Question: “I am about to start a big project in my office and don't know where to begin. I must scan all documentation into our scanner to create a paperless environment. How do I keep it simple, while making it easy to locate documents? Do I do it all myself? Ask to hire help?” - Carol
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Some software is designed for storing documents, so you may want to check into that.
We started doing ours by the most recent 3-4 years. Older stuff will probably wait until either needed or until time to purge, then it will be a non-issue.
We set a consistent way to rename our documents, using date-client-document type (mm-dd-yy, Client name, Type of document), for example: 12-31-10 Western School District audit report.
Several admin staff were assigned clients by type (tax, audit, accounting, etc.), so we would move our assigned documents into the special software program and rename them, and we also scanned in paper documents and then shredded the paper copies.
One more thing, in reality it will probably be impossible to completely do without paper, so “paperless” actually means “less paper”, not “no paper”. If you can reduce your paper usage significantly, consider that a success. And don’t expect to do it quickly.
To sum it up: 1) preplan how you want it to work and set a consistent renaming process, 2) assign various people (if possible) to take care of sections of the task, and 3) consider a software package that supports document storage. Good luck with it.
Carol, you’re doing this all by yourself? No wonder you’re overwhelmed. As Vilma P said (in her rec #10) “this is a project everyone should participate in”
Here’s an 11 page white paper (in paperless pdf!) of case study that _starts_ with brainstorming session with “all three partners, one tax preparer, one bookkeeper, one payroll administrator, and the office manager.”
So, as Deb said, “start with the end in mind” ….what docs must be stored and how can they most easily/logically retrieved by any/all who need them?
Let the group help determine which documents must be stored, create a list of documents, but also remove extraneous documents from the list to keep from cluttering up the system.
I think their most impt advice is this: ” We do not recommend implementing the paperless office in a single step across all departments in your firm. To limit the issues you may encounter during this process, consider starting your implementation in a single department, or a small group of departments. This will allow you to refine new procedures before incorporating them throughout your firm. See: http://cs.thomsonreuters.com/resources/white-papers/FCS_Implementing_the_paperless_office_white_paper.pdf
Good answers above. I would only add to be uniform when naming your documents/folders. If you’ll be using dates in your name do it in year/month/day order so they’ll list chronologically.
Based on your question, it sounds that you need to set up a electronic filing system. Going paperless is not an easy task. I’ve been working at it for over 5 years and I am still not 100% paperless… Some things to consider are:
How much paper does your office produce? Is it more economical to do it yourself or hire outside help?
It is economical to save the documents in your network? or there a program you can buy like GoFilleRoom (electronic file system widely used with in my industry that store our files in servers outside my state and can be accessed via internet). Is there an electronic file systems that serves your industry? You may not have to reinvent the wheel….
Do you have a IT department to help you answer your questions on your computer system, disk storage and your systems capabilities. Is going paperless going to cause a system crash because of overload? What will happen if your system crashes? Do you need to back up your files? What about in a natural disasster recovery plan? Determine how much scanning needs to be done in the daily basis. Do you have a need for a full time scanner? How much contribution do you expect from each of your employees in daily basis to maintain the paperless system? Is each employee expected to scan their own files, or are you expected to do it all?
Do you have the resources or do you need to buy equipment? How many scanner you need? What is your budget?
Are you back scanning? How far back are you back scanning?
Do you have a record retention policy? How much of your current paper can be destroy without even scanning?
Bottom line:
1. Research first.
2. Get upper management on your side to support you all the way.
3. Understand your project and what is the end result you want?
4. Establish what you will need.
5. Set budget.
6. Buy the equipment needed.
7. Hire the people needed.
8. Set up guidelines.
9. Set a plan goals that indicate your progress in the project. (weekly, monthly, annually, small and big)
10. Set up training for everyone (this is a project everyone should participate in.)
11. Delegate small portions of the project.
I would first ask yourself what is your Document Management Software (DMS) program you are using if any. I know prior to scanning with a DMS program we would have the scanned documents go into our Word documents as a PDF and then we would move them into a folder we have made corresponding like our file cabinets were. We named the scanned document, for example: Smith-012111-AMEX-Dell this way if we were searching we would have an easier time in locating the info.
Carol:
When I see questions like this or get them from people that work with me, I tell them begin with the end in mind. Before you begin to scan, title and file your electronic documents, separate them into files like you would a paper file system. This will give you the ability to decide if you want to combine documents into a single folder with a single title. Once you are organized, the job will not only go faster, it will give you a clear way to explain exactly what type of help you need and how long it will take. Chunking a project down into smaller pieces also makes it easier to digest and a lot less overwhelming. Good Luck!
I scan a lot of documentation – create a folder (to represent binder you are scanning?) – seperate the scan so you can title each separation as if you had a divider in a binder. If scanning documentation on employees, etc. Scan by last name fist – save all in one folder and it will automatically be alphabetized for you.
Carol,
I have scanned a good majority of my files as well. This is the steps I used:
1.) Setup electronic folders on the network to sort and easily identify projects.
2.) Scan documents with the file named as… the electronic folder.file name.date
3.) Once item’s are scanned. I move them to the corresponding folders that were referenced in the the rename above.
(This way the file has the project date that I need, as well as the name of the folder and file name. If I pull the file out of the folder to work on I will know instantly which folder to move it back into since the folder name is referenced in the file name.)
I hope this helps you.
Not to discourage you, but we’ve been paperless for a few years now and are STILL working on getting all of our archived files scanned in and organized. It helps to have a plan written out ahead of time, to assign various parties responsibilities in the project and to set deadlines. I would also recommend having a standard procedure as to how files are named as if you have multiple parties scanning your documents in.
One way we tackled a large portion of it was to hire temporary workers to scan in the documents into one file and then had members of our in-house staff work on naming the files and “filing” them away. Best of Luck To you!