3 Ways going Paperless Improves Your Business

Have you been thinking lately about going paperless in your business?

I can say now with confidence that we can efficiently operate our business with only our mobile phones. Thanks to going completely digital and paperless.  In other words, we scan every document we get in our business and properly file and store on the cloud.

We have no paper file boxes, no filing cabinets, no heaps of papers in the in-tray on our desks.

And using good search tools, I can find any document or file I have within seconds. Further in this article, I will talk about search tools for storing your digitized information.

So finding ways to cut costs while managing the day-to-day aspects of a business is an ongoing difficult task for many business owners and in today’s work environment it is constantly evolving.

Staying up to date with the latest strategies is essential to the success of your company.

And this suggestion to go paperless will dramatically reduce your expenses and improve efficiency in the workplace. Creating a digital work environment eliminates the need for paper, which will make a big impact on your business in a variety of ways.

Here are a few of the top reasons why going paperless can improve your business operations.

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Section 1

1. Increases Efficiency
2. Reduces Costs
3. Simplifies Tasks

Section 2

1. How to go paperless
2. Service providers that can help you go paperless
3. Critical for businesses adopting a Hybrid Work Model

Section 3 bonus

• Recommended Search tools and Cloud storage

SECTION 1

Increases Efficiency

Number one reason to go paperless. It increases efficiency.  There is no doubt searching for a document online can be fast and immediate versus walking to a file storage room, leafing through file folders, and examining papers.

Documentation is a key aspect of managing any business.

Keeping up with all of these documents is essential to staying in compliance with various laws while also helping you manage your business operations. However, trying to store and organize all of these paper documents can quickly become an overwhelming task for many companies.

Using a paperless solution is a great way to maximize efficiency in the workplace while also saving you a lot of storage space.  You can easily store and upload all of your documents online, which makes everyone’s job much easier.

Reduces Costs

Another advantage of using a paperless solution in the workplace is that it helps keep costs to a minimum.

Eliminating the need for paper allows you to avoid other expenses, such as getting new printers, purchasing storage cabinets, and buying new ink. Reducing the need for these items can save your company a lot of money over the long term.

Keeping all of your documents stored on the cloud also improves accessibility, making it possible for employees to work much quicker, which saves your business even more money.

Simplifies Tasks

Choosing to go paperless also simplifies many tasks for your employees.

Instead of constantly searching for invoices or receipts, an employee can quickly search for this information in an online database. Keeping your data stored in the cloud also benefits remote employees, as they can remain productive at home without having to travel to the office.

All it takes is a few clicks of a button to get the information you need without having to keep track of countless paper documents.

SECTION 2

How to go paperless

This will be dramatically different between businesses in terms of size and scale, however, the main principles are the same.

1. Create a proper structure for file folders and naming conventions for your cloud storage.   
2. Create policies of who will do the digitizing of papers, authorizations and rules amongst your team
3. Invest in high-speed scanning machines that can digitize documents into pdf file formats and can scan double-sided multi-page documents.  Take images of items like checks, official documents, cards etc.
4. If you are a small business, this means creating a physical document file tray where you act on each paper document that comes across your desk.
5. You scan it, then either act on it, file it, or shred it.  

Service providers that can help you go paperless

There are service providers that can help you digitize your business.  If you find the right one, they can even provide a virtual office address where you can receive your postal mail.

The service provider will collect your mail, then confidentially open and scan all your documents. Then send to various individuals or departments based on your rules.

So subscribing to this service can help you continue to go paperless and digitize your documents for you and save even more time.

Critical for businesses adopting a Hybrid Work Model

If you are like many companies post-pandemic that are exploring or adopting the Hybrid Work Model and a Work-from-Home strategy for your employees, then adopting a paperless office and digitizing your letter mail is critical.

You may not have a physical office any longer, meaning no rooms with paper documents and files.  You probably will not want company mail and documents going to your employee’s personal residences and your physical company documents residing in residential homes and apartments with unknown security or policies.

So routing your physical letter mail and documents to a centralized and secure workspace, then managing the digitization and storage of documents will become necessary and critical in the Hybrid Work Model.

SECTION 3 – BONUS

Recommended Search tools and Cloud storage

This section is very short because I will recommend any company or organization to look into Google WorkSpace for sharing documents, cloud storage for files and best of all, the Google search tools for finding your documents online.

In Summary

Going paperless offers immense benefits for organizations small and large.

Reducing the need for using paper increases employee efficiency, reduces costs, and simplifies tasks for remote workers.

Using digital documents is also beneficial to the environment due to the less demand for paper.

Finding different ways to limit costs and improve efficiency is always a top priority in the workplace, as now is one of the best times for your business to consider going paperless.

We did it! We recommend you do it!