Document Management

The Document Management System (DMS) is where your organization keeps controlled documents: policies, procedures, contracts, manuals, standards, source files, and authored drafts.

DMS owns the document record, folder location, versions, source content, internal access, and the history of document changes. Related modules add specialized behavior around it:

Document Governance adds effectivity, review cadence, acknowledgements, retention, and traceability.
Review-Approval manages review and approval decisions.
Change Management governs material changes to already approved or live documents.
Renditions generate controlled PDF outputs from approved snapshots.
Document Execution manages signatures, initials, stamps, acknowledgements, and attestations.
Content Extraction prepares selected DMS versions and source artifacts for preview, search, OCR posture, and AI handoff.
Document Intelligence can review a DMS document through a governed AI right-lane panel when the AI feature is enabled.
AI Copilot can assist rich-text drafting from ready Knowledge Bases when the AI feature is enabled.

When you would reach for this

Use DMS when you need to:

create a controlled document library with folders and versions
upload a source file for a managed document
author a rich-text draft directly inside Novantra
classify a document and keep the classification context visible
move a draft through review, approval, generated output, and later governance workflows
keep source documents separate from generated outputs and execution evidence

Document versions

A document can have multiple versions. Draft versions are the working area. Approved or live versions are historical records and should not be edited in place.

When a controlled document needs a material change after approval, use the governed change process to create or authorize the next draft version. This keeps the approved record intact and gives reviewers a clear history of what changed.

Rich-text authoring

For documents authored inside Novantra, create a rich text document instead of uploading a binary source file. Rich-text drafts open in a full-page editor with:

document metadata and classification context
a page-shaped writing canvas with a formatting toolbar: paragraph styles, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough, text color and highlight, alignment, lists, quotes, links, tables, and images by URL
live word and character counts
tools showing readiness, source snapshot, and controlled-output posture

The editor is for authoring the source version. Generated PDFs and controlled copies are produced later through Renditions.

AI Copilot in the editor

When AI Copilot and a ready Knowledge Base are available, the rich-text editor can show a conversational Copilot rail in the tools lane and an inline assistant on the document itself. In the rail, message Copilot or use action chips to draft, rewrite, summarize, improve, or review; each suggestion arrives as an editable card. On the canvas, selecting text raises a small action menu, and the resulting suggestion previews in place before you accept or dismiss it.

Copilot reads a bounded, temporary view of the current draft around the cursor or selected text so it can continue or replace content without repeating passages already in the document. Novantra stores only safe evidence such as presence, lengths, cursor range, and hashes for that draft context. If a suggestion substantially repeats existing draft text, the editor blocks Apply and asks you to refine or regenerate.

Copilot suggestions are advisory until you accept them. When you accept an inline suggestion, DMS applies the text through the active editor session, writer lock, expected revision, and target range. AI Governance keeps the run, suggestion, review, citation, and application evidence. DMS keeps the document body, autosave state, versions, and final document lifecycle.

Edit locks and autosave

Rich-text drafts use an editor session so one person has the active writer lock at a time. Other users can still see the latest saved content when they have access, but they cannot overwrite the active editor’s draft.

The editor autosaves the draft while the session is active. A user with the right permission can force unlock a stale session, but they must capture a reason because this can affect another user’s unsaved local work.

Classification snapshots

Documents can carry classification context. The editor and generated outputs show the captured classification snapshot, including the visual color marker where available.

Snapshots matter because changing a classification label later should not silently rewrite what an older document version or generated output showed at the time.

Labels and relationships

DMS labels help teams organize documents with tenant-managed semantic markers such as topic, audience, owner context, or process area. Labels are DMS metadata. They do not replace managed classification, metadata profiles, framework coverage, source graph citations, or review decisions.

Document relationships link one DMS document to another through a typed reference such as related, supersedes, replaces, implements, references, or depends on. Use these relationships when the connection is a document-library relationship. Use Source Graph when the connection needs governed citation anchors, source version drift, rights posture, or cross-source provenance.

Labels and relationships are visible from the document detail references area. Creating or removing them requires DMS access, records a reason where required, emits DMS activity, and can appear in posture or audit-package descriptors without exposing document body content.

When labels or relationships need internal follow-up, DMS publishes work-management descriptors for label-assignment review and document-relationship review. Work-management can project and route the task, but DMS remains the source of truth for the label, relationship, document access, and document detail action.

Controlled outputs

DMS does not generate PDFs directly from the editor. To create a controlled copy, regulator copy, or shareable PDF, request a rendition. The rendition uses a source snapshot and selected output policy, then produces a generated artifact that can also be filed back into DMS when needed.

From the rich-text editor, use Generate output in the tools lane to request a rendition from the current saved DMS source snapshot. Save any draft edits before requesting output. The available output roles, DMS filing targets, and bilingual modes depend on your rendition permissions. Drafts can stay artifact-only; controlled, external, regulator, bilingual, or DMS-filed outputs require the matching governed rendition permission.

External document interactions

When an approved version has a controlled output, you can create a scoped external interaction for someone outside the workspace.

Use this when you need to:

share an approved controlled document for read-only review
ask a contractor, supplier, customer, or partner to acknowledge a policy
send an approved NDA, contract, or controlled output for signature, initials, stamp, or attestation
support a lifecycle step such as onboarding, vendor engagement, or an access request that requires the recipient to act on an approved document

External recipients use Public Access. They do not become workspace members, and they do not receive internal DMS permissions. They only see the approved document context and task they were sent.

External interactions can be started directly from an approved DMS version, or requested by another workflow that owns the business process. DMS provides the approved document context. Document Execution manages formal signing, acknowledgement, attestation, initials, stamp, decline, and completion evidence.

Drafts, editor sessions, autosave state, internal notes, and raw source-editing content are not shared through external interactions.

Common workflows

Create an authored policy

Create a rich-text document in the appropriate folder.
Open the draft version in the editor.
Add the policy text and confirm the classification context.
Save and close the editor session.
Route the draft for review and approval.
Generate a controlled rendition from the editor or document detail page when the approved version needs a PDF output.

Revise an approved procedure

Open the approved document record.
Start the governed change path when your policy requires authorization.
Create the successor draft version.
Edit the draft in DMS.
Route the draft through review and approval.
Generate the updated controlled output.

Manage access

Use DMS access settings to control which internal roles and members can view, create, edit, submit for review, archive, or manage access for a folder or document. External read, signature, or acknowledgement links use public-access and document-execution workflows instead of internal DMS access.

Open the document detail page.
Open References.
Assign tenant-managed labels for library organization.
Add document relationships when another DMS document is related, superseded, replaced, implemented, referenced, or depended on.
Use Source Graph instead when you need citation-level provenance, source-version drift, or rights-blocked evidence.

Send an approved document externally

Open the approved document version.
Choose Create external interaction.
Select read-only access, acknowledgement, attestation, signature, initials, or stamp.
Set the expiry and capture the reason.
Share the generated public access path through your approved communication channel.
Track completion and evidence from the document, Public Access, and Document Execution surfaces.

Run a governed document intelligence review

Open the DMS document detail page.
Open the Content extraction right-lane tab if you need to confirm whether the selected version has extractable text, OCR requirements, preview readiness, or AI handoff blockers.
Open the Document intelligence right-lane tab or action.
Confirm profile, action policy, retrieval, OCR, and target-applier readiness.
Optionally select another DMS version to compare when reviewing redlines or version deltas.
Run the review with a reason.
Review, approve, reject, request formal review, or apply suggestions through Document Intelligence.

Document Intelligence remains governed by AI use authorization, action policies, source-pack rights, OCR readiness, and owning-module application paths. Approved proposed-version suggestions can create a DMS successor draft version through the DMS command seam. The draft is editable in DMS, and reviewers still control the document body, review, approval, and controlled output lifecycle.

Document Governance - effectivity, reviews, acknowledgements, and retention around DMS documents.
Content Extraction - source-owned extraction readiness, snippets, preview posture, search posture, OCR posture, and AI handoff readiness.
Document Intelligence - governed AI review, extraction, and suggestion handling for DMS documents.
Renditions - generated controlled outputs.
Document Execution - signatures, acknowledgements, attestations, and execution proof.
Change Management - governed changes to approved or live records.
Classification - sensitivity levels and visual handling context.