The Guide to Going Paperless in Accounting
Everything is going virtual these days. Nothing of documentation is being left behind, as everything is accessible on the cloud. For your business, you should work with an accounting service that is totally paperless too.
Aside from helping the environment, you also have many other clear and present positives. You save on office supply costs such as printers, ink cartridges, paper, folders etc. statements, receipts, invoices and more, are all in one place and easily accessible from the office or from home. Here is a guide to going paperless.
How it begins
Your ‘going paperless’ journey begins when you scan your documents into your cloud or IT infrastructure. This will help you to get into the habit of accessing your documents only in a virtual manner. So if you want to read, edit or send your documents, you can only do so virtually. The days of your fax machine are numbered!
It's vital that you select an appropriate organising strategy for your financial documents. Different files should be labeled and house documents that are particular categories. You’ll begin to notice how each different document looks, regarding their design and the information they display. Then you can start to use PDF software to edit and change your documents to suit your liking.
Mimicking your documents
As mentioned above, next you should begin to design your accounting documents in a PDF or similar documentation software. Begin by applying an optical character recognition software. You can use this to understand what type of information is displayed on the document, the keywords and also the language.
OCR can also be used for handwritten documents as well as printed text. So whenever you are sent a report or a document by an external stakeholder, you can instantly scan it and work with it online. Many of these OCR software also allow for redactions.
So if you have sensitive information, the software may allow you to cover it with black blocks. However, most good PDF or similar documentation software has this feature.
Implement a DMS
Working with a trusted accounting service
really opens your eyes to the sheer amount of DMS options. These are document management systems. They are on cloud-based systems and they have a few features you may want to know about.
● When you scan documents, they can be automatically routed to a specific file or folder.
● Checks can be deposited straight into remote banks as well as into credit unions.
● You can sign documents using esigns, which allow for a virtual signature.
● You get your bills online for the service, so you can compare savings made regarding physical documents.
Moving on
Now that you are implementing a cloud-based system, organising your documents, signing them, routing them, using automation, you should officially move on.
Shredding your old paper copies might be a good idea. The keyword there is ‘might’. You should always keep hard copies of some documents. These will be any of the following.
● Lease for office space
● Contract, joint ventures, suppliers, distributors, etc.
● Employee contracts
Most of the others, you should shred. The storage space required to properly and safely store them is not worth it. Focus on the cloud-based systems you are utilising. Make sure their security is great, they have firewalls, data encryption and power generators in case of power supply issues to the building where the servers are housed.
Speak with staff
You may find that some members of staff are resistant to the fully paperless move. However, most accountants are going to prefer it because they have cross-platform access. They can work on documents at work, on their tablet at home and receive updates on their phone.
However some accountants might push back. Not everyone likes changes and even though going paperless clearly improves productivity and security, you need to convince people who have always done it one way, to adopt a new way.
This is why you should have a workshop, whereby you explain the new software, take questions and organize an onboarding program for employees. The training and learning can be outsourced but you should have a mixture of in-house training and outsourced learning.
If you would like to go fully paperless for your accounting needs, speak with us today. We would like nothing more than to answer your questions and show you the types of services we offer. Contact us today!