User Guide

User Guide

This guide covers everything you need to know to use Paperless Vault for managing your documents.

Getting Started

Accessing Paperless

1. Navigate to your Paperless instance (e.g., https://paperless.renewed-renaissance.com)
2. Log in with your username and password
3. You’ll see the dashboard with your recent documents

Dashboard Overview

The main dashboard shows:

• Recent Documents - Your most recently added documents
• Inbox - Documents awaiting review/tagging
• Saved Views - Your custom search filters
• Statistics - Document counts by type, correspondent, etc.

Uploading Documents

Web Upload

1. Click the Upload button (📤) in the top navigation
2. Drag and drop files or click to browse
3. Documents are automatically OCR’d and indexed

Supported File Types

*Office documents require Tika/Gotenberg services

Consume Folder

Documents can also be added via the consume folder:

• Files placed here are automatically imported
• Subdirectories become tags (e.g., consume/taxes/2024/doc.pdf gets tagged with “taxes” and “2024”)

Searching Documents

Basic Search

Type in the search bar to find documents by:

• Title
• Content (OCR text)
• Tags
• Correspondent
• Date

Advanced Search

Use filters for precise searches:

• Date Range - Filter by created/added date
• Tags - Include/exclude specific tags
• Correspondent - Filter by sender
• Document Type - Filter by category

Search Syntax

# Find documents containing "invoice"
invoice

# Find documents with exact phrase
"tax return 2024"

# Exclude terms
invoice -paid

# Combine with tags
tag:taxes 2024

Organizing Documents

Tags

Tags help categorize documents:

• Click a document to open details
• Add tags in the sidebar
• Create new tags as needed

Suggested tag structure:

• By category: taxes, mortgage, medical, receipts
• By year: 2024, 2023, etc.
• By status: action-needed, archived

Correspondents

Correspondents represent who sent/created the document:

• Bank statements → Bank name
• Utility bills → Utility company
• Personal docs → “Self”

Document Types

Categorize by document purpose:

• Invoice
• Receipt
• Statement
• Contract
• Letter

Downloading & Exporting

Download Single Document

1. Click on the document
2. Click the Download button
3. Choose original or archived (OCR’d) version

Bulk Export

1. Select multiple documents (checkboxes)
2. Click Actions → Download
3. Documents are zipped for download

Tips & Best Practices

Keyboard Shortcuts

Troubleshooting

Document Not Found in Search

• Wait a few minutes for OCR/indexing to complete
• Check if the document has content (some PDFs are image-only)
• Try searching for different terms

Upload Failed

• Check file size (max 100MB)
• Ensure file type is supported
• Try a different browser

OCR Quality Issues

• Original scan quality affects OCR
• High-resolution scans work best
• Consider re-scanning problematic documents

Getting Help

• Check the Admin Guide for technical issues
• View logs at /admin/ → System → Logs
• Contact your administrator for access issues