Laserfiche & Project Terms Glossary

Laserfiche & Project Terms Glossary

This Laserfiche glossary brings together commonly used terms from document management, records management, business process automation, system integration, data migration, and information security. Some of these terms may be unfamiliar, while others are familiar words used in a more specific way.

Use this glossary when planning a new Laserfiche implementation, expanding an existing system, preparing for a data migration, or participating in a process-improvement project.

Select a topic:

Find a term:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Laserfiche Basics

Repository

The central location where documents, folders, records, metadata, templates, and other information are stored and managed in Laserfiche. A repository can be compared to a digital filing system, but it also provides search, security, automation, auditing, and records-management capabilities.

Entry

Any item stored in a Laserfiche repository, including a document, folder, shortcut, record series, or record folder.

Folder

A container used to organize documents and other entries within a Laserfiche repository. Folders can be arranged in a hierarchy to help organize information by department, function, project, record type, or other business need.

Document

An entry in Laserfiche that contains information such as scanned pages, electronic files, images, PDFs, Microsoft Office files, or other content. Documents can also include metadata used to classify, search, secure, and manage the information.

↑ Back to top

Forms & Process Automation

Process Automation

The use of technology to perform, coordinate, and track business activities that might otherwise require manual effort. Laserfiche process automation can collect information, route work, update metadata, create documents, send notifications, and connect with other systems.

Laserfiche Forms

Laserfiche functionality used to create electronic forms and form-based business processes. Forms can collect information from employees, customers, residents, vendors, and other participants before routing the submission through reviews, approvals, notifications, or automated actions.

Form

An electronic interface used to collect and display information. A form may include text fields, dates, numbers, lists, checkboxes, file uploads, instructions, calculations, and other components needed to complete a request or business activity.

Public Form

A form that can be opened and submitted without signing in to Laserfiche. Public forms can be used for applications, service requests, public records requests, document submissions, registrations, and other interactions with people outside the organization.

Business Process

A defined sequence of activities used to accomplish a business goal. A Laserfiche business process may begin with a form submission and continue through assignments, reviews, approvals, automated actions, notifications, and completion.

Process Instance

One occurrence of a business process. Each submitted request generally starts a new process instance containing its own submitted information, assigned tasks, status, history, and completed actions.

User Task

A step in a business process that requires a person to take action. A user task might ask someone to review information, complete a form, supply additional documentation, approve or reject a request, or make a decision.

Service Task

An automated step performed by the system rather than a person. Service tasks can send email, save submitted forms to the repository, update information, invoke another process, or perform other configured actions.

Gateway

A decision point in a business process that controls which path the process follows. A gateway can route work differently based on form values, approval decisions, dollar amounts, departments, dates, or other defined conditions.

Workflow

An automated sequence of activities used to work with documents and information in Laserfiche. A workflow can route documents, assign metadata, create folders, send notifications, apply business rules, and exchange information with other processes or systems.

Lookup Rule

A configured action that retrieves information from a data source and uses it to populate or update form fields. Lookup rules can reduce manual entry, improve consistency, and present information based on a value entered or selected by the user.

Token

A placeholder representing information available to a process or workflow. Tokens allow values such as names, dates, field values, document paths, and form responses to be reused in document names, metadata, messages, conditions, and automated actions.

↑ Back to top

Records Management

Record

Information that is managed according to an organization’s records retention requirements. In Laserfiche, records management capabilities help organizations control how records are classified, retained, transferred, and ultimately disposed of according to established policies.

Record Series

A group of related records that share the same retention requirements. A record series helps determine how long records must be retained and what should happen to them when the retention period has been completed.

Record Folder

A container within a record series used to group related records that share the same retention requirements. Record folders can help manage cutoff, retention, transfer, and disposition actions for a group of records.

Active Record

A record that is still regularly used to conduct business or support current operations. Active records generally need to remain readily available to authorized users.

Inactive Record

A record that is no longer regularly used but must continue to be retained to satisfy legal, regulatory, historical, audit, or operational requirements.

Retention Schedule

Rules that define how long records must be kept and what happens to them after the required retention period. Retention schedules are typically based on legal, regulatory, operational, or organizational requirements.

Cutoff

The event or date that starts the retention period for a record. Depending on the type of record, cutoff might occur at the end of a calendar year, the completion of a project, termination of an employee, expiration of a contract, or another defined event.

Legal or Regulatory Hold

A restriction placed on a record or record folder to prevent disposition or certain records-management actions while the information must be preserved. Holds may be used for litigation, audits, investigations, public records matters, or other legal and regulatory requirements.

Interim Transfer

The movement of records to another storage location during their retention period. An interim transfer changes where the records are stored but does not complete their required retention or final disposition.

Disposition

The action taken when a record has completed its required retention period. Disposition may include destruction, transfer, permanent preservation, or another action defined by the organization’s records management policies.

Destruction

The authorized removal of record content after the required retention period has been completed and any applicable holds have been resolved. Destruction should follow the organization’s approved records-management policies and procedures.

Accession

The transfer of records and responsibility for their continued preservation to another organization or archival location. Accession is a type of final disposition typically used when records have permanent historical, administrative, or legal value.

Metadata Retention

The continued preservation of information describing a record after the record content has been destroyed or transferred. Retained metadata can provide evidence that the record existed and that an authorized disposition action occurred.

↑ Back to top

Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity

Business Continuity

The planning and preparation used to help an organization continue its essential services during and after a disruption. Business continuity considers people, facilities, technology, information, communications, vendors, and alternative ways of performing critical work.

Disaster Recovery

The processes used to restore technology systems, applications, data, and related services following an outage, cyber incident, equipment failure, natural disaster, or other disruption. Disaster recovery is one part of an organization’s broader business-continuity planning.

Continuity of Operations (COOP)

A plan for continuing an organization’s essential functions when normal operations, facilities, personnel, or systems are unavailable. A continuity-of-operations plan may identify essential services, alternate work locations, delegated authority, communication procedures, and recovery priorities.

Essential Function

A service or activity that an organization must continue or restore within an acceptable period following a disruption. Examples may include responding to public records requests, maintaining official records, processing payments, issuing permits, supporting public safety, and communicating with the public.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

A structured review used to identify essential functions, supporting systems and information, acceptable downtime, recovery priorities, and the potential effects of a disruption. The results help an organization determine where continuity and recovery resources are most needed.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

The target amount of time within which a system, application, service, or business function should be restored after a disruption. An RTO helps answer the question: How long can this service be unavailable before the interruption becomes unacceptable?

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

The maximum acceptable amount of data that could be lost following a disruption, usually measured in time. An RPO helps determine how frequently information should be backed up or replicated. For example, an RPO of four hours means the organization should be prepared to recover information to a point no more than four hours before the incident.

Backup

A protected copy of data, documents, system configurations, or other information that can be used for recovery if the original information is lost, damaged, corrupted, encrypted, or accidentally deleted. Backup procedures should define what is copied, how frequently it is copied, where it is stored, and how long it is retained.

Restore

The process of returning data, documents, configurations, or systems from a backup to an operational environment. A successful restore should recover information accurately and make it available to authorized users.

Failover

The process of moving system operations from a primary environment to an alternate environment when the primary system is unavailable. Failover may occur automatically or may require an authorized person to initiate and verify the transition.

Redundancy

The use of additional systems, components, connections, storage locations, or service providers to reduce the effect of a single failure. Redundancy can improve availability, but it does not replace backups, recovery planning, or testing.

Recovery Test

A planned exercise used to confirm that systems, information, procedures, and responsible personnel can support recovery following a disruption. Testing may identify missing backups, outdated instructions, access problems, unresolved dependencies, or recovery times that do not meet the organization’s objectives.

↑ Back to top

Have a Laserfiche or information-management question?

Nine Peaks Solutions helps organizations plan, implement, expand, and improve Laserfiche systems and related information-management projects.

Request a Laserfiche Consultation →

Is a Term Missing?

Would you like us to explain a Laserfiche, records management, document management, or project term that is not included in this glossary?

Submit the term below. Your suggestion may be added to this glossary to help other visitors better understand it.