Prepare a List of Documents for Disclosure

Turn a set of documents into a finished disclosure package — a ZIP with Word and Excel indexes and every file renamed by serial, date and description.

Welcome. In this tutorial we'll prepare a disclosure package — the kind you produce when you need to share a set of documents with the other side, a court, or a client. By the end you'll have a single ZIP archive containing:

• a Word file with the index table (one row per document: serial number, date, description),
• an Excel file with the same index in spreadsheet form, and
• every document file renamed to <serial>-<date>-<description>.<ext>.

We'll follow the workflow from upload to export in order. The whole run takes around fifteen minutes.

Note: This is a learning walkthrough with one fixed path. Once you've completed it, the How-To Guides show how to handle each task on real matters, and the Reference pages cover every available option in detail.

---

Before you start

Before you open BriefTech, prepare a small set of practice documents on your computer — five to ten files is enough to see the full workflow. They can be PDFs, Word documents, emails, or any other supported file type mixed together.

---

Step 1 — Create the matter and upload your documents

A matter is BriefTech's container for a single case or transaction.

1. Sign in to BriefTech. You'll land on the Matters screen.
2. Click .
3. In Input Matter Reference, type Practice — Disclosure List.
4. Click .

BriefTech opens the new matter on its tab, showing an empty upload zone.

Now upload your practice documents:

1. Drag your files into the upload zone, or click and pick them from your file picker.
2. BriefTech begins uploading and processing each file immediately.

Uploading a folder structure? If your documents are organised in folders, you can drag the whole folder in — BriefTech remembers which folder each file came from.

1. Drag the whole folder into the upload zone.
2. Later, in the Document Index, choose Apply preset → Generate index headings → Group by folder to turn each folder into a header that groups the disclosure list by category.

See Organise documents into folders for the full guide.

Documents with processing issues: If a document shows an error or warning icon, hover over it to read the message. For a persistent processing error, right-click the row and choose — see Reprocess a failed document for a full guide.

---

Step 2 — Let BriefTech process the documents

BriefTech automatically extracts the date and a description from each document as it uploads. This runs in the background.

1. Click the tab.
2. Watch the Document Date and Document Description columns fill in. A spinner on a row means that document is still being processed.

Wait until every row shows a date and a description before continuing.

How does BriefTech extract dates and descriptions? Each document is processed by a set of AI agents that read the text and identify the most likely date and a short summary. To understand how this works — and what to do if results are consistently unexpected — see How AI analysis works: agents and playbooks.

---

Step 3 — Review and correct dates and descriptions

The index table is built from the Document Date and Document Description fields, and these same values appear in the renamed filenames. Reviewing them now ensures the disclosure package is accurate.

Correct a date:

1. Find a row whose Document Date looks wrong or is missing.
2. Double-click the Document Date cell to open the inline date editor. It is a free-text editor, not a calendar: if BriefTech found more than one date in the document, a list of those dates appears for you to pick from, or you can type a date directly.
3. Click outside the cell to confirm.

Correct a description:

1. Find a row whose Document Description you want to improve.
2. Double-click the Document Description cell. An inline editor opens.
3. Edit the text, then click outside to confirm.

The value turns blue to show it has been edited manually. BriefTech will not overwrite a value you've set by hand.

Using the filename as the description: If a document's existing filename is already the correct description, hover the row and click the icon to apply it directly. This icon shows only on hover, and only while the description hasn't been set by hand — once you've entered or accepted a description, it disappears.

Verifying against the source document: Click a document's row to open a side-panel preview without leaving the tab.

Bring descriptions into a consistent style. For many documents, use :

1. Edit at least one description into the style you want (one example works; a few give better results).
2. Tick that row together with the documents you want to restyle.
3. Select in the toolbar.

BriefTech rewrites the unedited descriptions to match your examples. See Refine descriptions using your own edits as examples for the full guide.

---

Step 4 — Configure serial numbering, date format, and sort order

Serial numbers are assigned in the tab. BriefTech numbers documents from 1 by default (1, 2, 3, …). The serial numbers are plain sequential numbers and are not zero-padded. See Serial numbers and date formats for the full reference.

1. Click the tab.
2. To change where numbering starts, hover the S/No. column header and click the pencil (edit) icon that appears to open its header editor, then set Initial Serial Number.
3. To change the date format, open the Date column's header editor the same way and choose a Date Format Preset. The options are labelled by example date (for example 01/01/2026), not by format code.
4. To sort the list chronologically before numbering, select in the toolbar, hover over Sort all sections, and choose Date. See Sort documents in the Document Index for the full guide.

Adding headers to group documents. To show groups under category headings (for example, "Correspondence", "Contracts", "Invoices"):

1. Hover over the row where a group should start — an Add heading: area appears.
2. Select the Heading chip and enter a title.
3. Drag documents beneath the heading.

See Manage headings in the Document Index for the full guide.

Switch to Preview mode to confirm that serial numbers, dates, and descriptions look correct before exporting.

---

Step 5 — Export the complete disclosure package

BriefTech produces the Word index, the Excel index, and the renamed files in a single export.

1. In the tab, click in the toolbar. The Download Files panel opens on the right.
2. Under Export Type, tick All Files. This produces a ZIP archive containing the renamed document files together with the Word and Excel index tables.
3. Under File Naming Convention, select Serial Number + Date + Description.
4. Leave File Type, Word Separator in File Names, and Folder Export at their defaults for now.
5. Click . If any documents are being exported for the first time, BriefTech will show a confirmation dialog listing the credit cost — review it and confirm to proceed.
6. BriefTech queues the job. You can navigate away — the Background Jobs panel ( in the top bar) will notify you when the ZIP is ready. See Background Jobs if the job appears stuck.
7. Click the download icon once the job completes.

Exporting spends credits. Credits are charged at 1 credit per 50 pages (minimum 1 credit per document); documents you have exported before are free to re-export.

Customising the export: This tutorial uses the defaults. To export files as searchable PDFs or preserve your folder structure inside the ZIP, see Export formats and options for the full settings reference.

Open the ZIP and check that it contains:

• a Word file with the index table,
• an Excel file with the index in spreadsheet form, and
• each document file named in the format 1-2024.01.15-email from alice to bob.pdf (or similar).

---

What you've accomplished

You took an empty matter and:

• uploaded a set of documents and let BriefTech extract dates and descriptions automatically,
• reviewed and corrected the metadata so the list is accurate,
• configured serial numbering, date format, and sort order in the Document Index, and
• exported a single ZIP containing the Word index, the Excel index, and every document renamed by serial number, date, and description — ready to share as a complete disclosure package.

---

Where to go next

Export the Document Index as a Word or Excel file

Export your Document Index in an editable Word or Excel format.

Sort documents in the Document Index

Sort documents within index sections by date, file name, or description.

Manage headings in the Document Index

Add, rename, move, and generate the headings that group the index.

Refine descriptions using your own edits as examples

Edit a few descriptions the way you want them, then have BriefTech rewrite the rest to match.

Serial numbers and date formats

Serial numbering options, date format presets, and sort order for the index.

Export formats and options

Output formats and the settings for exporting the Document Index.

Document metadata fields

The document fields you can edit in the Review tab and their accepted values.

Background Jobs

Status indicators, columns, and row actions in the Background Jobs dialog.

How AI analysis works: agents and playbooks

What agents and playbooks are, and what they extract.

The document lifecycle: from upload to ready

What happens to a file between upload and the moment it can be used.

How credits work

What credits measure and how your balance is calculated.

Credit costs and pricing

How credits are consumed, what they cost, and when they expire.