Reminder date for documents with status ToDo or Reminder

[JanneW3]

Reminder date for documents with status ToDo or Reminder.

[ignoreigor]

Hmm, in my paperless-archive, there are no documents that need to be remind me on sth...
But let's discuss...

[JanneW3]

I use this function very often. In my DMS at work, this is standard. Privately, I use it, for example, to keep an eye on the receipt of payments for credit notes, the receipt of goods, the receipt of returns or contracts.

[tpre]

That is something i would like although. Something to build a workflow for documents. May be a workflow created by a special tag-order, where one tag can be confirmed (clicked on), which leads to a next tag: Tag1->Tag2->Tag3->Endtag

[sukisoft]

I am using a general "ToDo" tag for this. But a reminder-date to which a document pops up at the start of a list, or on the dashboard could be a good feature.

[T0rax]

I would like this as well. I would be happy about a "Document State", can be used for ToDo, to check, to be payed. Like a simple workflow. A reminder or expiration date would be fine as well. Expiration for documents like ending warranties or reminder e.g. to cancel subscription in time.

[tooomm]

Expiration for documents like ending warranties or reminder e.g. to cancel subscription in time.

@T0rax For expiration date and automated tagging afterwards, there was #808 already. It has a first PR open in #194.

In your example, the warranty would require such an expiration date. It does not need any further action from you, but there could be something that happens automatically on that date, like the receipt could receive an Expired (or Archive(d)) tag etc.
That way one could find relevant documents quicker, or delete no longer needed stuff completely for example.

The automatically renewing subscription however would need something like a due date and requires an action before that.

Other examples for the first case could be documents older than 10 years, certain certificates that are valid only for 3 years etc.
A carrier plan/contract for your mobile would fit the second case as you probably want to cancel it in time.
Some license or your passport, that expire after 5 years and need renewal beforehand etc.

Paperless can help with managing those.
I'm also not sure right now how to best combine the two use cases. but finding a flexible system would be important.

[lippoliv]

I think this would be interesting for several users. It is a very easy thing to have a reminder if you wait for an response to something. Paperless ngx would target the tracking of documents where the user today cannot do anything but maybe in 2 weeks the user can continue.

Therefore it is more than a "ToDo" tag.

In paperless-ng already some requests where made for this

• Why I will stay with paperless-ng jonaswinkler/paperless-ng#1526
• Action / Due date jonaswinkler/paperless-ng#1695

[tooomm]

Action needed / ToDo / Reminder on the one hand, and Due date on the other sound also very helpful for various workflows indeed!
Like tagging meeting notes with open tasks or actions related to you, or keeping a backlog of certain letters that are awaiting a reply.
Some of those might have a critical deadline attached with a fixed date as well that the UI could help in addressing in time.
I think it's important to distinguish between simple tags (true/false) and date values. Both serve different needs.

I want to mention #808 here too, which has a first PR already open in #194.

It needs some discussion to find a good, general solution here and how to approach these similar topics.
Once people start using one implementation it's probably not so easy to rework them again.

[tooomm]

Reading this again and thinking some more about the topic... it seems like people basically want to put dates on documents and connect actions with that, eg.:

• Add tag on the date (e.g. expiring warranty that does not require further action vs. receiving payment which is overdue and does require further action)
• Delete file 1 year after the date (e.g. certain document type after retention date)
• Show file in dashboard starting 2 weeks before the date (e.g. reminder for cancelling subscription, or an open payment task)

[skorvek]

Some of these features are useful without becoming a to-do manager, and I'd definitely like to see some of them.

However, I'd view the ability to perform some condition-based automatic action as a separate feature request from a to-do list - the automatically add an archive tag after a period of time or automatically delete a file. That seems incredibly useful for efficient document management.

Separately- a simple system to surface a document that has met a time criteria (vs a tag or saved search) also seems useful. But in my use case at least, I wouldn't rely on it as I'm not watching that list all day (violates a GTD principle of anything with a due date needs to be on a calendar).

Implementation-wise it could even be as simple as creating a saved view that looks for a specific tag added automatically from a rule as in the request above. So a rule to apply a "confirm payment" tag to any document of type "invoice" 14 days after creation date would do the trick.

[skorvek]

Just a counterpoint. I have so many different to do list so I can’t even keep up with them and figure out what it’s on what list. I’ve got a whiteboard and reminders and calendars and then there’s the work email and the personal email and the work to do list in the 17 different Microsoft ways to make it to do list as well. I really don’t want another one in paperless. Now I obviously understand people have different use cases. For me if I was to ever track something that needed to be done with a document it would live in whatever my to do list system calendar system already is with a link to the document as it exists in paperless.

To go deeper if paperless did have a to do/date system, how would you propose looking into other things such as my phone/desktop/cloud calendar system So I actually see the due date without having to go look in yet another application?

[lippoliv]

Interesting point. The requirement may get obsolete if paperless can integrate with 3rd party To-Do applications?!

[tooomm]

Paperless should definitely not turn into a ToDo app or try to rival such tools, I do agree. :)
Deep integration with such applications is probably also out of scope.

The ability to create links to documents is an super interesting idea though! You click on it, paperless page opens, you log in and have the correct file at hand. People can stick to the tools they are used to and that are designed for the task, e.g. Todoist for tasks and paperless for document management.
Edit: Well, as I just learned, that's already possible... document linking by archive ID: #1041 (comment)

But I understand that users would like some more flexibility when working with their documents in Paperless directly. And everybody has their own workflow.
Whether a certain feature is just too much and doesn't fit the tools intention or future plans always needs to be considered of course.

[torwag]

Came here to suggest a reminder date. :)

I agree that paperless should not be a ToDo app.... But being able to set a date which will be sortable (like the two other dates) but in advance (next 7 days, next month, etc.) would help for many tasks.

1. Warranty: Scanning a receipt of a device, I know I have X years warranty, I can set a reminder date. 2 years later this receipt pops up in a saved search on my dashboard reminding me to check the status of the device, before warranty expires.
2. Payments: Some payments (e.g. insurances) need to be done over a period of time like, every quarter of a year. Setting the document reminder date to the next pay date, would let this document pop up in searches / on the dashboard and one can handle it.
3. Cancellation policies: Some contracts require quite in advance some cancellation. Setting a reminder date would avoid that this date get missed.

As for why this should be done in paperless and not in an external tool:
Pro:
The above tasks require all some information from the original document. Thus, one would need to open it anyhow. If such a reminder is that tightly bound to the document itself, it might be a good idea to deal with it in paperless.
Con:
More complexity and I really like the link idea. This would even allow a more general usage and integration with other applications. Instead of a single link, Paperless could offer an interface and people can write "share" functions. Each "share" function would autogenerate an entry in an export list. "Shares" could be "send by mail", "create permanent link", "create calender entry", "send to FOO", etc.

[premium3722]

+1

[joshua-russell]

+1 for reminder dates.
I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but I think many people would find it helpful for setting a document destruction date.
I have documents which I need to keep paper copies of for some specific amount of time, at which point I want to shred them. It would be very helpful to be able to tie this to some automation triggered by marking the to-do/reminder as completed, such as adding a "destroyed" tag and removing the ASN.

I work in the legal industry and this is a very common feature of their document management systems.

[Schrolli91]

+1 from me as well

[electrofloat]

Will this help? #141 (comment)

If yes, why not?