Tip of the Day: Filing Systems

Ok folks. I am going to be honest with myself and with you here. Filing is not my strong suit. I admit it. :) I do such a large volume of data entry that by the time the entry is done, the thought of filing each separate credit card receipt or invoice is grueling for me.



I digress. You must file your documents. You never know when you will need to look up an invoice or bank statement. Trust me on this.



If you are a smaller business then you really do not need to create a file for every customer or vendor. You can "group" files such as using the A-C, D-F method. Meaning clients or vendors that begin with the letter A-C, D-F, etc.

Now, for my larger companies out there, I would recommend you create separate file folders for each customer or vendor. By the time year end rolls around you are going to have a large stack of papers.



That being said, technology has come a long way the last few years. Since I shared with you that I do not like filing documents, I will also share with you how I personally file my documents. I scan them onto my computer. I keep a folder on my desktop for items to scan in. When I get a few moments of "free time" :) I grab items from this folder and scan onto my computer so I can quickly access it at a later time. I do this with tax returns, receipts, bank statements, payroll, etc.



But I am not done here. About once a week I back up all of my data to an online server that I pay a monthly subscription. Filesanywhere.com is a great and cheap server provider. For 3.95 a month I have access to a large server space that I can upload, download, backup, fax, email, etc. It is fairly easy to use. I use this for each of my clients. It is 128 bit-Verisign SSL encrypted so your files are completely protected.



Crystal :)