Production is the final step of eDiscovery, involving formatting your documents uniformly to present to opposing counsel. GoldFynch's 'Production Wizard' feature is designed to help you through this process, and it handles the most accepted production formats.

Here's how to produce your files in GoldFynch:


1. Go to the ‘Production’ view by clicking the 'Productions' icon in the left panel

2. Click on the 'Start Production Wizard' button under the 'Production Wizard' tab


Step 1. Choose a name for the Production

1. Enter a name for the production

2. Click on the 'Next:Document Selection' button

Enter a name for the production and click on 'Next'


NOTE: As you proceed through the steps of setting up your production, you can track, and quickly return to, earlier steps through the “Selected Production Options” box that is available on the right-hand side of every screen of the Production Wizard. Just click on the edit icon (the pencil) next to any step to jump to its page

Click on the edit icon to update eariler steps

Step 2. Select documents for the production

1. Select the tags or saved searches whose documents you want to include in your production. GoldFynch lists each available tag and saved search.

2. Choose how you would like to handle previously produced files. The available options are - 

  • Do not exclude  any of the previously produced files
  • Exclude all previously produced files
  • Exclude previously produced files from certain productions

3. Click on the 'Next: Production Output' button

Select the documents by tag or saved search and choose to exclude previously produced files

Excluding files from your production

If there are files that you don't want to be included in your production, but which are assigned tags or saved searches that are about to be included, use the 'invert' feature to quickly exclude those files in bulk


To 'invert' a tag or saved search:

1. Tag all the files you wish to leave out of the case

2. Select this tag along with the other tags you want to include in the case

3. Check the checkbox labeled 'Invert' that appears against this tag

 

Click on the checkbox against to invert label to invert the tag or saved search selection


Excluding previously produced files from specific productions

To exclude previously produced files from specific productions:

1. Select the 'Exclude files produced in specific productions' option
Select the exclude files produced in specific productions and click on the productions button 

2. Click on the 'Productions' button

3. Click on the checkboxes against the productions from which the files are to be excluded


Click on the checkbox against the production name to select it

4. Click on 'Ok'


The Document Selection section of the Selected Production Options box will list the tags and saved searches that are to be included in the production and those that have been excluded. In the image below, documents tagged with WILHELM, DOCUMENTATION, PRIMARY IN CASE and that are retrieved by the Accident Policy saved search will be produced, while documents having the tag TEST TAG and SPECIAL TAG will be omitted. Additionally, if any of the selected files were previously produced in any of the selected productions then they will also be excluded from the production

Documents selected for the production based on tags and searches are listed

All files with an inverted tag will be omitted, regardless of whether one of their other tags is included in the production. Read more about omitting files in bulk using the 'invert' function here.


Step 3. Choose the production output

GoldFynch offers you a number of different output formats for your productions, both with and without load files.


1. Choose the type of production 

  • Loadfile/Database Format
  • PDFs Only
  • Natives Only

2. Choose to include natives as part of your production if required. You can include natives only if you have selected the load file/database format

3. Choose the type of image representation (TIFF G4 / JPEG/ PDFs) you would like

4. Click on the 'Next: Native Files Option' button


NOTE: If you choose a production format that includes load files, select a load file parameter profile from the drop-down menu

Select the output type and click on the next button 


The formats with load files can be broadly classified into:

  • Load file/database formats with minimal or only user-specified natives
    • TIFF G4
    • JPEG
    • PDF Documents 
  • Load file formats that include natives of all files
    • No Images
    • TIFF G4
    • JPEG
    • PDF documents

The available PDF-only production formats are:

  • One PDF per page
  • One PDF per document
  • One PDF per family
  • Single, bulk PDF


NOTE: 

  • For load file/database formats with minimal or only user-specified natives, the only natives added will be those specifically selected in the next step of production (step 4 - native files options)
  • Redactions and stamps (Bates, tag, and custom stamps) won’t show up in ‘native’ productions
  • Produced 'native' files will contain all metadata they carried when they were uploaded
  • The JPEG image option lets you produce documents in color
  • To include metadata in files produced with GoldFynch using non-native formats like PDF or TIFF images, you will need to select one of the  'load file/database' formats - then all of the email metadata will be provided in the production in a standard Concordance / Relativity style .dat load file

Additional reading about production output formats


Step 4. Choose file types to be produced as native files

If you want to create a non-native production, but wish that specific file types are produced in their native state, it is possible to do so:

  • Click on the 'Specify additional file types or tags to be produced as native files' checkbox
  • (Optional) Enter a value to filter by and select a filter option
  • Scroll through the list of file types and tags
  • Check on the checkbox against a file type/tag to produce it as a native file

Click on the 'Next: Production sort order' button once you’re done selecting file types to produce in their native formats.


Step 5. Select a sort order 

You can sort files included in the production to reorder them. Any sub-files they contain (like email attachments and zipped files) will also automatically be sorted with them.


1. Click on the drop-down list, select a sorting option

2. (Optional) Check the numerical sorting checkbox 

3. Click on the 'Next: Tags and custom stamps placement' button


The page will immediately update the order of the files and give you a preview of how the files will be arranged when you generate your production. Learn more about sorting files here.



Select the sort order and click on 'Next'

Step 6. Select a tag placement for your production

GoldFynch lets you:
  • Stamp non-native documents with Bates Numbers, stamps from tags, and custom stamps
  • Choose the position where these appear on the documents and the priority in which stamps will be applied if a document has multiple stamps assigned to the same position - the stamp with the highest priority (100 being the highest, 1 the lowest) will be placed at the location if there is a placement conflict between multiple stamps. Only one stamp will ever be placed at a single location on a particular document.
  • Add additional margin space around your documents to prevent the new stamps from overlapping existing content if there is any


Once you are done editing and placing stamps, click on the 'Next: Redaction Options' button.


Select the tag placement, resolve any conflicts that occur and click on Next

NOTE: 

  • If you want to disable Bates Stamp, custom stamp, or tag placement, you can do so by selecting the “no-placement” option
  • You may see tags other than the ones you selected in Step 2 appear on this screen. This is because some of the files you chose also had these other tags assigned to them. If you don’t want these tags to appear as stamps, assign them the ‘no-placement’ option as described below. If you don’t want files with these tags in your productions at all, make sure you select them as 'inverted tags' in Step 2.
  • A warning will be displayed if there are native documents that have tags assigned to them. Don't worry about this unless you specifically want those documents to be stamped with the flagged tags


Find out more about:

 

Step 7. Choose how redactions will behave in your production

You can select a redaction mode for your production and the color for the redaction boxes. GoldFynch lets you choose between two redaction modes: 

  • Final mode: Regular redaction boxes will be placed on your non-native files. All the information covered by the boxes will be completely removed from the file making it unreadable and unsearchable.
  • Preview mode: Translucent 'preview' redaction boxes will be placed on the areas marked for redaction. The information covered will be viewable and searchable for in the produced files. 

1. (Optional) Enable redaction checking by checking the 'Automatically determine and produce redacted files and their ancestors as image-only' checkbox. This is normally selected by default. See the note below for more details regarding this check

2. Choose the redaction box color

3. Choose the redaction mode

4. Click on the 'Next: Bates numbering option' button


Note: The redaction check ensures that - 

  • Files with redactions in your production are never produced natively to avoid the accidental production of redacted information
  • No ancestors of such files are produced natively
  • Image-only versions of such files are produced where possible and a placeholder is created if an imaged version of the file is not available

Click here to learn more about the redaction check. 

Click here to learn more about redaction modes and redaction boxes


Step 8. Choose Bates numbering option for your production

1. (optional) Enter a prefix for your Bates Number. By default this is blank. 

2. (optional) Enter the starting number of your Bates Number and the digit count. The default value for the start number and digit count is 1

3. Click on the 'Next: File naming options' button

Enter the prefix, start number and digit count for the bates numbering and click on Next

Note: 

  • The Bates number prefix cannot end with consecutive spaces or numbers. 
    • Examples of some valid prefixes are - DP, D1P, AS#, TXT_ (the last example contains a single space at the end)
    • Examples of some invalid prefixes are - DP1, TXT  (the second example contains consecutive spaces at the end) 
  • The digit count indicates the number of digits that the Bates numbers will contain. For e.g., if the digit count is 4 and the start number is 1 then the Bates numbers will be 0001,0002,0003, etc.     

Step 9. File naming options

In Step 3 of the production wizard, if you have selected either Native or Document-based PDFs without load files, you will be able to select the file naming convention for your production. The file naming options are:

  • Bates numbers (e.g. "ABC_001.pdf")
  • Original file names (conflicts will be resolved by appending a count after the file like "file(1).pdf")
  • Original file names prefixed with their bates numbers ("ABC_001-file(1).pdf")

1. Select the file naming option 

2. Click on the 'Next: Finalize and submit production' button


Select file naming options and click on next
 

Selecting the right file naming option will allow you to download files and productions with their original file names. Click here to see how.

 

Step 10. Final Review and submission of your production

GoldFynch gives you a summary of your production for you to review. The system performs a number of checks, and issues warnings if any of the selected files do not pass them. If all checks are passed then a green 'Produce' button will be shown at the top along with the number of files in the production and the Bates number range. 


Click on the 'Produce' button when you are done setting up your production:

You will receive a notification that the production request has successfully been placed:

confirmation that the production process has started


In case some of the files fail the checks, you will still be able to produce the documents but a warning will be displayed. Additionally, if the preview mode for redactions was selected then a warning will be displayed in the production summary.


Warnings

The GoldFynch system issues warnings in case any of the files in the case fail the checks that are present in Step 10. The files that fail a check will be listed against the corresponding check. You can exclude files either by individual checks or by the check category. 


  • Click on the "+" symbol against a category to expand or collapse it
  • Click on the list icon against a check to view and quickly navigate to files flagged by that individual check
  • Click on thebutton (exclude files) to omit all files listed by that individual check from the production (this is only possible if less than 1000 files are flagged. If more than 1000 files are flagged, you will need to change the criteria for selecting documents in step 2 - document selection)


The checks that are performed can be broadly classified under the following categories - 

  • Redacted files checks - These checks ensure that files with redactions in your production are never produced natively to avoid accidental production of redacted information. Ancestors of redacted files are also flagged. 
  • Privilege files checks - Any files in the production that have privilege tags are detected using these checks. These checks also detect the native production of ancestors of privileged files and files that have privileged descendants within your case.
  • Archive files check - This check detects any archives that have been selected in the production (e.g. ZIPs)
  • Files with DUPE tag - This check detects any files in the production that are duplicates and have a DUPE tag attached to them 
  • Files without natives - Files that do not have a corresponding native file are picked up by this check. This generally occurs if the file was part of a load-file production import. In such a case then the system is forced to produce the file as image-only even if a native is requested
  • Processing state - These checks detect files in the production that are still being processed
  • Malware detection - Any file in the production that has been detected with some malware will be identified by this check


Click here for more details on the checks and warnings run in Step 10 of the production wizard.


Tracking Production Status

GoldFynch queues the production and gets to work on it. To track the process, or to view any completed productions, click on the 'Requested Productions tab' of the ‘Productions’ view.


Click on the ‘Completed’ header text to sort by completion date. The completed status for your production will change from “in-progress” to the completion date once the production is completed.

Track production status


A warning icon will be present next to the production name if the production was submitted despite having errors or warnings. If you mouse over the warning icon you will be able to view all the warning or error messages associated with the production


Requested Production with errors

Downloading completed productions

Once the production has finished processing and becomes available you can perform the following steps to download the final production as a zip file - 

1. Click on the '...' button against the production’s name  

2. Click on the 'Download Production' option 

You can also download just the production load file. Learn how to do so here


Additionally, you can sort these productions by their names, dates submitted, Bates number ranges, and sizes. To sort productions by a category, click on the text of a header category that you want to sort by.


 Note: The category that the table is currently being sorted by will have an arrow next to it. This also indicates the direction of the sorting: whether it’s alphabetically (A-Z,) or by date (latest-oldest.) Click on the header title a second time to toggle it into the opposite order


Other production features

Production Wizards in progress: saving and loading while producing

While entering details for a production, you can save the current state by clicking on the Save and Close button at the bottom of the screen. This will allow you to pick up where you left off at any point in the future.


Click on Save and Close to save and then pickup where you left off at a later point

The 'Production Wizard' tab of the ‘Productions’ view lists these productions that require additional inputs from you. The current step of production is also listed.

  • To continue working on a production click on the play icon against it.
  • To delete an in-progress production click on the trashcan icon against it.
Click play to resume production wizard or delete to delete the saved production

Custom Productions

If you need help setting up a custom production, make use of GoldFynch’s Custom Production Help add-on service by clicking on the 'Request Help' button


Downloading Production Load Files

GoldFynch gives you the ability to download just the production load file without having to download the entire production. Click here to learn about downloading production load files.


Production Parameter Summaries

GoldFynch records the parameters that were used to create each production. You can view the summary at any time. Click here to learn more about production parameter summaries.


Production Logs

With every production, GoldFynch generates a log of information about its files to help cross-reference them. The logs also contain information on which files are in their native state, whether they have any redactions, etc. Click here for information about production logs.

Sharing Productions

GoldFynch allows you to share productions directly through its interface, making it extremely simple to hand them over to opposing counsel. Only the final ZIP file of the production is made available to the receiving parties. Click here to learn how to share your productions.


Re-use Production Settings

GoldFynch gives you the ability to create a new production by re-using an existing production's settings.  Click to learn how to do so.