Knowledge Index: where is that document kept?

A knowledge index is one generated page that lists every document in your business, what each is, where it lives, how fresh it is and what links to it. A script builds it from the documents themselves, reading titles, dates and links, so it cannot drift the way a hand-kept list does. On GigXchange the same script maps 6,102 documents, marks the 609 archived ones and covers 9 folders kept outside the main one.

Not yet - and I would rather say so here than after you have paid. Today it works on documents kept in folders on a computer and in code repositories, which is how GigXchange is set up. The Google Drive and OneDrive version is the next build. If your files live there, ask before you buy; you can wait for it, or be one of the first set-ups, with the time quoted honestly before anything starts.

A monthly rebuild of the map, a check for new folders or areas that are not yet sorted, and a short note of what changed - new documents, archived ones and any that have gone stale. A new folder that matches no rule is flagged, not silently left out, so the map never quietly shrinks. Cancel any month; the map and the script that builds it stay yours.

Only the parts needed to describe each one: its title or first heading, its dates and the links it contains. It does not copy your documents anywhere or summarise their contents into the map. Files that hold passwords or keys are never listed by value; at GigXchange the index is run through the same secret scan as everything else. Personal folders that sit next to business ones can be named and kept out.

Search finds a file when you already know roughly what it is called; the index tells you what exists before you know to look. It groups documents by area, marks old and archived versions so nobody works from the wrong one, and shows documents nothing links to - often the ones that get lost. Search and the index work best together; the index just stops search being your only map.

Because the rules assume you can find your records when asked. A limited company must keep its company and accounting records for at least six years, and a request from a customer for the data you hold on them comes with a deadline. A map of where everything lives makes both a short job. For the data side, the GDPR Compliance Kit builds the data map and the request process.

It is one searchable log of the lessons and decisions your business has made, kept next to the map. When someone asks "did we try that supplier before?" or "why did we stop doing that?", the answer is a search rather than a memory. I run the same habit on my own projects: decisions go in one log, traps in another. For a custom system, Living Documentation adds the technical version.

Seven working days from the first call to a finished map. I need access to the folders you want mapped and an hour with you to agree the areas - legal, finance, staff, sales or whatever fits your business. I do not need logins to your bank, email or customer systems. If your documents are mostly generated by your own paperwork tools, Document Automation can file them into the right areas as they are made.