Towards the paperless practice - update

Posted by AccountingWEB PM | on Thu, 05/05/2005 - 10:10 9417 5 comments

For many accountants in practice, dealing with a mountain of paper can be costly in terms of both time and money. For larger firms, that includes the cost of renting storage space for archives, or paying for an off-site outsourced archiving service. And how many of us have wasted hours searching for missing files, at the expense of the timely client service we strive to provide?

However, the technology is now available to create the truly paperless office.

Continued...

Size of practice

AnonymousUser | Tue, 25/05/2004 - 20:53 | Permalink

Can anyone comment on what sizes of practice these products might be suitable for?

some packages will suit any size of practice

MarkRyan | Wed, 26/05/2004 - 21:29 | Permalink

Document management systems can be cost-effective in practices ranging from the smallest to the largest

I have clients with fewer than 20 team-members using document-management systems.

I run a small consultancy and use a document-management system myself.

The cost-benefit really depends upon your needs.
Think security, remote workers, sharing documents, etc, etc.

Be careful with some of the systems mentioned. You'll only see full functionality if you use the named vendor's practice management system. Others are more forgiving...

If you want a chat, please drop me a line

Mark Ryan
Mark@Cynare.com

Let's go back to the good old days (BC)

MarkRyan | Fri, 02/05/2003 - 18:38 | Permalink

I used to drive a 14-year-old car which was rather less reliable than my current one
I expected the old car to break down at least once a week and ran my life accordingly.
I grew weary of the breakdowns (and the fact I was regularly overtaken by milkfloats and bicycles) so invested in a modern, safe, fast, reliable (shiny) car.
(I also pay a motoring organisation around £43 per year - just in case)
My life is now better
You can apply the same logic to everything in life (including computer systems)

I can easily fit a CD into my pocket and I can't fit 4 filing-cabinets into my car (whew)
However, my mate has a van...

If we replaced the 4 filing cabinets worth of information with slate tablets, it would weigh around 32.456 Tonnes (far too much for my mate's van.)

Better still - why not return to carving patterns in rocks.
Not even the largest lorry on our roads would then be able to steal my data.

ps. Keep up the good work Nigel!

Paperless for the brave....

AnonymousUser | Thu, 01/05/2003 - 21:21 | Permalink

Paperless is all well and good...until you get a problem with your computer network just as you are trying to find some crucial information for a client from their file...or until the server dies, and you realise that the backups haven't been working properly...or until you get a virus that corrupts files...

These are all far more common occurrences that your filing cabinet bursting into flames.

How much easier is it for an employee to steal thousands of computerised files saved onto a CD, than to wheel out 4 filing cabinets?

IT Still isn't as reliable as paper.

think about a Librarian!

pauldruckman | Wed, 30/04/2003 - 19:14 | Permalink

I have edited the series of articles in Chartech News referred to in the piece above and it has been an interesting process. One issue that concerns me is that we do not have the requisite cataloguing skills either as Chartered Accountants or as administrators in business. The specialist skills of a Librarian are prevalant in most of the successful "paperLESS" businesses I have encountered.