paperless office

paperless office

Didn't find your answer?

Would like to stop printing file copies of letters etc andjust keep word docs on pc.

Anyone else doin g this and if so hows it going.

Thanks

Replies (20)

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By User deleted
23rd Sep 2009 09:05

Starting to

it's different :)

I quite like it, but there are many more who hate it

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By JCresswellTax
23rd Sep 2009 09:23

HMRC

I've heard HMRC are going that way as well.

Scary

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By User deleted
23rd Sep 2009 09:35

.

Been doing it for six years. I never understood why a "file copy" helps, but I do "print" to a PDF file so you know 100% that you have the copy that went out on file. That is to say the old document is not amended in anyway.

 

 

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By User deleted
23rd Sep 2009 10:14

"print to pdf"

I am semi paperless (sounds a bit odd I know!) and am moving towards all correpondence/tax being paperless, will only have manual WP files for clients (although I am considering scanning all file docs as well).

It is fantastic and clients love it when you are out of the office/at another clients but can access their record (or most of it) and answer their question immediately.

re print to pdf - I do use cute pdf for accounts, emails sent/received etc but had never thought of printing other docs (word etc) to pdf as I already had them electronically. What a fantastic idea! (I have on two occasions amended an earlier letter or used it as a starting point for a different letter to that/another client and forgot to create a new copy!)

It is the way forward.

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By User deleted
23rd Sep 2009 11:09

99% paperless

We have a document management system that retains earlier versions of documents, but we don't use this for every single document. We scan in everything that arrives from clients, HMRC, etc.

We have upgraded to 4 monitors on each desk, which does take up quite a bit of space, but means we have a lot of info on view all at the same time. We are very, very glad we took this route, and our clients benefit, too.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
23rd Sep 2009 14:57

How do your paperless systems fit into tax work?

A very timely question... With SA season looming, I'm particularly keen to explore the extent to which members have embedded paperless processes into their tax workflows.

Peterborough-based ieTaxguard are the high priests of this automated approach, but Kevin Salter published some very useful paperless tips on tax processing last year that could be useful for less technologically advanced accountants. As part of our preparations for this year, we'll be looking to find out if members are putting any of these ideas to work.

If you are a less-paper practitioner, do let us know if which, if and how you apply any of the following techniques within your firm:

Archiving tax returns, authorisations and statements etc in electronic form (eg PDFs, as mentioned above)Scanning clients' supporting information into a digital document fileCombining electronic document archive with practice management softwareAssigning and reviewing tasks using workflow software tools.

If you have taken on any of these ideas, what preparations and investments were required, and what are the benefits you have gained from them? I'm sure the information you're willing to share will help our questioner here, but I'm also looking to put together more practical guidance based on members' experiences.
___________________________
John Stokdyk, Technology editor

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By shaunmcguinness
23rd Sep 2009 15:56

Been doing it for 2 years.....

..and its going well. You just need to be disciplined.

 

 

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
23rd Sep 2009 17:45

Adobe Acrobat & Mailsafe

Similar to others have been doing this for several years now and practically every document, whether in or out, ends up as a PDF.  Also, as mentioned, 2 or more screens per workstation is a real help.

I played with many 3rd party PDF converters but there is absolutely no substitute for the horses mouth, ie Adobe Acrobat  and you can pick it up cheap on ebay.  The ability for example to highlight word docs, XL spreadsheets, etc etc and "combine" them into one PDF, as well commenting etc is brill.

That was the easy bit but then we realised that the largest number of transactions in & out are emails and whilst paperless, ie leave them where they are, they are far more difficult to archive for easy retrieval eg client A/2009/tax return/cgt.  Adobe Acrobat can save blocks of emails to PDF but, in a thread you will get the same email over & over, then we found Mailsafe. 

Every email entering, moving or leaving the office is captured and archived in a separate store in its original format (but compressed) and you can index each one with up to 6 fields, ie client name, work type, year etc etc.  The stored email (and attachment) is always linked to your in & sent boxes, ie you can re-index or even multi-index without going into the store.  Eventually, once the email is history, just delete it from Outlook as it can be found in seconds by searching the store.

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By jacp400
24th Sep 2009 09:15

Knowledgeworker
Hi, I had a look at the MailSafe software and it looks very interesting.

We recommend a product called Knowledgeworker. The difference with Knowledgeworker is that it can automatically index documents when they are placed on the network. This means that even if you have some die hard users who insist on their own network folder to store their documents they will still get hoovered up in to the Document Management system.

The system is also delivered with workflow which can be triggered by a form or a document.

It will require some investigation but we could potentially also include emails from the MailSafe software too.

You're welcome to contact me if you require any more information.

John Clough
Technical Director
www.enhanced.co.uk

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By appacc
24th Sep 2009 11:21

Less paper

We just have a windows folder for each client and sub folders for each year with further sub folders for tax, vat, payroll etc.

One problem is the large build up of individual files.

We will keep a paper file for a discrete piece of work and when the job is finished, we will scan to a .pdf.

There is some duplication here which can be useful.

The .pdf gives you a history from start to finish but we still have the source electronic documents.

We then have a plastic wallet for each client. They are collected together in lever arch files. Normally the wallet is empty but we use it for work in progress and things that you will need next year.

 

I am really pleased with this progress. Have tried Sage Document Management but it's way over the top for a small office. Takes ages to index things.

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By User deleted
24th Sep 2009 11:23

Back ups when paperless

I am both at the moment.  A small practitioner so I don't have the benefit of an IT dept or a server.  I print all my tax returns and accounts to PDF but keep the emails in a filing system within Outlook which as someone else said means you get the whole thread.  I don't keep a full paper copy of the tax returns but do keep working papers.  My worry about being paperless is losing everything.  I regularly copy everything to another pc and every day I use automatic Junge Disk backup so that everything is accessible on the internet.  I have had my pc crash 2 years in a row, once at the beg of Jan (!!) and once beg of Feb so I know I have the backups in place, but what if the backup failed.  What measures of backup to those of you use who are paperless?

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By appacc
24th Sep 2009 11:32

Verify backup

Duplicate your office system on a laptop and restore from your backup from time to time. Then test that it works. Just don't do any current work on this version!

Then if your office PC dies, you can run the business from the laptop for a while.

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By pauljohnston
24th Sep 2009 11:52

paperless

We have been doing it since 2002.  99% is a better aim.  I would never go back to paper only

The things that we have found are very useful:

Set up a directory structure that starts off identical for each client (we have a folder called dummy and copy it for new clients)

have a principal papers folder for each client

Keep practice items seperate

use a system that keeps a paper trail (so that you can show amendments) like probizdigital.  This can also save your emails.  We have tried printing them and this works but is time consuming

Change your letterhead to a graphic image and use pdf factory pro.  This means that your computer produces an actual copy of the letter you send or scan the letter + enclosures before it goes out.  massive time saving.  Dont just keep the word file

Have a really good offsite backup that is completely automated and regularly check that it works

From a fee point of view make sure that you charge as if you were getting items out of storage for past clients (we have a min fee)

Two screens 17" min will make you much more productive

The better the scanner the more you will save in time.  Try and get an A3 scanner if poss

We have our outlook service thru www.1and1.co.uk which hosts Exchange Server for about £8 pm.  This means that if our Pc fails we can access our email thru another computer via the internet (great for out of offce use).  It also retains all emails.  Our computer guy advises that we can archive on our server when the file gets too big and look at the archieve via outlook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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By User deleted
24th Sep 2009 12:05

Sage Document Management

We are disappointed by this software. One of the main reasons is that it defaults to scanning files in tif format, rather than pdf. Lindenhouse informed us that tif scanning gives the ability to search the contents. PDF can also give this capability, but not when scanning via Sage Doc, so we have to scan outside of Sage Doc and then file into it, which is far more time consuming.

Pdf is much more user friendly (if you have Acrobat), tif files are difficult to use, eg. you cannot extract a single page into another file, or add another page in.

Anyone know of reasonably priced software that allows more flexibility in the use of tif files?

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Derek French
By derek44
24th Sep 2009 15:25

DocuSoft.net / PROBIZ Digital

TIF files are better from a legal perspective because they are non-editable and therefore a more robust way for storing records from the perspective of evidential weight in a court of law. We add behind each record an audit trail as part of the records system. However to send documents to others in PDF format is probably better so we offer a neat way to convert TIF to PDF when emailing.

TIFs have benefits in terms of indexing content (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) than non-text PDFs. There are downsides with TIFs when it comes to colour in terms of files sizes created, but of course much of HMRC and Companies House correspondence is fundamentally black and white.

Our own software helps ensure all members of a team store records in the same way for conformity across a practice, but this is of course not the priority for a sole practitioner. In general terms provided care is taken in storing records and you stick to sensible procedures then you will stay on the right side of any regulatory visits, whether you use TIF or PDF images for your records, and store Word documents in a way that you don't accidentally overwrite them.

We also store and index emails too, but again for a sole practitioner I think Outlook folders is a good option provided you always follow the same storing procedures to brush off any potential legal challenges.

In general, it is increasingly expected that records are in electronic format and firms are going this way whether they intend to or not. Just look at the amount now done by email.

So in short, start to go for it, and save that paper and ink.

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
24th Sep 2009 15:48

Derek TIF & PDF

Hello Derek. A client sent me 2 tifs the other day which were suposed to be different documents but she'd sent me the same one twice, so then sent the second.  To my & my server's horror I now had 3 documents of over 15MB each.

I opened them, converted to PDF & even OCRd them & sent them back to her as she wanted to share them around her colleagues at less than half a MB each.  In Photoshop I can & have edited images & text in tifs.

So I'll stick with PDFs and with the inevitable use of digi signatures I'm sure they will end up as the standard.

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By rosataylor
24th Sep 2009 16:19

paperless office
We have been partially paperless for a few years. We bough a software from fine print called pdf factory. There is free trial.
We use this like printing into a printer, convert the document into pdf and I can file it into my pc like I file into my filing cabinet. If I have a document that needs filing, I scan and print it via pdf factory and save it into my pc. I always shred my documents. Very quick and easy. I dont have to get up from my desk if someone wants a copy of my letter or documents, and instantly send it via email. I file everything in my PC. Have a look at www.fineprint.com

A member of Accounting Web. complained about my spelling and took the trouble of sending me an email.

Sorry if my grammar or spelling is wrong.

Hope I am able to help.

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By 41115BARRI
24th Sep 2009 19:31

4 Monitors

Hi there

What do you use to connect four monitors to each pc and does it work with a laptop?

Phil Wood

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By maryunderwood
25th Sep 2009 17:15

Response for Anonymous - Sage Document Management

 

  The comments whilst true in terms of content searching Invu generated pdf’s, are false in terms of not being able to add/insert pages to the tif document which you can by editing and scanning,  you can then reorder the pages within the document and also delete ones no longer required.  You can select one or more pages from a multipage document to email out as an attachment, as well as annotate pages. We would be happy to discuss further with you. The next release of Sage Document management is in the final stages of testing and should be ready for general release shortly. Following this Invu have started v6.3  for Q2 2010. The scope includes changes to the scanning functionality. The .tiff/.pdf discussion has been ongoing but you’re probably right re. .pdfA/.pdfX and digital signatures. The software will undoubtedly follow this.   Please contact us on 01223 492266.

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By vergil
26th Sep 2009 19:17

Maintaining Evidence for the Auditors

When performing reconciliations, reports are printed, individuals tick them off, add comments and sign. The recs can be done easily enough on screen (preferably on two) but the auditors require evidence that this was done and reviewed.

How can this be provided to them if the reports are only printed to pdf?

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