Getting started
How everything is organised: folders, projects, documents and data
The four levels information is organised into, identical across all three modules.
Whichever module you are in, information is always organised into the same four levels. Learning it once covers all three, and getting it right from the start avoids the most common mess: ending up with forty loose folders and no idea what is in any of them.
Folder: for tidiness
It works like a folder on your computer. You can nest folders inside folders and build whatever structure suits you: by year, by client, by site, by department. It is optional: anything you do not file stays at the root and works perfectly well.
Worth knowing
Advice from people who have already set this up: do not go beyond two or three levels of folders. Past that, browsing to find something costs more than searching for it.
Project: the level that really matters
A project groups everything to do with one matter: onboarding one specific supplier, one specific rental contract, one specific quarter's audit. It does not nest — there are no projects inside projects — and it belongs to one module: a project is a Trackline, a Consigne or a SmartCheck project, not all three at once.
It matters because it is the unit the platform works with: what gets shared with a third party is a project, what gets certified is a project, what gets exported is a project. Every document belongs to exactly one.
Document or evidence: the file
This is the file itself. It changes name by module because its role changes: in Trackline it is what somebody else sends you, in Consigne it is what gets signed, in SmartCheck it is what you certify. Underneath it is the same thing: a file with its date, its author and its record.
Data: what is inside the document
These are the specific fields that matter from that document: invoice number, due date, amount, company name. Automatic reading fills them in when the document arrives, and you review and confirm. They are what later lets you search for "every invoice over €5,000" instead of opening files one by one.
Frequently asked questions
›Can I move a document from one project to another?
Yes, while the case is open. What you cannot do is leave it with no project: every document belongs to one.
›Can I put a project inside another project?
No. Projects do not nest, by design. If you need to group several, use a folder — that is exactly what folders are for.
›Can one project belong to two modules?
No. Each project belongs to one module. If a single matter needs documents requested and then signed, you will have one Trackline project and one Consigne project, and you can keep both in the same folder.
›What if I never create a folder?
Nothing bad. Everything sits at the root of the module and works the same. Folders are for your convenience, not a requirement.
A real case
The situation
A letting agency manages seasonal rentals for 2026.
What you do
- Creates the folder "Rentals" and "Summer 2026" inside it
- Each booking is a project: "City Centre Flat — Ruiz Family"
- Inside the project sit the ID document, the signed contract and the deposit receipt
- Each document yields its data: check-in and check-out dates, deposit amount
What you get
When claiming the deposit, the whole project is shared at once, with its documents and its data, instead of hunting for three files in an inbox.
The situation
An advisory firm files everything by client and cannot find the documents for one particular year.
What you do
- The folder is the client and the project is the year
- Each document hangs from the year it belongs to
What you get
You open the year and everything for it is there, without filtering by upload date.
The situation
A contractor mixes three different jobs for the same client in one folder.
What you do
- Each job is a project with its own name
- The folder groups the client, not the work
What you get
One job can be closed without touching the other two.
The situation
A team is unsure whether to look for a figure in the document or in a record.
What you do
- Data is extracted from the document and hangs from it
- The document stays the source and the figure is its reading
What you get
Any doubt leads back to the original document straight from the figure itself.
The situation
A company wants to search by amount rather than by file name.
What you do
- Extracted data can be queried as fields
- The document is found by what it says, not what it was called
What you get
Finding stops depending on somebody naming the file well.
The situation
Someone creates a folder per document and the structure becomes unmanageable.
What you do
- The folder groups; the project is the unit of work
- The document lives inside the project, not in a folder of its own
What you get
The structure stops growing with every file that arrives.
This article answers
- how do I organise documents in Code Contract
- difference between folder and project
- where are documents stored
- folder structure for document management