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Document management (DMS)

How to find and size your iManage Work data.

Find how many documents and workspaces iManage Work holds and how a full-history export works, with the client-consent rules that apply to matter files.

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Find how much you have

  1. Check which iManage Work you run. iManage publishes current help for its cloud service and separate versioned help for older releases, and screens and limits differ between them. This guide follows iManage's current cloud help and flags where an older version differs.

  2. Have an administrator sign in to iManage Control Center and go to Content, then Documents. They need membership in the NRTADMIN group or a role with Tier 1 or Tier 2 access. Enter search criteria and click Search. Add Search Criteria adds more search fields.

  3. Slice the search so each result set is under the cap. iManage says Control Center search results are limited to 10,000 items for performance (older Control Center help says 5,000) and to refine the search with more criteria when you go over, for example one author, class or date range at a time. Add up the counts. iManage also says a search can be run without that limit through the iManage Work Universal (REST v2) API, which a developer or your iManage partner would run.

  4. Count documents, not versions. iManage identifies each document by the library name, a document number and a version number, for example active_us!436.2, so the versions of a document share one number. Check the Doc #/Version column to see whether your results show one row per document or one per version before you add them up.

  5. iManage treats emails as documents, so filed email may already be inside your count. If your search fields let you separate emails from other documents, run them separately and put the email figure in your description. Filed email often holds privileged correspondence.

  6. To count matter workspaces, go to Content, then Workspaces. It has the same 10,000-result limit. iManage notes that workspaces may be called matters or another name in your library.

  7. Cloud customers can cross-check size in GB. Sign in to iManage Admin Portal with your company's Cloud Admin user name and open Cloud Usage Analytics. iManage says it shows storage consumption and system activity, can be filtered by date range and by library, offers downloadable reports, and is available for all customer tenants at no additional cost.

  8. For your start date, use Add Search Criteria to add a date field your library offers, search one year at a time, and note the oldest year that returns any results. If the firm moved from another document system, ask whether older documents were migrated, because their dates may reflect the move.

What to put on your intake

Your intake has five boxes for each system. Here is what goes in each one for iManage Work.

What does it hold?
Your firm's or department's documents with full version history, filed email, and matter workspaces. Describe it by the work, for example: contract drafts and redline history, precedents and templates, and closed matter workspaces. Do not list client or matter names.
Data types
Text for the documents and filed email, and Structured records if you can also share profile metadata such as class, document type and dates. Add Image, Audio or Video only if the library holds such files and you would consider licensing them.
How big is it?
Choose Documents and enter your total from the Control Center searches, with each slice added up. If you can only read storage, switch the unit to GB and enter the Cloud Usage Analytics figure. Put the workspace count and a note on typical version counts in the description. Sizing never needs client names, matter names or the documents themselves.
Verified or estimated
Verified when every slice came from Control Center or the API and the slices add up to your whole library. Estimated when you counted one practice group or one year, sampled, or converted from GB. Version counts are always estimated.
Records start
The oldest year that returns results in Control Center. If documents were migrated from another system, say when native iManage records begin.

Exporting the full history

If a buyer licenses your records, this is how the full history comes out of iManage Work.

  1. A buyer export happens only after a license is signed and the scope is agreed. For legal records the scope has a second gate: client and matter documents and email move only with documented client consent, and client details are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Your ethics counsel decides whether what's left is de-identified enough that neither the client nor the situation can be identified, but that doesn't replace the consent (ABA Model Rule 1.6; ABA Formal Opinion 512). Firm-owned material that holds no client information, such as blank precedents, clause libraries and checklists, is the cleaner place to start. Not legal advice.

  2. Single documents. In iManage Work Web, open the kebab menu beside a document and choose Download, and the file downloads at once. iManage's release notes (June 2019) describe selecting multiple files and downloading them either as individual files or as one ZIP.

  3. Bulk downloads can be switched off. Since September 2026 Control Center has a Restrict bulk download setting on the General tab of the Web Client page. It defaults to No. With Yes, only members of the groups listed in Groups allowed to use bulk download can download multiple documents in one action, and leaving that field empty restricts everyone. The person doing a licensed export must be in an allowed group.

  4. Earlier states of a document. From a document's Timeline, choose Download previous edit on the kebab menu of any activity that changed it. iManage says journaling keeps a snapshot each time a document changes, is on by default and cannot be configured, and that exporting one needs read permission. The Versions panel under Details lists a document's versions, and the actions on it depend on what your administrator configured in Control Center, so check which ones your library shows.

  5. Lists of what exists. iManage's release notes say Control Center can download search results and grid lists as CSV, and that your column choices carry into the file. Check whether the Documents page in your version offers Download as CSV, because the page's own help does not mention it. These lists are metadata, not the files.

  6. Programmatic access. iManage points to the iManage Work Universal (REST v2) API for searches without the 10,000-result limit. A developer or iManage partner builds the pull. The help we reviewed does not describe a bulk export of a whole library, so ask iManage what it recommends for yours.

  7. Third-party tools. iManage's technology partner directory has an Import / Export category of tools made by other companies. For example, its listing for GDSI's Document Exporter says the tool exports documents in bulk from any folder or search result, can convert files to PDF, and produces a metadata CSV. iManage does not make these tools, so your security team should review any of them before it touches the library.

  8. Under the license, client and matter names and numbers, author and user names, party names, signatures and names inside document and email text are removed inside the firm before anything leaves it. Documents are reviewed before they are included, and some are left out rather than redacted. Removal alone does not settle the ethics question, so the client consent in the first step still applies.

We only ask for an export after you sign a license and agree the scope. Sizing your data for the intake never needs one.

Limits to know

  • Version and edition matter. iManage's help is versioned, with different screens and limits in older Control Center releases, such as a 5,000-result cap before the current 10,000. Use the help for your own release, and do not assume a step in this guide matches an on-premises install.
  • Control Center searches stop at 10,000 results on the Documents, Workspaces and Trash pages. A bigger library has to be counted in slices or through the REST v2 API, so a single search count that stops at exactly 10,000 is a cap, not a total.
  • Access shapes what you see. Control Center needs NRTADMIN or a Tier 1 or Tier 2 role, and export-style actions in Work Web depend on the permissions the signed-in person has and on the bulk download setting. iManage says exporting a journaled copy of a document needs read permission, so use an account that can read everything in scope.
  • Deleted does not always mean gone. When the User Trash feature is on, Delete becomes Move to Trash, and administrators can search, restore or permanently delete trashed items. iManage lets an administrator set the Automatically delete files from trash setting so items are removed after a number of days, and only NRTADMIN members can permanently delete. A permanent delete cannot be undone.
  • Journals go with the document. iManage says that when an administrator permanently deletes a document from Trash, its journals are deleted too, so the edit snapshots of a purged document are not recoverable.
  • Records are locked. iManage says an item declared as a record can no longer be edited or deleted except by an administrator. Declared records are still part of the library, so they count.
  • Email is part of the library and is usually the most sensitive part. iManage treats email as documents, and filed email carries privileged correspondence. Privileged email is excluded by default.
  • A matter workspace holds more than your own work: counterparty drafts, documents from the other side, material under a protective order or confidentiality agreement, and licensed research. Those are excluded unless you can show you own them and are free to license them. Information in a public record is not exempt from the confidentiality rule (ABA Formal Opinion 480). Not legal advice.
  • If your firm is an accounting or tax firm, income tax return information in iManage is never licensed. 26 U.S.C. § 7216 makes it a crime for a tax return preparer to knowingly or recklessly disclose it, or use it for anything other than preparing the return, without the taxpayer's consent or a listed exception. Client records from other work move only with that client's specific consent, which the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct requires before a member in public practice discloses confidential client information (1.700.001). Check the rules in each state where your CPAs are licensed. Not legal advice.
  • Cloud Usage Analytics measures storage and activity. iManage says it is for visibility, not billing, so use it as a size cross-check, not as a document count.

This guide isn't legal advice. Check your contracts, and any recording-consent rules that apply, with your own lawyer.

Why buyers value it

iManage Work holds the drafting record of a firm or legal department: first drafts, partner markups, client comments, redlines and the final, kept as versions of one document, along with the email filed beside them. For buyers building drafting, review and contract-analysis tools, the edits that turn a first draft into a final are scarce, and finished documents are easy to find while the trail between them is not. Journaling can also keep snapshots between saved versions.

Most of that trail is client information, even when the final version was filed in public. What can move is narrower: firm-owned precedents, clause libraries, checklists and know-how, and drafts and redlines where the client has given documented, informed consent, with client details removed inside the firm. Deep version history on a consistent document type makes even that narrower set more useful to a buyer.

What stays private

Client and matter names and numbers, author and user names, party names, signatures, addresses, and any names or account numbers inside document and email text, redline comments and version descriptions are removed before delivery under the license. Dates and amounts may be generalized when they could point to one matter. Documents are reviewed before they are included, and some are left out rather than redacted, because taking identifiers out of free text is harder than clearing a database field.

Removal does not by itself make a document safe to license. The confidentiality rule also covers a disclosure that reveals nothing protected on its face but could reasonably lead someone to discover it, and it allows a hypothetical only when there is no reasonable likelihood the listener could work out who the client is or what the situation was (ABA Model Rule 1.6, Comment 4 (opens in a new tab)). Whether a set of documents meets that bar is a judgment for your ethics counsel, not a script. For client documents and email, we require a separate, specific client consent, because ABA Formal Opinion 512 (opens in a new tab) says general engagement-letter language is not enough when client information goes into a self-learning AI tool. Not legal advice.

Left out by default: privileged email and advice, strategy and opinion work product on open matters; protective-order, sealed and opposing-party material; deal files with material nonpublic information; the client list, conflicts records and trust accounting; income tax return information; and employee or personnel records. Criminal, juvenile, family and immigration matters, and anything involving minors, are out by default even when de-identified. Your user list, groups, security settings and logins are not part of the license.

Common questions

Yes, a little. iManage publishes current cloud help and separate versioned help for older releases, and the Control Center search cap is 10,000 results in current cloud help but was 5,000 in older releases. Cloud customers also get Cloud Usage Analytics for storage. Start with the help for your own release.

In iManage they do. iManage treats email as documents, with a few options unique to the format, so filed email may already be in your Control Center count. Report it in the description, and expect most email to be excluded by default because it carries privileged correspondence.

Firm-owned material that contains no information about any representation, such as blank forms, clause libraries, checklists and training material, does not raise the same client-consent question. ABA Model Rule 1.6 reaches information relating to the representation of a client, so a precedent that was copied from a client file, or still carries client details, is different. Check who wrote each item and whether any third-party text is in it, and let your ethics counsel decide. Not legal advice.

Sources

Vendor documentation, checked . Screens and plans change, so if a step looks different in your account, check with iManage Work.

Related guides for systems that often sit alongside it.

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