Although computers have existed in offices for over 3 decades there are still a huge number of people who have failed to computerize all of their documentation and still have storage rooms full of reams upon reams of paperwork. I am not here to judge as we were in the exact same boat until around 4 years ago when we finally decided to bite the bullet and get all of our paperwork onto computers, the only paper documents which we kept were the important contracts and those with signatures.
Make no mistake this is a big job which will take a long time to complete, but it is most certainly a job which is worth doing. If you are considering getting this done then here are the benefits which you can count on when you do.
Audits
If you get an audit such as a tax audit or any other external audit then you need to know that you can access all of the right information at the right time, and do so with speed. Honestly if this had happened to us 5 years ago the team would probably have just left because of how long it took for us to find paperwork. Since we switched it all to digital however we are able to access all manner of information and files in a heartbeat.
Space
Around 4 years ago the staff got themselves a new cafe which was almost double the size of their old one. This room which they are now occupying used to be where we kept the paperwork and since we cleared it all out, the staff are no table to enjoy this new space of theirs. The files and the paperwork which we did keep actually fit into a single filing cabinet, quite different from the huge room which was used in the past to store all of this information.
Staff Happiness
My team were absolutely overjoyed after we updated the way in which we work and switched everything to computers, and not only because they got a new cafe out of it! The staff have all spoken to me since the switch and told me just how much they loathed looking for files and paperwork in that room, how much they hated the mess and the disorganization. Most importantly they have spoken to me about just how happy they are now that they have all of this information digitally and honestly I never realized it would make such a difference to how the staff felt in the workplace.
Security
The event which encouraged us to make this change was a fire in a neighboring office, I started to think about what would happen if our place had an incident and we lost all of that paperwork in the flames. This is another massive benefit of switching to digital versions of your paperwork and it will ensure that even in the event of something like a fire, all of that information will remain safe.
