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Document archiving is the full lifecycle of managing inactive records: identifying what needs to be kept, digitizing paper documents, indexing them for retrieval, storing them securely, and disposing of them according to retention schedules. Backfile conversion is the critical first step in that lifecycle for any organization still holding years of paper. It converts the physical backlog into searchable digital files that can actually be managed, retrieved, and archived properly.
A professional backfile conversion project handles the historical paper backlog an organization has accumulated and delivers a searchable digital archive indexed to match the way staff retrieve documents.
If you already know you need a project scoped, get a quote from Tab →.
What is document archiving and how does it differ from backfile conversion?
Document archiving is the full lifecycle of managing inactive records. It covers identifying which documents need to be kept, digitizing paper records, indexing and classifying them for retrieval, storing them securely, and disposing of them when retention periods expire. Most document archiving strategies involve both a scanning step (converting paper to digital) and a storage step (managing those digital files in a document management system over time). Tab handles the scanning and indexing steps. The long-term storage and records management platform such as SharePoint, Laserfiche, OnBase, or DocuWare is typically the client’s system of record.
Backfile conversion refers to the specific project of digitizing a historical paper backlog. It has a defined scope: a set number of boxes or pages accumulated over months or years. When the project is complete, the physical backlog has been converted to digital. Backfile conversion is a one-time project, not an ongoing service.
Day-forward scanning is the ongoing process of digitizing new incoming documents as they arrive, so that nothing adds to a new physical backlog after a set date. Most organizations need both: a backfile conversion project to handle what has accumulated, followed by day-forward scanning via a digital mailroom to keep pace going forward.
What is typically in a paper backlog?
The composition of a backlog varies significantly by industry. Different document types carry different handling requirements, scanning specifications, and compliance considerations.
Healthcare organizations accumulate patient intake forms, medical records, consent forms, clinical notes, insurance documentation, and test protocols. Clinical materials such as handwritten notes, pencil-drawn test protocols, and photographs often require higher scanning resolution and individual contrast calibration. HIPAA governs the handling of all protected health information (PHI), so the scanning vendor must have HIPAA-compliant processes including chain-of-custody documentation. For a full overview of HIPAA requirements in a scanning context, see Tab’s HIPAA-compliant document scanning guide. Tab’s healthcare document services page covers compliance certifications and intake workflows specific to healthcare organizations. To see how we digitize healthcare documents, check out our medical records scanning services.
Legal firms accumulate case files, contracts, correspondence, discovery documents, and deposition transcripts. Chain of custody matters for litigation support. Services like Bates stamping and precise indexing are often required.
Financial services and insurance companies accumulate policy documents, claims files, account records, and underwriting files. Federal and state regulations govern retention. Which laws apply depends on the entity type: bank regulators, SEC, FINRA, or state insurance commissioners. Documents may span decades.
Human resources departments accumulate employee files, onboarding paperwork, benefits documentation, and performance records. Retention requirements vary by state. Confidentiality controls are required.
How does a backfile conversion project work?
A backfile conversion project moves through seven distinct stages. Each stage affects the timeline, the cost, and the quality of the output.
What happens during assessment and scoping?
Before a project begins, Tab needs to understand the source material: estimated page count, document types, general condition, any special handling requirements, and output specifications. That includes file format preferences such as searchable PDF, specific metadata fields, and delivery to a document management system.
This is also where the pricing estimate is developed. Tab has reliable methods for estimating page counts from box counts and document descriptions, and estimates are consistently close to final invoiced amounts. Unusual document compositions such as bound materials, mixed media, and oversized items are flagged during assessment.
What happens during secure document receipt?
For clients in the Chicago area, Tab handles physical pickup directly. Documents do not go through a third-party logistics provider. Tab staff pick up, log, and transport the materials. The intake process includes a condition assessment and a documented transfer of custody.
For organizations in regulated industries, this documentation is the beginning of the audit trail that follows the documents through every stage of processing. For organizations that require documents to remain on premises, on-site scanning can be arranged. That said, most regulated-industry clients opt for off-site conversion once chain of custody documentation and facility security credentials are reviewed.
What happens during document preparation?
Document preparation is the stage most organizations underestimate. It is often the largest variable in project cost and timeline.
Production scanning requires documents to be unbound, unstapled, unfolded, and free of tape and clips. Paper that arrives in file folders with mixed fasteners, bent corners, and decades of compression needs to be carefully prepped before a single page goes through the scanner. Ask any provider specifically how they handle preparation and whether preparation costs are included in their quoted rate or billed separately.
What happens during scanning?
Tab operates multiple commercial-grade Canon production scanners running PSIcapture, Tungsten Automation’s enterprise intelligent capture platform.
Resolution matters: Standard office documents scan at 300 DPI, which is sufficient for clear images and reliable OCR. More complex materials such as handwritten notes, pencil-drawn test protocols, and photographs require higher resolution and individual contrast calibration to ensure legibility in the digital version.
What happens during OCR and indexing?
Scanning produces a digital image. OCR (optical character recognition) converts the visual text into machine-readable characters, making the document searchable.
Indexing defines how documents will be organized and retrieved. The right indexing structure depends on how the organization needs to access the documents afterward. For the healthcare project described in this guide, Tab indexed by patient name, date of birth, and year of service. These are the three fields the practice uses to pull a specific patient record. For a legal firm, indexing might be by matter number, client name, and document type. For an HR department, by employee ID and document category.
Some projects require structured data extraction rather than searchable images: invoice numbers, account numbers, policy numbers, or other field-level data. Tab’s automated data capture services handle that as part of the same workflow.
What happens during quality control?
Before delivery, every project goes through Tab’s quality control review. Tab checks that scanned images are legible and complete, that OCR has processed correctly, that indexing fields are populated accurately, and that nothing has been missed or duplicated. Exceptions such as pages that did not scan cleanly, handwriting that needs manual review, or fields that could not be automatically populated are flagged and resolved before the output leaves the facility. Ask any prospective provider to describe their QC process specifically: what is reviewed, how exceptions are handled, and what the resolution process looks like.
What happens during delivery and document destruction?
Tab delivers output via secure portal, SFTP, or direct integration with the client’s document management system. File format is determined during scoping. Searchable PDF is the most common output. TIFF is used when archival-quality image preservation is the priority.
After delivery, clients decide what happens to the physical originals. Tab can facilitate secure document destruction through a certified third-party shredding service. The destruction is recorded, and certificates of destruction are available on request. Clients who want to retain their originals receive them back.
Real project: 45,784 pages of patient records for a Chicago healthcare practice
Tab Service Company completed a backfile conversion project for a Chicago-area mental health therapy and testing practice transitioning to a fully digital records system.
What they had: 15 banker’s boxes of patient files: 45,784 pages across 128 indexed files. Documents included typed and handwritten clinical notes and pencil-drawn test protocols requiring careful contrast calibration during scanning to maintain legibility.
The compliance context: Patient files containing PHI (protected health information) are governed by HIPAA. Every stage of the project was conducted in accordance with HIPAA requirements: pickup, chain of custody, scanning, delivery, and document destruction. Tab is SOC 2 Type II compliant, audited annually by Plante Moran.
Indexing: Each patient file was indexed by patient name, date of birth, and year of service. A team member manually keyed each folder and created a cover sheet to support automated indexing in the downstream system.
Timeline: Pickup to delivery took 28 days at standard production pace. The practice did not require rush turnaround.
Cost: The project came in under the original estimate.
After delivery: Secure document destruction was performed on the original files. The practice now has a fully searchable digital archive and a plan to return for additional scanning as records accumulate.
Ready to scope a similar project? Request a quote →
How long does a backfile conversion project take?
A standard backfile conversion project takes 2 to 12 weeks depending on volume, with small projects under 10 boxes typically completed in 2 to 3 weeks. Turnaround also depends on document condition, preparation requirements, and indexing complexity. Rush turnaround is available. Timeline commitments are established during project scoping.
| Project size | Approximate page count | Standard turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Small (under 10 boxes) | Up to ~25,000 pages | 2–3 weeks |
| Medium (10–50 boxes) | 25,000–125,000 pages | 3–6 weeks |
| Large (50–200 boxes) | 125,000–500,000 pages | 6–12 weeks |
| Enterprise (200+ boxes) | 500,000+ pages | Custom. Contact Tab. |
What about shredding the originals after scanning?
Before destroying original documents, confirm the applicable retention requirements for each document type. Retention periods are set by a combination of federal law, state law, and industry-specific regulations. Here are a few examples:
IRS guidelines recommend keeping most business records for at least three years, with employment tax records requiring four years or more.
In healthcare, HIPAA’s six-year requirement applies to compliance documentation such as policies, BAAs, and risk assessments. It does not apply to patient medical records, which are governed by state law and typically require seven to ten years.
For benefit fund administration, ERISA requires that participant benefit records be kept until all benefits have been paid and the plan can no longer be audited.
Some scanning vendors can arrange document destruction directly, which means originals don’t need to be returned to the client before shredding. If a vendor doesn’t offer this, the client needs to arrange a separate certified shredding service. Either way, confirm two things before proceeding: that destruction is performed by a certified shredding provider, and that a certificate of destruction is available on request. For regulated industries, that certificate is the documentation trail that proves originals were destroyed appropriately.
At Tab: Tab arranges secure document destruction through a certified third-party shredding service. The destruction is recorded and a certificate of destruction is available on request. Clients who prefer to keep their originals receive them back.
How much does backfile conversion cost?
Backfile conversion is priced on a variable per-page rate. The final cost depends on volume, document condition, preparation requirements, OCR processing, and indexing depth. Per-page rates decrease at higher volumes: a large enterprise backlog costs less per page than a small project. The most reliable way to get an accurate figure is a project assessment based on your box count and document types.
If you have a project in mind, get a project estimate → based on your specific box count and document types.
How should you prepare for a backfile project?
Do a box count before you call. Even a rough number helps scope the project. Count the boxes, note whether they are standard banker’s boxes or a different size, and flag any known condition issues such as water damage, fragile materials, bound documents, or oversized items. The more detail provided upfront, the more accurate the estimate.
Confirm your delivery format requirements. Searchable PDF, TIFF, specific metadata fields, integration with a particular system: these decisions affect the whole workflow and are easiest to establish at the start.
Decide on your retention approach before the project starts. Confirm what your retention requirements are for each document type with your legal or compliance team so you are ready to make the post-delivery decision about originals.
Consider a phased approach for large or complex backlogs. Organizations with very large backlogs or constrained budgets sometimes benefit from scanning in prioritized phases rather than converting everything at once: active files first, then inactive records in subsequent rounds. Tab can structure a project this way during scoping. If a specific document is needed urgently while a project is in progress, Tab provides in-progress retrieval. The file is located, scanned, and delivered before the rest of the batch is complete.
What should you look for in a backfile conversion provider?
Four criteria matter most when evaluating a backfile conversion or document digitization provider.
SOC 2 Type II certification. This is the standard audit framework for service organizations handling sensitive documents. It covers security, availability, confidentiality, and processing integrity. Ask whether the certification is Type II — an ongoing operational audit conducted by an independent auditor — rather than Type I, which is a point-in-time assessment. Ask who performs the audit. Tab is SOC 2 Type II compliant, audited annually by Plante Moran. Details are on Tab’s security and compliance page.
HIPAA compliance for healthcare projects. For any project involving protected health information, the provider should be able to document HIPAA-compliant handling at every stage.
Direct staff handling, not subcontracting. Some providers use third-party logistics for pickup and transport, which breaks the chain of custody and introduces handling risk. For clients in the Chicago area, Tab uses its own staff for every stage from pickup through delivery.
Frequently asked questions
What is backfile conversion? Backfile conversion is the process of digitizing a historical paper backlog, converting physical documents accumulated over months or years into organized, searchable digital files. It is a one-time project with a defined scope, as distinct from day-forward scanning, which is an ongoing process for new incoming documents.
What is the difference between document archiving and backfile conversion? Document archiving is the full lifecycle of managing inactive records: digitizing paper documents, indexing them, storing them securely in a document management system, and disposing of them when retention periods expire. Backfile conversion is the digitization step within that lifecycle. It converts a physical paper backlog into searchable digital files that can then be managed, retrieved, and archived properly. Tab handles the scanning and indexing steps. Long-term storage and records management typically happens in the client’s own document management system.
How long does a backfile conversion project take? Small projects under 10 boxes typically take 2 to 3 weeks from pickup to delivery. Medium projects of 10 to 50 boxes typically take 3 to 6 weeks. Large projects of 50 to 200 boxes typically take 6 to 12 weeks. Timelines vary based on document condition, preparation requirements, and indexing complexity. Rush turnaround is available.
How much does backfile conversion cost? Backfile conversion is priced on a variable per-page rate. Cost depends on volume, document condition, preparation requirements, OCR processing, and the level of indexing required. Volume discounts apply. Larger projects cost less per page than smaller ones. Contact Tab for a project assessment and estimate based on your specific document types and box count.
What happens to my original documents after scanning? Clients decide what happens to their physical originals after delivery. Tab can facilitate secure document destruction through a certified third-party shredding service. The destruction is recorded and certificates of destruction are available on request. Clients who want their originals returned receive them back.
Is document scanning HIPAA compliant? Tab is SOC 2 Type II compliant, audited annually by Plante Moran, and operates in accordance with HIPAA requirements for handling protected health information (PHI). Every stage of a hhealthcare scanning project is conducted with HIPAA compliance in mind: pickup, chain of custody, scanning, delivery, and document destruction. Tab enters into Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) with covered healthcare entities.
What file formats will I receive? Searchable PDF is the most common output format. It preserves the visual appearance of the original document while making the text machine-readable and searchable. TIFF is used when archival-quality image preservation is the priority. Tab delivers output in formats compatible with most document management systems. Delivery method is determined during scoping: secure portal, SFTP, or direct integration.
Do I need to sort or prepare my documents before pickup? No. If pre-sorting would take significant staff time, don’t do it. Tab handles document sorting and preparation as part of the project. Let us know about any known condition issues such as water damage, fragile materials, bound documents, or oversized items so we can account for them in scoping.
What document types can be scanned? Tab handles a wide range of document types including standard office documents, patient records and clinical notes, legal case files, HR employee files, financial records, benefit fund enrollment forms, handwritten forms, and materials requiring higher-resolution scanning such as photographs and pencil-drawn documents. Oversized materials like blueprints and large-format documents can be accommodated. Flag these during scoping.
Tab Service Company has handled backfile conversion and document digitization projects for healthcare organizations, law firms, financial services companies, benefit fund administrators, and a wide range of regulated-industry clients since 1960. Tab is SOC 2 Type II compliant, audited annually by Plante Moran, and operates from Chicago with direct pickup across the Chicagoland area.
If you’re ready to scope a project, request a quote → and we’ll come back to you with a timeline and estimate based on your specific documents.
