Tips for how to go paperless in business.
Explore top tips for how to go paperless and shift your business operations entirely online.
The benefits of taking your business paperless are plentiful. Physically, it saves tons of space — goodbye, filing cabinets. Environmentally, it saves mounds of paper. Organizationally, it streamlines your archiving process and makes finding documents quick and efficient. But getting there can feel like an uphill battle.
What stops businesses from going paperless?
So, what stops businesses from going paperless? The mental transition can be daunting. First, digitizing all your papers and documents requires a sheer amount of work. And security concerns are a constant worry, such as if your system will get hacked.
If you’re thinking about going paperless but don’t know where or how to start, follow these tips to set up a manageable, secure, and efficient process.
How to go paperless in business.
Going paperless is as much a cultural shift as it is a technological shift. Follow these tips to ease your workplace into becoming a paperless business.
- Involve your staff. Gather a representative group of employees from across your business to understand how people use the system and what they want to see. This task will help you create a solid, streamlined foundation for a paperless organization.
- Create a sound organizational system. Map out your organizational file structure and protocols. After what year would you consider a document to be archived? What’s the expiration date for shredding documents that are no longer needed? Do you want to organize files by year, team, client, or operational area? What’s your file naming convention?
- Develop and streamline the digitizing process. There are many ways to digitize files. You can scan them into a document cloud system or digital server, contract with a document digitizing firm, or use scanning and document management apps.
- Divide the labor. Divide the digitizing work across teams for equal representation and responsibility. Consider designating one team member as the leader in this process to build a sense of responsibility and investment.
What does your business need to consider when going paperless?
Paperless businesses enjoy financial and physical advantages. When thinking about how to go paperless, consider these business questions before making the switch:
- What processes use the most resources and would benefit from becoming paperless?
- What workflows could see the most significant amount of productivity gains?
- How much can you save — both in financial costs and personnel time — by moving away from paper?
- How much time is required to retrain departments or team members on a new paperless process?
- How long should you allow for team members to adjust to new workflows?
- What additional resources are required to ensure a smooth transition?
- What complications may you encounter, and how can they be resolved?
What types of tools help businesses go paperless?
Multiple tools can help you start your paperless journey and digitize existing resources. Some of these tools may already be available to you:
- Invest in a document scanner to upload existing documents. Your office printers may already include digital scanning tools. If your business still requires faxes, switch to an online faxing service.
- Download a free scanner app to scan documents and digitize them anytime.
- Convert to online office tools for company calendars, flyers, newsletters, and other resources that anyone can update and distribute with a few clicks of a button.
- Take notes using a laptop or tablet.
- Incorporate an online document file storage solution to maintain and share documents.
- Use e-signature software to reduce paper waste.
- Invest in software that can digitize business services such as accounting, HR systems, and procurement needs.
Paperless businesses can get more done online.
A paperless workplace is also a more secure one. Explore how Adobe Acrobat for business can help you digitize documents to securely collaborate, sign, and share.