M-Files replaces folder structures with metadata: smart labels that make every document searchable.

Why folder structures don't work.

Knowledge workers spend an average of 1.5 hours per day searching for documents. The cause is almost always the same: folder structures that are organized differently for each person, department, and year.

A quotation is stored by one employee under the customer, by another under the project, and by a third in the folder for the month. No one is doing it wrong. The system simply does not provide any structure.

What exactly is metadata?

Metadata are properties that provide context to a document. Think of labels such as "this is a quotation", "from customer Janssen", "for project Brussels" and "waiting for approval".

In M-Files, documents are not stored in folders, but described with metadata. When saving, you provide a number of attributes. M-Files then automatically indexes, organizes, and displays the document in all relevant views.

Compare it to Spotify: you don't search for track_047.mp3 in a folder, but by artist, album, or genre.

This is how M-Files works for your business documents.

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Metadata can be anything: a customer from your CRM, a project name, a date, a workflow status, even a digital signature. Fully configurable per organization.

This is what metadata-driven searching feels like.

Click on filters, type a search term, or click on a document for the preview. Just like M-Files works.

What metadata makes possible.

Metadata is not just for searching. It forms the basis for workflows, security, and version control in M-Files.

Metadata in your sector.

Metadata works across industries. Here are the most common applications among our customers: