Managing hundreds of financial documents across multiple funds and tickers creates significant workflow bottlenecks for investment firms. Manual document uploads require repetitive data entry for metadata like document types, quarters, and fund associations, turning what should be simple file management into hours of tedious work.

Solution

84EM built a bulk document importer that transforms document management by processing entire ZIP archives containing PDFs and spreadsheet metadata in a single upload. Users download a pre-configured Excel template, map their PDFs to document types, and upload everything at once.

The system processes the archive, creates WordPress document posts, uploads PDFs to the media library, and automatically associates each document with the correct fund or ticker. Real-time validation ensures file matching accuracy before any database changes occur.

Technical Implementation

• Template-based workflow: Pre-configured Excel templates with document type headers ensure consistency and reduce user error.
• ZIP archive processing: PhpSpreadsheet library extracts and validates both the Excel metadata file and PDF documents from a single archive.
• Intelligent file matching: The system matches PDF filenames from the spreadsheet to actual files in the ZIP archive using exact name validation.
• WordPress integration: Automatically creates custom post type entries for documents with proper taxonomy assignments and ACF metadata.
• Media library management: PDFs are added to the WordPress media library with attachment IDs linked to document posts for easy access.
• Comprehensive logging: Every import operation is logged to a custom database table with success/failure tracking and detailed error messages.
• Interactive feedback: Dropzone interface with real-time progress indicators and per-document success/failure reporting.
• Flexible association model: Documents can be associated with funds only, tickers only, or both funds and tickers.

Results

The bulk importer reduces document upload time from hours to minutes. What previously required individual uploads and manual metadata entry for each document now happens in a single operation.

Built-in validation and error reporting prevent data quality issues before they reach the database. The comprehensive logging system provides an audit trail for compliance requirements and troubleshooting.

Teams can now maintain current document libraries without dedicating staff time to repetitive data entry, allowing focus on higher-value financial analysis and client service activities.