 |
 |
Hot Tips For A Paperless Office Plan
With the amazing technology at our fingertips today, it is easy to retrieve the information we need anytime and work on the go. However, some documentation may still be floating around your office in those pesky manila folders. If you're sick of carrying around stacks of files and papers, go paperless. Here are a few hot tips to get you started.
Take the plunge into a paperless office solution.
While the first few months will may seem daunting, making the move to a paperless setting will ultimately create a more secure setting for your data, help organize the information in a more manageable fashion, and ultimately allow you to better serve your clients.
Convert documents to an electronic format.
The first step is obviously to get all that paper into an electronic format. Create a plan or set procedure for your staff to follow when creating electronic documentation. You may find that your company needs more equipment to accomplish this task. We've found that many legal, medical and accounting firms making the transition, often enjoy desktop scanners. This type of solution allows everyone to take part in the paperless efforts.
Create a set of rules for labeling your files and organizing your folders.
For example, your accounting documents may be filed in folders labeled "Banking", "Clients", "Vendors", etc. This sort of preset hierarchy helps to keep everyone organizing things in the same way. Don't forget to share a set labeling method too so you can all find what you need. We use the date, company, and detail format like this, "2017-07-01-GasElectric-Invoice2".
Use templates and forms as needed to standardize the documents.
Whether you are creating a simple letter or a complex legal document, create standard document templates for your employees to use. This will allow you to easily identify what is needed for each process so no one misses essential details for your clients. These standard templates should have set naming conventions too. That way when you're thumbing through a client file you can quickly locate the exact document you need.
Put a backup solution in place to protect your data.
An off-site automatic backup solution will keep your data safe even if something happens at the office. Inevitably, equipment will fail, files will be corrupt, and data can be lost. Putting an automatic solution in place to store a copy of your data on a regular basis is a great way to ensure you will always have what you need when you need it most. Don’t forget to check your backups regularly though to be certain that everything is included in your backups, there are no issues with the solution, and the files are recoverable.
Share only what's necessary.
There are many solutions available to allow you to securely share files with preset access levels for specific folders. This will help you keep sensitive data away from prying eyes.