If you own your business, start a small business or regularly deal with clients and customers, you have piles of papers to keep track of documents. We’re talking about critical official documents such as invoices, purchase orders, contracts, receipts, letters, and emails. If your hard drive is filled and you can’t find the document you need, here are ten tips that will help organize your business documents and paper works.
1. Keep Files Sorted
When you receive a document in the mail, file it right away. This way, when you need to find it again, you won’t have to search through all of your papers. If a lot of paperwork is coming into the office, consider using a filing cabinet or hanging folders with tabs on them so that everything stays neatly organized.
2. Use File Folders
There are many ways to organize your files. One method is by keeping them sorted according to the year they were created. For example, if you have a file that contains all sales receipts from 2016, the file should be labeled “2016.” This will help you find the document easily without having to search through every folder looking for it.
3. Label All Files and Folders Organized
Labeling is one of the easiest ways to organize a file cabinet or drawer. It enables you to quickly and simply find what you require. Use labels for the name of a client, project, or other relevant information. Label folders with file names such as “expenses” or “income tax”. Additionally, label binders with topics such as “marketing” or “financials”. Label individual sheets with dates and subject titles such as “quarterly budget,” “quarterly income statement,” or “monthly sales report”.
4. Have a Primary Storage Place
To help you get organized, you should designate a place where all your documents will be kept. It’s better to have one main spot where everything is stored than several different places where only certain documents are kept. The more items there are, the harder it will be to find things when they’re needed. One place also makes it easier to keep track of everything when filing properly.
You can store all your important business documents in a digital storage place such as Dropbox or Google Drive. This is a good way to keep all the data safe and secure. You can also use this method to share information with others in your company.
5. Trash Old, No Longer Needed Documents
Keep only those necessary for the current year, and maintain them in a safe location. If you have more than five years old documents, get rid of them as soon as possible because they will no longer be useful to you.
Rotate files regularly to keep them current and relevant. If you need to know how to rotate a pdf to keep your files updated, you can check Adobe.com for how to do that. Rotating files means moving old documents out of the way and filing new ones within the same file or creating new ones all together if necessary (this is especially important for electronic files).
6. Create an Email Folder for Digital Documents
Like most people, you probably spend at least some of your day reading and sending emails from your computer. Suppose this sounds like you, then it’s important to create an email folder specifically for digital documents that need to be saved. This helps ensure that you don’t accidentally delete important files or lose track of them while someone else in the company still works on them. It also makes it easier to access these items when needed since they’ll all be stored in one place instead of being scattered across multiple folders throughout your computer’s hard drive.
7. Review Your Documents Regularly
You should always review your documents regularly. This will help you keep up with changes and ensure that everything is up-to-date. If any documents expire, they need to be updated or replaced. Use different color highlighters so that those that need reviewed immediately stand out.
8. Shred Any Unwanted Paperwork or Expired Documents
If you have any old paperwork (such as receipts), expired documents, or unimportant papers, it is best to shred them. This way they do not get lost or misplaced. It is also advisable to shred any other confidential documents you no longer need for your business or personal life.
9. Invest in a Scanning Service to Eliminate Paper Records.
Paper documents are a nightmare and can be a pain in the neck to organize and store. So much so that it’s often easier to throw them out. But doing so means you’ll lose the ability to refer back to important information in the future. A fact that could cost your business money.
Instead of throwing away those old receipts or contracts, invest in a document scanning service that will digitize your files and make them easily accessible on your computer or smartphone. This will eliminate the need for filing cabinets, which take up valuable space in your office, and reduce clutter around your workspace.
10. Get Additional Support from a Document Management System
One option is to use a document management system (DMS). This software helps you organize and store your documents in one location. The DMS may allow sharing with people within or outside the company (depending on the program). Some DMS systems even have features that enable you to search for specific information within a document or across multiple documents simultaneously.
Takeaway
These tips aim to help you have an organized office with your business documents and more, especially if you share a workspace or office with others. First and foremost, it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the amount of paperwork. This is regardless of how much paper you receive. To combat this, decide if you want to sort all your paperwork out immediately or at specific intervals throughout the month/year.
Most people will recommend the same thing. Sort out your paperwork weekly when it’s back-to-back with a weekend so that you do not lose track of anything. You should also allot a specific time for sorting to know exactly when and where you will spend this time. In addition to those tips, we have some unique ones, such as labeling the folders for all your papers (it’s the first step towards filing!).
You can also start storing important papers in fire-resistant safe boxes or buying an archival box to store more permanent and unimportant documents. Also, a helpful tip is to create a system for filing all your papers away in alphabetical order in a separate file for each month.
The post 10 Tips for Organizing Your Business Documents and Paper Works appeared first on KillerStartups.
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October 10, 2022 at 01:43PM by Guest Author, Khareem Sudlow
