Document management with Vertec

Vertec offers many possibilities for document management and automation. The aim of this article is to provide you with an overview and guide you to the right locations in our Knowledge Base.

Documents can be created, saved and linked directly in Vertec.

With the Vertec reporting system, documents can be created, registered and then executed directly in Vertec via the print menu. You can pre-define whether and how the created document should be saved, how it should be stored in Vertec, whether a dialog is shown when printing, and much more.

Reports can also be automatically attached to emails and sent directly from Vertec.

Creating documents

Documents can be created and executed directly from Vertec using the Office-based, cloud-ready reporting system, which enables you to create and register Office reports. A large number of reports are also included by default. You can find an overview of all reports in  All Vertec reports at a glance. After registration, reports are called up in Vertec via the print menu. An activity is automatically created in the background and the document is stored on it, so you can find it again at any time. You can pre-define the corresponding criteria.

The created document is automatically opened in the relevant editor and can be viewed/edited. With internal document storage, the activity is shown in a new tab in Vertec so that the document can be unlocked again.

Report templates in Vertec

In order for a report to be available in Vertec, it must be registered as a report template in Vertec. You can also pre-define whether and how the created document should be saved, whether a dialog should be shown when printing, and much more. For a detailed description, see the article Register reports.

All documents in Vertec are stored via activity. This means that an activity is created, the document is attached and the activity is assigned to the relevant entry in Vertec. In this way, you can also add comments to each document, define responsibilities, appointments and other activities.

Document storage

You can choose whether the documents are directly saved in Vertec or stored on your file system and only linked in Vertec.

You can find the setting for this in Vertec in System settings, General tab > Document storage:

You can also combine Vertec with external document management solutions (DMS). The Sharepoint Online DMS Extension enables integration with SharePoint online, so users can create documents in Vertec directly in Sharepoint and check them in and out of Vertec.

Document storage "Internal"

With this system setting, documents are saved on the activities and thus directly in the Vertec database. Read more details about this here.

Document storage "File system or DMS"

This setting saves documents in the file repository and links them to the correct location in Vertec. To achieve this, you must first create a file repository structure in Vertec.

File storage structure

The repository structure is based on the global document path. This basic path is specified in System settings > General > Document path:

The document path must exist on the server and be accessible from the clients in order for you to save or open the documents.

For operation with the Sharepoint Online DMS Extension, you must enter the path to the Sharepoint document library as the document path. In addition, the Sharepoint Site URL  must be defined in the system settings CRM/Activities.

Cloud Suite scenario

In the Cloud Suite scenario (e.g. with the option Restrict Filesystem Access activated), the document is saved as follows:

• The reports are saved on the client side. This means that you can also specify a server directory that is located in the client environment. This allows reports to be created and saved in the Cloud App.
• As the Web App does not have access to the local customer environment, documents cannot be saved directly in the Web App. If a document is created in the Web App, it appears in the browser for download. No activity is created.
• Documents on the local customer environment cannot be opened in the Web App.

The subfolders

The file paths for subfolders of each class (projects, addresses, etc.) can be specified in the class settings per class. The following options exist:

• Specify a folder name: This is interpreted as a subfolder of the base path.
• An absolute path: This overrides the base path.
• An OCL expression: enclosed in %% symbols is calculated dynamically.

These details can be combined. Below, for example, project documents are stored in the Projects subfolder under the respective project code:

The storage path is visible on each individual entry and can also be overridden if necessary:

The paths are calculated dynamically (unless the system is overloaded with absolute paths). The advantage is that changes to the base path automatically impact the storage paths, so if you need to change your storage structure, Vertec can adapt to the new conditions with one click and automatically find the documents in the new location.

To store an existing document in Vertec, you can create an activity and import the document from there. For more information, see Document handling on activities.

Another option is the Vertec Explorer add-in, with which you can right-click on any file in Windows Explorer and select Save in Vertec. In a dialog, select the project, address, etc. in Vertec, and the document is saved in Vertec.

With the Outlook App, you can access addresses, projects, etc. in Vertec and save emails as activities. These are linked to the relevant project/contact and also include any attachments. This ensures a clear activity history with the respective addre in both Vertec and the Outlook app.

With the additional feature: sending reports, documents from Vertec can also be automatically attached to emails and sent.

Bulk mailing

The existing address or project data in Vertec can be structured in such a way that address lists can be easily created for serial emails, for example, to all customers in a specific industry or leads for a specific product.

Finding documents in Vertec

Activities divided into subfolders

By default, the activities are located on each entry in the Activities subfolder.

You can also use custom link types to create your own structures and display the individual activities filtered. In the following example, subfolders, such as offers, contracts or documents, are displayed:

In addition to the individual entry, you can also search for documents in all of Vertec, for example with an Activity search folder, such as the following email search:

These search folders are SQL folders, in which the desired criteria can be freely defined, and all available fields can be queried.

Or the general Vertec search can be extended to search additionally in the title of activities.