These types of documents can be uniquely identified by placing Bates stamps , labels, or bar codes on obvious locations on the documents. D-M enters information from documents into records. In such an example, the ID of a document directly corresponds to the ID of a record. The difference between the two lies in the ability to sift through the information contained in on-line records. They need only search the database records.
Records allow users to find, sort, process, and examine document information rapidly.
Although a record usually represents a document, this need not be the case. For example, several records can be created from a single document such as a witness interview. Reports generated from these records form an automatic timeline that clearly establishes the sequence of events in the case. This process forms the basis of event tracking.