We have had document imaging software at our bank for many years, but have never really gotten it off the ground. I am ready to do so now, and was wanting some feedback as to philosophies on the indexing. I've been at banks where they preferred to index each document, and I've been at places where were anywhere from 6-10 indexes, and I see the benefits and pitfalls of both...If you don't mind, share with me your experiences and what you feel works best. We are a small bank with less than 1,000 active loans on the books. Thanks!

We index according to investor guidelines for online transmittal of loan docs. We use the six they require plus a seventh misc section for in-house worksheets, etc.
Indexing every item seperately in our system would be extremely time consuming both at scanning and at look-up. I'm printing some file info now and can open up just one section and get multiple docs I need.

We have approximately 88 Doc Types that we use. The Doc Types are then assigned to one of 10 Groups that are set up. Locating docs is very easy for our front end users, auditors, examiners, etc.

We also import entire loan files as a single pdf from our mortgage group. They set it up so that there are bookmarks so you can find each doc without having to scroll through the entire file.

What system do you use, Cowboy?
I'm really not that fond of the one we use.
Do you keep your loans in-house or transmit them to investors?
Some investors dictate the indexing as I indicated above.

Our secondary market imaging is set up similar to Cowboy. It allows us to build "bundles" that let us transmit to each investor the way they want it. Initial set up is a pain, but there after it is a breeze. The imaging system is paired with our loan origination software (DataTrac), but DataTrac was bought by Ellie Mae and is being phase out. Hopefully Ellie Mae's Encompass 360 has similar capabilities.

We use Director (a Fiserv product) for the loans that we keep in-house. The mortgage department uses a different system for the loans that are sold (not sure what it is).

yea...that's what I was afraid of.
Selling the loans is what makes it less of your choice and more of the investor's.
:sigh:

We use something called Document Manager/ApplicationXtender/AXToolbar, with CERIS interfacing for exception tracking. It was bought long before I got here and it isn't the most user-friendly system I've used, but it's here and we own it, so I will work with it

And all our loans are In House...we don't sell anything on the secondary market at this time.