A document is a loose piece of paper that contains important information. The purpose of a document is to store data in an easily shareable format in both an official and a personal capacity. A form is a specific type of document containing sections for data entry known as data fields. The actual data doesn't have to be presented in a recognizable format, but the presence of data fields, whether filled with information or otherwise is a key identifying factor of a document.

A collection of documents in a business / office environment is known as paperwork, and in a educational environment, known as a school assignment. A school assignment that is worked on outside of a classroom is known as homework.

Any kind of paper-based article that might be kept in a record could be referred to as a document. This distinguishes a document from less formal methods of communication such as notes, letters, and one-way communication articles such as paper-based marketing material.

Documents also come in a digital format, which makes this concept difficult to limit exclusively to paper documents.