How to archive company documents?
Table of content:
Archiving of paper documents
In small businesses, documents are most often stored in the office, at the company’s headquarters. Binders and a few cardboard boxes are enough to organize paper documents and store them so that you can easily access each one.
As the company grows, however, the documents increase. What then? You can, of course, change to a larger office or rearrange the current one – to gain more storage space.
We definitely do not recommend shoving accumulating documents in random corners and looking for a place to fit one more binder by force. First of all – in such disorder it is difficult to find something and in case of any inspection you will face unnecessary stress and nervous, often hours-long search. Secondly, meetings with contractors in rooms that look more like a disorganized warehouse, rather than the office of a trustworthy company, do not come off very professionally.
The accumulating piles of documents can also be located in external archives, where they will be 100% safe, and will not clutter the office. Or you can rent a separate premises and set up a mini archive there.
However, each of these solutions generates additional, not inconsiderable costs. And after all, many company documents can be stored only in electronic form. Just think what a space and paper saving it is!
Electronic filling of documents
In fact, most of the documents in a company can be stored electronically – including contracts with contractors, all employee records (including employment contracts), invoices and other accounting documents.
If your company still keeps all documents in paper form, it’s worth considering a change to electronic filing. Why?
Ecology
Convenience
If your binders are in order, it will probably take you about 10 minutes. However, if your records are in chaos or your papers are stored off-site… judge for yourself.
Convenience
More and more people are working remotely. Electronic document storage gives you access to all archived contracts from anywhere in the world – all you need is Internet access.
Durable document quality
Synchronization of paper and electronic archives
How to archive documents electronically? You can use special databases that, properly secured, allow you to store archived documents.
As a reliable and intuitive electronic archive, Hatiroo will work great – a structured repository will make it easy and fast to find any document you need. You can also go a step further and start not only electronic archiving, but also process documents from the moment they are created.
Such an opportunity is given to you by the Hatiroo electronic workflow system, which will allow you to create, review, sign and archive all documents in one place, based on the most secure and RODO-compliant Microsoft 365 cloud. Convenient, right?
Some documents need to be kept on paper or are simply created traditionally from the beginning (such as contracts and documents that come to the company by mail). To keep your records in order, it’s a good idea to also scan such contracts and put them in an electronic file repository.
The Hatiroo system allows you to assign such a prepared document to a binder, which makes it easier to find the paper version (you can specify, for example, the number or color of the binder in which it is located). In this way, on the one hand, you will still be able to view the contents of the document from anywhere with Internet access, and when it comes to finding the paper version, you will do it quickly and easily.
Does implementing an electronic workflow pay off?
Electronic filing of documents is more convenient, environmentally friendly and secure. Is it not enough? Also, don’t forget that electronic archiving simply saves money – both time and money. Gone are the costs of paper, printer service, mail and couriers, and storage space fees. By saving on fees for dusty archives, you can put the recovered money to what will benefit the company more – for example, training to develop employee skills.
