Document management system having automatic notifications

A method in a computing system of automatically generating one or more alerts from dates contained in a digitally-stored contract that corresponds to a physical contract, the method comprising:

• storing a plurality of digitally-encoded images of physical contracts that contain one or more dates;
• processing each of the plurality of digitally-encoded images to generate searchable text corresponding to text contained in the digitally-encoded image;
• analyzing the searchable text to identify the one or more dates contained in the corresponding physical contract;
• storing the identified one or more dates in association with the digitally-encoded images of the corresponding physical contract;
• receiving an indication of a user that should receive an alert regarding the stored one or more dates;
• and
• automatically sending the user an alert for at least one of the stored one or more dates, at a predetermined interval of time prior to the occurrence of the at least one date, wherein the alert reminds the user of the upcoming date as well as provides an indication of the contract that is associated with the date.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions for execution on a computer that automatically generate one or more alerts from dates contained in a digitally-stored contract that corresponds to a physical contract by:

• receiving a plurality of digitally-encoded images of a physical contract that contains one or more dates;
• processing each digitally-encoded image of the physical contract to generate searchable text corresponding to the contract;
• programmatically analyzing the searchable text to identify the one or more dates included in the physical contract;
• storing the identified one or more dates in association with the digitally-encoded images of the contract;
• receiving an indication of a user that should receive an alert regarding the stored one or more dates;
• and
• automatically sending the user an alert for at least one of the stored one or more dates, at a predetermined interval of time prior to the occurrence of the at least one date, wherein the alert reminds the user of the upcoming date as well as provides an indication of the contract that is associated with the date.