How to Setup a Paperless Filing System to Match a Current Filing System
Whether you are setting up a paperless filing system to match a current filing system or creating a new one, you use the same process, which involves applying a few logical organizing principles. The advantage of matching the two systems over creating a new one is that your employees already know the process for identifying their entries in the old one. Because you can already retrieve the material you need from your current filing system, you can assume it already has logical divisions. Proper divisions are the key factor in an efficient, effective system.
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Instructions
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Identify all of the major categories you currently use to keep your materials organized and print a list of them. This will provide you with a listing of the highest order categories of your filing system. Computerized categories are often called "folders." Many companies give each folder an identifying number, such as 1 or 1000. Others incorporate letters, such as 1A001a. This allows for 26 sub-folders of 1, 999 sub-folders of A and 26 sub-folders of 001. Some also incorporate the date a document is originally filed. Date filing is best done with the year first, month second and day last in order to keep the most recent month of documents first. For example, 051215 would be December 15, 2005. An identifying number makes storage and retrieval easier, especially if the identifier is put in the same place on every document.
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Identify the sub-categories, or sub-folders, for each higher order folder and print this list. For each sub-folder, identify the sub-sub-folders and create and print another list. Be sure that folders and their sub-and sub-sub-divisions do not overlap. At any level of its division, a system of filing is only useful if you can retrieve documents quickly and easily. When you are satisfied with the logical divisions you have made, you are ready to computerize your filing system.
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Hire a programmer to write the code for your system if you find it complex and in need of special requirements. The easier and probably less expensive means of setting up a paperless filing system is to purchase software already designed to meet the filing requirements for your type of company. The software should be able to store documents by type, such as incoming correspondence or employee-originated documents. Some software will add your identifiers as bar codes to facilitate rapid storage and retrieval.
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Plan to switch from your current filing system to a paperless one on a certain date. Before that date, you will need to decide if you want to scan in the material and documents currently in your system so they are part of the paperless system. You should also provide your employees with training on how to use the new system.
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A filing system without a regular backup is not a complete or secure system. Companies have suffered large financial losses when they lost their data. Back up your data to an online storage site or, if privacy of data is an issue, to your own drives that are kept in a secure, off-site location.
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