Steps to Create a Great Folder Structure

Steps to Create a Great Folder Structure in infoRouter

A well-organized folder structure requires some planning before you can fully benefit from infoRouter features such as Smart Folders. A clear structure improves navigation, reduces user errors, and makes governance easier over time.

If you are looking for broader system-wide guidance (naming, folder depth, document volume, libraries, metadata, and retention), please also review our infoRouter EDMS Best Practices.

Start by defining your top-level containers—known as Document Libraries in infoRouter. Organizing from the top down helps create dedicated spaces for teams or functions, and makes it easier to apply security and rules consistently.

1. Define Top-Level Libraries by Function

The first step in designing an effective folder structure is defining your top-level Document Libraries by function. Libraries represent the broadest organizational boundaries in infoRouter and should reflect how work, ownership, and access are structured across your organization.

Common examples include departmental libraries such as HR, Finance, Sales, or Marketing, as well as project- or initiative-based libraries such as Project_X or Client_Engagements.

Why this matters: Libraries act as a primary boundary for security, governance, and search filtering. Organizing documents into multiple, well-defined libraries reduces the search scope, improves performance, and makes access control easier to manage.

Each library is isolated to its members, ensuring that only authorized users can view or interact with its contents. Users and user groups can be assigned at the library level, making it easier to manage permissions at scale.

Tip: Avoid creating a single “catch-all” library. Splitting content logically across libraries improves usability, reduces administrative overhead, and prevents long-term performance issues as document volumes grow.

2. Leverage Smart Folders for Structural Control

Once your top-level libraries are defined, Smart Folders allow you to enforce consistency and control within each library. Unlike traditional folders, Smart Folders support rules that govern how folders and documents behave.

Why this matters: As document repositories grow, structure tends to drift. Smart Folder rules help prevent accidental or uncontrolled changes that can undermine organization, security, and governance.

Using Smart Folders, you can define rules that restrict folder creation, deletion, document check-in, or check-out. These rules can be inherited by subfolders, ensuring that the same controls are applied consistently throughout the folder hierarchy.

Smart Folders also support configuration management. You can restrict accepted file types within a folder—for example, allowing only PDFs in a reporting folder or only image formats in a design folder. This ensures content remains consistent with the folder’s purpose and reduces clutter.

Once a folder structure has been finalized, rules can be used to lock the structure by disallowing new folders or folder deletion. This allows users to retain broad document access while preserving the integrity of the folder hierarchy. Smart Folder rules override security permissions, giving administrators precise control where it matters most.

Tip: Use Smart Folder rules to protect structure, not to micromanage users. Apply rules at strategic points in the hierarchy and rely on inheritance to keep administration simple.

3. Establish Consistent Naming Conventions for Folders

Consistent folder naming is critical for usability and long-term maintainability. While Smart Folders help enforce structure, clear naming conventions ensure users can quickly understand where documents belong and how the folder hierarchy is organized.

Best Practice: Use short, descriptive names that clearly indicate the folder’s purpose. Folder names should describe what the content is, not how it is used or who created it.

Why this matters: Inconsistent or vague folder names increase navigation time, create uncertainty, and encourage users to store documents in the wrong location. Over time, this leads to cluttered structures and reduced trust in the system.

Avoid generic or catch-all names such as Misc, General, or Documents. These folders tend to grow uncontrollably and quickly lose meaning.

When appropriate, include context such as year, department, or document type, but avoid overly long or sentence-style folder names.

Tip: If a folder name requires a full sentence to explain, it is usually a sign that the structure needs to be simplified or broken into clearer subfolders.

4. Keep Sub-Folder Structures Shallow for Easy Navigation

It’s tempting to create deeply nested folder structures, but this can make it harder for users to quickly locate files. Keep your sub-folder structure simple and shallow, limiting the depth to three or four levels. This ensures that documents can be accessed in just a few clicks, preventing frustration and inefficiency.

For example, within your “HR” Library, you might have subfolders for “Benefits,” “Employee Contracts,” and “Recruitment.” Further sub-folders could be created under each of these categories, but try to avoid adding too many layers to prevent overly complex navigation.

Tip: If your sub-folder structure gets too deep, consider reorganizing or breaking it into multiple Libraries to maintain simplicity.

4. Keep Sub-Folder Structures Shallow for Easy Navigation

Deeply nested folder structures make navigation slower and increase the likelihood of errors.

Best Practice: Keep folder depth to no more than 5–6 levels. Users should be able to reach commonly used documents in a few clicks.

Why this matters: Deep folder hierarchies are harder to navigate, more difficult to maintain, and more likely to cause long path issues during export or integration with file systems.

Tip: If a structure requires many nested levels, consider reorganizing content or splitting it across multiple libraries.

5. Use Retention and Disposition Schedules

Retention and disposition schedules help manage the lifecycle of documents while supporting compliance and governance.

Why this matters: Without retention rules, obsolete documents accumulate over time, increasing risk and making it harder to identify authoritative content.

Retention schedules ensure that vital records are preserved for the required period while obsolete documents are reviewed or disposed of in a controlled manner.

Tip: Assign ownership of retention schedules to specific roles to ensure reviews and actions are not delayed.

6. Use Folder Subscriptions for Awareness, Not Oversight

Folder subscriptions notify users when documents are added, modified, or deleted.

Why this matters: Subscriptions improve awareness of important changes without requiring users to manually monitor folders.

Subscriptions are especially useful for time-sensitive or high-impact folders, such as project deliverables or policy documents.

Tip: Use subscriptions selectively to avoid notification overload.

7. Organize by Date and Use Audit Trails

For time-sensitive content such as contracts or financial records, organizing folders by year or period can improve clarity.

Why this matters: Chronological organization simplifies navigation and supports audits, reviews, and compliance checks.

Audit trails provide a complete record of access and changes, ensuring accountability and transparency.

Tip: Enable audit trails on folders containing regulated or high-risk content.

8. Create Folder Templates for Repeatable Structures

Folder templates allow you to standardize structure across projects or initiatives.

Why this matters: Templates reduce setup time, prevent inconsistent structures, and ensure that metadata, security, and rules are applied consistently from the start.

Templates are especially useful for recurring projects, client engagements, or compliance-driven workflows.

9. Review and Compact Document Versions

Documents that undergo frequent edits can accumulate excessive versions.

Why this matters: Large version histories increase storage usage and slow down full-text searches, since each version is indexed.

Folder compacting reduces unnecessary interim versions while retaining key historical versions required for audit or reference.

Tip: Periodically compact folders with high document churn to improve search performance.

10. Personalize and Standardize Folder Views

infoRouter allows users to personalize folder views while also supporting default and mandatory view settings.

Why this matters: Consistent views improve usability and reduce confusion, especially in folders with specific content types such as images or reports.

Administrators can configure default or mandatory views using folder rules to ensure that content is presented appropriately.

Tip: Use mandatory views sparingly and only where consistency is critical.

Conclusion

A well-designed folder structure is essential to long-term usability, performance, and governance in infoRouter. By planning libraries carefully, enforcing structure with Smart Folders, and applying consistent naming, retention, and versioning practices, organizations can prevent clutter and reduce operational risk.

These recommendations complement the broader guidance outlined in our infoRouter EDMS Best Practices and should be applied together for best results.

Taking the time to design and maintain a thoughtful folder structure ensures that infoRouter remains scalable, efficient, and easy to use as your document volumes grow.

Steps to Create a Great Folder Structure