Switching from Outlook + Excel

You are not alone. That is our most common starting point.

Most Michigan townships run their compliance work from inboxes, spreadsheets, and paper binders. We expect that. The migration is the part we own. You do not lose a week setting things up.

dekree.ai/requests/FOIA-2026-0042
Township Inboxoutlook.com
Sarah Whitman: FOIA request for roof inspections
Local journalist: Budget records 2023
Mark Lewis: Parking citation logs
FOIA-log-2026.xlsxlast edited 4d ago
A1B1C1Roof inspect4/26overdue?
Paper binder
Closet behind the desk · last audit reference: 2022
Risk

FIG. 1A typical pre-Dekree workflow: three places, six tools, no audit trail.

What we import

Your existing files become Dekree records on day one.

You do not have to clean anything up first. Send us what you have. We sort it.

Inbox handoff

Forward your township email once. Catch-all routing handles the rest.

FOIA log

Your existing Excel or Word log, parsed into Dekree records with deadlines.

Meeting calendar

Past and upcoming meetings, with notice posting history.

Document archive

Bulk import for your minutes, agendas, contracts, audit responses.

Contact list

Trustees, residents, vendors. Carries forward to communications.

Retention schedule

Michigan retention applied automatically per category at import.

The first week

From signup to "you run it" in eight days.

Day 0

Sign up. Pick your tier.

Self-serve. Five minutes. Your account is ready before lunch.

Day 1–3

We import what you have.

Send us your FOIA log, your meeting calendar, your minutes archive. Within three business days everything is in your vault and indexed.

Day 5–7

One onboarding session.

A 60-90 minute working call on your real data. We walk through your first FOIA, your first OMA notice, and your first auto-drafted minutes, together.

Day 8+

You run it.

Notices posted, FOIA responses drafted, minutes approved, retention applied. Email support stays a click away.

After

The same FOIA. One screen. One workflow.

Requests / FOIA-2026-0042

Roof inspection records 2024

Sent · audit logged
Received
Apr 26
From Sarah Whitman
Deadline
May 1
Met with 2d to spare
Reference
FOIA-2026-0042
3 documents released
Our migration promises

What we commit to during your switch.

Three business days.

From the moment we receive your data. Imports done. Records visible. Indexed. Ready.

No data left behind.

Every row in your spreadsheet, every PDF in your archive. Nothing dropped, nothing renamed without telling you.

Reversible, always.

Export everything we have on you, in a portable format, on request. No clawback if you cancel.

Switching questions

How do I switch from GovQA, NextRequest, or JustFOIA to Dekree?

Dekree imports your existing request log from GovQA (Records Request Management), NextRequest, or JustFOIA, brings your document library across, and reconstructs your meetings archive from your agendas and minutes. You keep your original reference numbers and dates. Because Dekree is self-serve and needs no configuration project, most organizations are live the same afternoon, and you can run both systems in parallel during the changeover.

Will I lose my history if I switch to Dekree?

No. Your history comes with you. Dekree brings your past requests, your published documents, and your years of agendas and minutes into the new system so they stay searchable, rather than stranding them on your old vendor’s website. We can show you your own historical records searchable inside Dekree before you sign.

Does Dekree charge to export my data if I ever leave?

No. Any administrator can download everything the organization has, at any time, from Settings: the full request history, meetings, minutes, and every stored file, as spreadsheets and documents. There is no fee, no waiting period, and no expiration, and your records stay readable in Dekree even if a subscription lapses. Several common industry agreements do the opposite, deleting customer data roughly 30 to 45 days after departure and charging for the export.

How long does switching take?

Onboarding is measured in days, not months. There is no implementation project to schedule and nothing to configure before you can start, so the practical limit is how quickly your historical data is imported, which Dekree handles for you. This is deliberately different from the incumbent norm, where a records or agenda system is quoted with a multi-week implementation.

Ready to leave Outlook + Excel behind?

Book a 15-minute walkthrough