A document is a tangible object that contains certain information. The word has Latin roots and translates as "evidence, sample, evidence." Let us further consider what types of documents are. 
Terminology
Legislation contains a definition of a document. In accordance with it, it is a material medium of information recorded in it in the form of text, image, sound recording, or a combination thereof. Almost all types of documents have their own details. By these elements, you can identify the media. It is used to transfer information in space and time for storage and subsequent use. This definition characterizes the document in the narrow sense. In a broad sense, various objects can act as such a storage medium. For example, documents can be considered books, sculptures, and so on.
Main characteristics
Currently, there are various types of documents. All of them have their own specifics, distinctive features. However, they are all united by one purpose - they are used to transmit any information. The most important information carriers are considered citizen documents. They act as certificates to identify one or another person, indicating their belonging to any association or the ability to carry out one or another activity. In information systems, on the one hand, a document as a material object is characterized by a complex of values of its properties (details, attributes), that is, its metadata. Along with this, the content of the information present and fixed in it is described. This is usually done through indexes or codes. For example, doctors, when filling out certain medical documents, use codes instead of words. 
Clerical work
Different types of documents may concern one issue. In some cases, to simplify the work with them, they are combined. A collection of media dedicated to a particular subject is called documentation. In the process of its creation and design, information is recorded. It is carried out according to certain rules. This is especially true for cases when documents of the enterprise are created. An organization must have a person who will record information on media. Any, including general documents of the company, act as a source of this or that information.
If the established rules are not followed, important information may be lost. In the course of documentation, it is necessary to take into account existing legislative norms, comply with national requirements for compiling and processing information. For a more complete implementation of the requirements, special instructions and rules are issued, and the procedure for record keeping is established. So, accounting documents are executed according to PBU. These Rules establish the basic requirements for reporting content. To simplify the work, forms of documents approved at the government level are used. Their use is mandatory for all organizations operating in various fields.
Document Classes
All carriers of this or that information can be divided according to various signs. So, by origin, personal and official documents are distinguished. The first include a storage medium created by a person outside of his professional activity. Personal documents include correspondence, diaries, memoirs, and so on. They are all created as part of a person’s privacy.Official documents are those that are compiled, executed and certified in the appropriate manner by an individual or legal entity.
In this category, a group of personal information carriers is distinguished. These include, in particular, documents that allow to identify a person (residence permit, passport), certify their education and specialty (certificate, diploma), seniority and so on. Office services usually work with official data carriers. Most of them are related to management. They are created to implement such functions and tasks as planning, financing, accounting (accounting documents), procurement, control, and so on. In the current activities of the company, official storage media are used. 
Categories by Entry Method
Depending on how the information is recorded, the following documents are allocated:
- Written. This is a text medium, information in which is recorded by different types of letters.
- Handwritten. Information is entered by hand in such a document.
- Text. On such media there is voice information recorded using any sound recording or writing system.
- Electronic. These documents are created using a computer.
- Typewritten. Written signs are applied to such media using technical means.
- Fine. Documents in this category illustrate information by illustrating an object.
- Photographic - created using photodetectors.
- Cinematographic - audiovisual or visual documents.
In the management of companies, textual information carriers are used that are created by machine or manuscript, as well as electronically. Office services carry out their processing and storage. Documents can also be:
- White. In such documents, the text is written without corrections or corrections or transferred from another medium.
- Draft. Such documents reflect the work of the editor or author on the text.
Depending on the attitude to the management apparatus, organizations distinguish between incoming, internal and outgoing storage media. They usually have their own serial number. 
Content and access restrictions
Depending on the number of questions the text covers, simple and complex documents are distinguished. The former include, for example, statements, letters, etc. Their text raises one question. Complex documents can be sent to several officials, structural divisions, institutions at once. These, in particular, include decisions, decisions, orders, instructions and others. Some of them are used as legal documents.
For example, local regulatory acts of the organization - orders, instructions. Among them are technical documents. For example, it can be regulations, standards, instructions, and so on. Depending on access restrictions, documents may be unclassified, secret, and for official use. The latter can be freely used if necessary by the employees of this company. To work with secret documents, special permission is required. Their use is carried out in accordance with established rules. Many of them are also used as legal documents. Secret and official storage media are marked with the corresponding stamps.
Way of presentation
According to this criterion, the documents are divided into:
- typical;
- screen;
- individual.
In the latter, the content is presented in the form of a linked text. The author (compiler, executor) of individual documents prepares an original statement regarding one or more issues for the performance of a specific managerial task. Such storage media are literary text. Screen documents are distinguished by formalized presentation.They use pre-prepared phrases or individual fragments of repeating text and there are omissions for introducing variable information. The most common types of such documents include a certificate or questionnaire.
Variable information usually fits into them by hand. For permanent information, there are special forms of documents. For example, it could be Thanksgiving letters, declarations and so on. Sample documents are used to record duplicate information. Texts are modeled. For example, it can be legal documents (agreements, contracts), instructions, rules, and so on. The typing method in paperwork is used to compose forms of texts - samples (standards). On their basis, certain documents are already being created. Sample text is called model. Subsequently, texts with similar content are set out on its basis. 
Degree of authenticity
Documents can be original, duplicates and copies. Originals are called a single or first instance. These are, as a rule, legal documents, which are certified by the signature of the authorized person, stamp of approval, seal of seal and registration index. The original, without fail, contains information that confirms its authenticity. So, legal documents, for example, contain information about the author, place, time of creation. A duplicate is called a duplicate. Such a document also has legal force. Duplicates are issued when the original is lost. For example, in the event of a loss of the work book, the employer is obliged to issue an employee a duplicate. A copy fully or partially reproduces information from the original. Such a document does not have legal force. A copy acquires it upon application of the relevant details to it. For example, a copy of a power of attorney certified by a notary has legal force.
Other criteria
Depending on the period during which information media are present in the institution, they allocate: documents of permanent, temporary (up to ten years) and long-term (more than 10 years) storage. These or those periods are established by the Federal Archive and are fixed in the corresponding lists. Depending on the transmission method, they distinguish:
- Telephone messages.
- Telexes.
- Email messages.
- Telegrams.
- Letters.
- Fax messages.
To transfer some, office equipment is used (fax, for example).
Media Assignment
Documents, having displayed (fixing) this or that information, provide, thus, their accumulation and preservation, the possibility of transferring to interested persons, reuse. Information carriers are considered one of the essential elements of the internal structure of an organization, institution, company, through which the interaction of units is ensured. Based on this or that information, various decisions are made. Information acts as evidence of the execution of orders, a source of generalizations, material for reference and search activity. A document in managerial work is both an object and a result of labor, since the decision that is made is recorded, recorded in it. The task of clerks is to monitor the safety, timely delivery, issuance of information media. If the work concerns paper or electronic documents, then specialists must comply with the established requirements when they are executed.
Key features
The external parameters of the document include those that reflect its size and shape, recording method, as well as design elements. The author is the legal entity or the person who composed the text. The document contains several elements, which are called requisites. In particular, they include:
- Name.
- Destination
- The author.
- The date.
- Text.
- Resolution.
- Signature.
- The stamp of approval, approval, and so on.
Different documents use different sets of details. Some have a limited number of required elements. The number of details depends on the purpose of creation, purpose, requirements for the form and content of the document, as well as the method of recording information.
Form
It is a set of details. The form that is used for a specific type of documents (orders, orders) is called standard. It is characterized by a certain set of details, which are arranged in strict sequence.
For example, the application form includes: addressee, author, document title, text, personal signature, date. One storage medium is considered a single copy. However, the organization’s activities are documented and recorded in the complex of a number of documents. They or their groups interact in a certain way and correspond to managerial functions. The totality of information carriers that are interconnected by their name, purpose, characteristics, scope of distribution, as well as the uniform requirements for their design, form a documentation system. Currently, in the business turnover of companies, official information is placed on paper and electronic media.
