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How to get rid of the filing cabinets - part 1
Why?
Time is money! A tired old cliché, but in business it is generally true, particularly if you are trying to manage overhead costs.
Paying someone to file and retrieve paper in cabinets is an expense you can do without. More frustrating is trying to locate documents that have been misfiled. Take the instance where you would like to see all the bills from a certain supplier but you have been filing on a monthly basis. After that you would like to see all the cheques issued to that same supplier. This could take hours! Imagine the request comes from Revenue Canada!
Keys to going paperless: - Define your paper sources
- A structured easy to use digital filing system
- Discipline
Paper you create - Proposals, contracts
- Client Invoices
- Supplier and payroll cheques
- General correspondence
- Forms
Paper you receive - Bills and statements
- Revenue Canada notifications
- Cheques
- Quotes, contracts, general correspondence
More and more we are receiving digital images of invoices and statements, some are attached to the email while many direct you to download from a web-site. If we can find a way to organize these digital images there would be no need to print them out and add to the paper pile. I tried several solutions starting with just creating file folders in my document directory and depositing digital images. This, of course, did not account for the paper invoices. I also tried using DropBox for security reasons, however, one solution stood out above all the software solutions: I saw this advertised several times on TV and was so impressed I gave it a try with the goal of just organizing my digital documents. The software is installed on your computer but synchronizes with the clouds so that all your documents are safely stored. This gives the added advantage of being able to access them with your smart phone. The software is pleasant to use with filing cabinets icons. I deliberately kept the structure simple by creating one folder per month for bills. No need to complicate things since finding documents is fast and easy with the search capabilities. Big deal, right? No, this is just the beginning of an all encompassing solution. Neat allows you to create a variation of your email address so that you can receive invoices and statements directly into your software. Of course you can also import any file on your desktop. The image creates a small index card that identifies the type of document (receipt/bill, document or business card) that is pre-filled by the included OCR software. The OCR also fills in the name of the supplier and the amount of money if applicable, plus a category code amongst other things. You can add a free form description, which I find very handy. What really sold me was the ability to import this information directly into the Payables of QuickBooks. This was the ideal solution for the Remote Controller service I offer to my clients since I could access the images and update the books...all for $5/month. The solution is not perfect as the OCR software will not always find the correct name or $ amount but this is easily corrected since you are looking at the image. We will cover more about this extensive solution in the next article but if you want to learn more: Check it out at our website under 'Articles' | 
