works from the same fields?
Search, permissions, workflows and deletion rules. Access rights can follow the fields, so a document can inherit the permissions of the project or customer it belongs to. Deletion rules are configured as workflows that archive or delete documents after a set time.
How does search work next to the views?
A simple search looks in the content of documents and in their metadata, and ranks the results. Advanced search narrows them by document type, process area or any other field.
Where do customer and project names come from?
M‑Files can keep lists such as customers, projects or employees in sync with an external database, so the names come from the system that already holds them. Which systems we connect, and how, is settled during the implementation.
Do people have to give up folders altogether?
Views behave like virtual folders, so the habit carries over, and the desktop client shows the vault as a drive in File Explorer. M‑Files also has a web portal and a mobile app.
How do we migrate a file share to M‑Files?
In stages. With connectors, M‑Files shows content from network folders and SharePoint Online alongside the vault without moving it. Documents are then brought in one kind at a time, and with the M‑Files Metadata Agent, metadata can be added to existing documents in bulk. Document management on M‑Files describes the way from file share to M‑Files.
Is this the same as metadata columns in SharePoint?
Not quite. SharePoint libraries can use metadata columns alongside folders, and permissions are inherited from the site, library or folder unless they are changed for an item. In M‑Files the metadata is the filing: a document appears under every customer and project it belongs to, and its permissions follow what it is. Many companies run both, with SharePoint for team sites and M‑Files for the documents that need rules. M‑Files vs SharePoint sets out the differences.