A bulk upload allows you to import a large volume of documents, including legacy documents, straight into Plexus. The combination of our bulk upload and bulk edit tools allows you to add any additional information to help end users to sort, filter and search through all documents stored on the platform.
Plexus currently offers two ways to bulk upload files: Bulk upload and Import contracts.
Bulk upload is a great tool for quickly getting your legacy documents in to Plexus
Import contracts allows for more complex uploads.
The ability to initiate a bulk upload is limited to roles with specific permissions, so keep this in mind when following these steps.
Initiating a Bulk upload
After logging in to Plexus, you can access the Bulk upload feature by navigating to Settings in the navigation bar on the left of your screen. Then click Account and select the Bulk upload tab.
The tab is separated into three simple steps.
Step 1. Select metadata
In this step you will need to nominate four common pieces of information about the files you intend to upload. These four fields, also known as key facts, will be applied to all of the files in a given batch.
Top tip! Because all files in a batch are assigned the same four pieces of metadata, you may wish to sort your documents into groups before starting the upload process.
Author - by default, this is set to the currently logged in user but can be set to anyone in your organisation. The author is a single person who automatically has visibility over the documents uploaded into the platform
.Organisation unit - as with the Author field, this is set to the same organisational unit as the currently logged in user but can be set to any unit in your organisation. The organisation unit can impact visibility of files for managers and lawyers across the organisation hierarchy.
Document type - this is a list of all document types in your organisation. Select the type that matches the batch of documents you intend to upload.
Status - Set to Authored if the files in your batch need to progress through any kind of workflow in Plexus. See our help article on Reviewing a document's status for a summary of how workflow statuses function in Plexus. Set to Executed if all files in the batch only need to be uploaded as stored documents.
Step 2. Upload files
Once you have set the four metadata fields, scroll down to Step 2 where you can select the files you would like to upload in bulk.
You can either drag and drop files on to the indicated area or click Browse files to select from your computer. Before uploading your files, take note of the following restrictions:
File type limits
Files must be .pdf, .docx or .zip. If you are uploading .zip files they can only contain .pdf and .docx files.
File size limits
Each file needs to be smaller than 1GB and each batch can contain a maximum number of 50 files. This means that if you have a lot of files to upload compressing them into a .zip first may save time.
As you nominate files for upload they will appear in the File list table where they can be reviewed. If you notice a file that you would like to remove from the batch before uploading, you can remove it by clicking the Remove button at the right of the relevant row.
Click Upload documents to upload your files. The time taken to upload your files will depend on the size of the batch and the speed of your internet connection.
Step 3. Review your files
Once your files have been uploaded, a new row will appear in the table under Step 3, indicating when the upload occurred, how many documents were in the batch and the status of the batch.
Initially your batch will show as Processing. This means that Plexus is still working on turning your files in to documents. You don't need to stay on the page while this processing is happening, Plexus will send you an email once the batch is ready for review.
Once Plexus has uploaded your files, it will show as one of three statuses:
Complete: all files in the batch have been successfully processed in to documents.
Needs review: some files in the batch were not able to be processed in to documents.
Error: No files in the batch were successfully processing in to documents.
Click the downwards pointing arrow to display more details, including a list of successfully uploaded documents for files with Complete and Needs review statuses.
Successfully uploaded documents can be viewed as a batch on the Document list by clicking View in the bottom right of each batch detail section.
Top tip! You can follow the instructions to bulk-edit metadata, to fill in the gaps with any remaining information for your documents.
For Needs review and Error statuses, you will see a list of files that were unable to be processed along with the error information.
The Plexus Import contracts tab is discussed in the following section, and can be used as an alternative to the Bulk upload tool, and may be used where you would like to:
Create main and sub-document relationships from your uploaded files
Create generic expiry alerts 30, 60 or 90 days before expiry
Create and answer custom questions for files, to assist with searching
Importing contracts (legacy option)
More complex bulk uploads are managed under the Import contracts tab under settings. To locate the this tab:
Step 1. Click the Settings menu, then select Account. There will be a range of tabs across the top of the screen. Click into the tab for Import contracts.
Step 2. You'll be able to download our Bulk Upload template for your next steps. Click Download template to download the spreadsheet file onto your computer.
Filling in the bulk upload template
The bulk upload spreadsheet is an excel file that allows you to fill in the details of each document, line by line. It will have colour-coded headings, instructions and example data to help guide you through the process.
Whilst the spreadsheet may take some time to fill out, it will be used to help us to map any specific or custom questions to the files that you’re uploading, making the documents easier to find once they’re in the system.
Please ensure that you’re filling it in properly.
Your spreadsheet will consist of two tabs:
Instructions - In this tab, we'll outline how you should fill out your spreadsheet
UploadDetails - In this tab, you'll need to add in the details for each file.
Bulk upload template definitions
Step 3. The next steps are to fill in your spreadsheet as required. You'll need to click into the UploadDetails tab to enter in your information.
Start by replacing any of the default content listed in this tab with the details you'd like to include for your upload.
You can enter your bulk upload details in a single sitting, or over the course of a few days/weeks depending on your timeline, number of files and complex filtering requirements.
Here's a brief overview of the fields you should expect to fill in as part of a bulk upload.
Upload details. This is the tab where you’ll enter in all information that will be added to Plexus. It needs to be done line-by-line for each file that you’re uploading into the system.
File. An exact match of the file name you’re loading into the system. This is how the system knows how to link the spreadsheet data to the files uploaded into the system. Ensure to include the extension (ie .pdf or .docx)
Document name. How you’d like the document to appear in the system.
Document type. Must be an exact match with the document types loaded alongside your set up. You may like to check out your Approve and eSign app for your current list of eligible document types.
Document ID and master document ID. Two numbers which must be an exact match in order to create a link between files. It’s an optional field that’s used only when you want a main document and supporting document link between two files that you’re loading into the system. Keep it numerical, not alphanumerical.
Document ID (the first column) is the Main document
Master Document ID (the second column) is the Supporting Document
Document status. Must be authored or executed only.
Organisation. Must be an exact match with the organisational structure loaded to your set up. You can find your current set up and organisational units under settings.
Organisation ID. An optional field to be left empty.
Author. The person who uploaded the document. The user must have an existing Plexus account, and you should enter their email address into this particular field.
Owner. The person who owns the document, if not the author. The user must have an existing Plexus account, and you should enter their email address into this particular field.
Counterparty. The other party, to be used for filtering, and for the Risk and Suppliers Report.
Start date. To be entered in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Expiry date. To be entered in YYYY-MM-DD format - see Internationalization section below
Expiry reminder. A field representing the number of days (30, 60, 90) before the expiry date, when a reminder should be sent. This is a number field only.
Execution date. To be entered in YYYY-MM-DD format - see Internationalization section below
Contract value. Also to be used in reporting.
Internationalization
This spreadsheet was originally designed for customers in Australia. Therefore, times and dates specified in the spreadsheet are limited to the Australian timezone and date format. If completing a bulk upload from other countries such as America, it is imperative that you follow these steps to ensure that you have the correct key fact dates when uploading into Plexus.
If you are not following AEST/AEDT time, then you must supply the GMT/UTC timezone of your location. This can be found by searching GMT city name on Google.
Enter the date as "YYYY-MM-DDT00+09:00" where +09:00 reflects your unique city timezone.
In the example above, to reflect the executed document date of 9th November 2021 in Tokyo, you must enter the date as 2021-11-09T00+09:00.
This is only for execution date and expiry date.
You don't need to specify a timezone for start date.
Adding custom content to your upload
You may notice a range of blue columns on-screen. These templated blue columns can be deleted if they are irrelevant. However, the headings can also be edited and added to where you’d like to create custom searchable questions for your documents.
It’s preferred that you have these set up in Approve and eSign Settings first, though you can also create new questions from this spreadsheet.
Step 4. Save the completed file to your computer.
Bulk uploading your files
Top tip! You may like to experiment with 3 to 5 example files ahead of your bulk upload. You may also like to upload 50 documents at a time to make it easier to identify any concerns early on.
Step 5. Navigate back to the Import Contracts tab to complete the upload. You'll first need to Drag and drop contracts into the allocated box, or Browse your computer to attach your documents.
Step 6. Click Upload contract data to attach and upload your complete spreadsheet.
Step 7. Refresh your page to ensure that the upload has been completed.
Troubleshooting errors
If there are errors with your Bulk Upload, you’ll be given a hyperlink to download a new spreadsheet showing if/where these errors were encountered.
Step 1. Click View errors to download this file.
Step 2. These errors will be highlighted in red for each affected row, and you'll need to amend these where required.
Step 3. Remove the error column (Column A), then re-upload your spreadsheet.
Plexus will let you know when your import has been successful. You may also like to navigate to the document list to verify this.
Frequently asked questions for bulk uploads
What is the maximum size of the zip file I can upload?
A zip file can be a maximum size of 1GB. If you have more than 1GB of documents, split them into separate zip files.
How many files can I upload at once?
You can upload up to 50 files via the drag and drop window. This can be 50 zip files, or a mix of zip and individual documents.
Do I need to leave my browser window open during the entire process?
You only need to leave your browser window open while uploading the copies of the historical documents you wish to upload into the system. Once you have uploaded the contract data spreadsheet, you can close the browser and the import process will still run.
What will happen if I accidentally upload the same contract file multiple times?
If you upload the same contract file with the same name, the latest upload overrides any previous uploads and that is the version that will get uploaded when the contract metadata spreadsheet is uploaded.
What are the file types I can upload?
.docx
.dot
.msg
.odt
.pdf
.ps
.txt
.xls
.xlsx
.zip
message/rfc822 (most emails)
Audio files
Image files
What will happen if I accidentally upload the template into the contract upload section?
There is no impact to your contract import.
What happens if I make a mistake and need to delete the contacts I imported?
You can delete individual contracts yourself, however if there are a large number of contracts that need to be removed this will need to come through as a change request with our engineering team. A charge will be quoted to you depending on the size of work.
Need assistance with your bulk upload? Reach out to support via [email protected] or use the Live Chat to the right hand bottom corner of your screen.