Archive Matters – How to Archive Matters from your system
Migration Manager has the ability to Archive closed Matters in your system. This is useful when you have many old Matters on file and wish to remove these from your day-to-day view. The Archive process does 2 things:
- It sets the File Status for selected Matters to ‘Closed - Archived’. This limits what can be done within the Matter and your Open window can be defaulted to not view these Archived Matters.
- It moves the Matter's Folders (usually located in the Migration Manager\Clients folder) to an Archived folder (usually Migration Manager\Z-Archive\Clients folder).
By Archiving old Matters, the number of Matters folders in your Clients folder can be limited to the Matters that are in progress and relevant.
Archive Prerequisites
Prerequisite 1
For a Matter to be Archived, it must have a File Status of either 'File Closed', or 'File Closed- To Be Archived'.
Prerequisite 2
All users must have All Client Detail windows closed to prevent any file locking. We would normally suggest asking all users to log out Migration Manager other than the user running the function.
Prerequisite 3
The Documents tab of matter must be reconciled and not showing any items inn grey or red.
1. Accessing Archive Matters
From the Main Menu, select Tools, then Archive, then Archive Matters.
The Archive window will appear.
2. Set your filters to display the Matters you want to Archive
By default, the Archive window will display Matters with a File Status of ‘File Closed To be Archived’. If you wish to view Matters with a File Status of ‘File Closed’, click the drop-down arrow and select 'File Closed'.
You can also search for a Matter ID by typing in the Matter ID search box (this will only display matching Matters where their File Status matches the selected File Status).
3. Selecting Matters to be Archived
Once you have set your File Status filter, a list of matching Matters will be displayed.
- Tick the box for each Matter you would like to Archive.
- If you would like to select all Matters in the Search window, click the Selection dropdown, then ‘Tick All’.
Note: Archiving Matters can be a lengthy process to run since the function needs to physically move all the chosen Matter documents to the new location. Because of this, Migration Manager will only process a maximum of 100 Matters at a time. If you have more than 100 Matters to process, you simply need to repeat the process for the next 100 and so on.
4. Archive
Once you have chosen the Matters to Archive, click the Archive button.
5. Confirm Archiving
A message will appear informing of the archive. When you are sure no users have Client Details open, click OK.
6. Archive Complete
Once the Archiving process has completed, a confirmation will appear. Click OK.
Outcome
- The Matter/s have now been set to a File Status of ‘File Closed - Archived’. This status cannot be changed via the Matter. It will need to be un-archived to access the field again.
- The Matter Folders have been moved to the \Z-Archive\Clients folder of your Migration Manager folder
Common Issue with Archiving
Documents tab not reconciled:
If any documents in the Documents tab have not been reconciled then this matter cannot be archived.
Cloud File Service unable to download files in time:
If you Client documents are in the cloud and not stored locally on your HD, then they may not download in time for Migration Manager to move them.
It is recommended that the Client folders being archived are synced locally to the computer Archiving.
Files in use:
If another User has viewed any of the document for this client recently then Windows may think that these documents are still in use.
It is recommended to restart your computer before Archiving to make sure Windows does not think these documents and folders are in user and to Archive files when no other users are working on these matters in Migration Manager.
User permissions:
If the Windows User of this computer is not an Administrator account, then they may have permission errors when trying to Archive matters.
Only Windows Administrator accounts should Archive matters in Migration Manager.