Has your company gone paperless yet? Here is why you should!
- Paperless is GREEN
- Paperless is Efficient
- Going Paperless Saves Money
- Going Paperless Makes Documents More Available
Now how do you do it? You need a strategy before going paperless in your business. You don’t have to go completely paper-free all at once; just pick one or two ways to go paperless, put them into practice and then move on to other areas. Going paperless is a multi-step process. Here’s what you need to do in order to get started:
- Examine the type of documents your business creates and uses. Determine which documents are already available in digital form. These could be in the form of bank statements, contracts, accounting documents, etc.
- Look at the documents that you still receive on paper. Can you get digital versions?
- Check compliance rules.
- Choose where you will store your files and how you will back them up. Your IT team is essential to this step.
- Set up a system for organizing and naming your documents. This step is KEY to ensuring you have an efficient and effective paperless system.
- Scan existing documents. This step may seem daunting but only needs to be done once!
- Shred all the scanned documents.
Once you transition, everyone in your company needs to know how to name documents, where to store them, and how they can access and search these documents.
Going paperless may seem overwhelming but once you’ve made the transition, the benefits are immediately apparent.
Stephany Cohen, Assistant Controller
Posted in Small Business Resources