Abstract: In one embodiment, the present invention is a method and apparatus for efficient electronic document management. One embodiment of the inventive method involves generating one or more user-specific administrator setup files comprising a plurality of parameters pertaining to tasks and steps that users are authorized to perform on electronic documents, wherein some of the parameters are encoded using a private key so that only an authorized user having the corresponding private key can access the encoded parameters. These administrator setup files are retrieved by the corresponding users, who implement their respective administrator setup files to allow performance of at least some of the authorized tasks and steps on a selected electronic document or group of electronic documents. The inventive method substantially eliminates the potential for human error and security breaches in the performance of document management tasks.