Recently, on my way home from a client, stuck in traffic, trying to escape the business estate where they are located, I gazed through the office 
windows and I happened to notice how many filing cabinets there were.
Filing Cabinets, just sitting there, all inconspicuous, taking up valuable room and representing how things used to be. It got me thinking how much unnecessary printing and filing goes on each day in the UK and how much space we are taking up storing stuff.
Not only this but also the fact that most of the stuff stored is printed by well-meaning employees, increasing costs and wasting time.
It doesn’t have to be this way – in fact many businesses are waking up to the fact that you don’t have to print it, you don’t have keep it and you definitely don’t have to have filing cabinets to keep it safe and dry.
The Modern Approach
Recently, we have undertaken work with clients who have been committed to getting rid of the old paperwork and saving it all online.
During this process, we have discovered just how much time, effort and money is wasted printing and storing paper. These filing cabinets represent enormous inefficiencies in your business.
Firstly, make a commitment to rid yourself of paper.
Next set up an electronic folder structure for your paperwork – we call ours Docstore and its where we save all of our paperwork.
This folder structure can be offline, on your PC, or preferably online in something like Dropbox or Google Drive.
Next scan everything and save it in this filing structure; by everything we mean everything:
- Contracts and Agreements
- Supplier Invoices
- Sales Invoices
- Quotes
- Wages Information
Ask all your suppliers to email you their invoices – most of them will be relieved that you have asked by the way.
Set up a dedicated inbox on your system to receive emails from suppliers.
When you are out and about take photos of any receipts you collect and email them to the new inbox.
Pretty soon you will find there is no need for these filing cabinets and you are going to have to find other things for them to do – drinks cabinet maybe? Who knows.
If you are interested in making the change, in freeing yourself form the tyranny of the grey metal boxes then give me a call I will be happy to discuss how we can help your business.
