Steps Towards a Paperless Office

Over 20 years ago, when the explosion in personal computers for both office and home use exploded, expectations that we would all be working in offices that were paperless, or almost, were high. Instead of having filing cabinets in rows, shelves stacked high with box files and paper trays, we were all going to have clutter free work spaces, with everything saved, stored and sent by computer.

Today we have moved on greatly in terms of the capability to have a paperless office – hard drives, portable USB sticks, DVD and CD burners in new PCs as standard, scanners, software for storing and organising scanned documents, and the ability to send faxes through the computer rather than having a fax machine. Surely now we all have paperless offices by now? Of course it hasn’t quite happened like that...

Changing Methods

In order to move at least some of the way towards a paperless office, it is no good just having the software and the gadgets available – we need to change the way we work to become comfortable with using them. It is virtually impossible to do away with all paper records; tax and national insurance and VAT records need to be kept for at least seven years and the requirements are usually for hard paper copies, either stored in your central office, or kept with your accountant. Most businesses end up doing both.

Although scanning documents or saving electronic documents makes it easier to search and find them, the potential for computer hackers can prevent some personal and sensitive documents from being stored electronically.

Most often, however, the real reason why we don’t have a paperless office yet is that we just haven’t got round to it.

Steps Towards a Paperless Office

One way to motivate yourself to become paperless is to think of the personal benefits, as well as the benefits to the environment. Using less paper means buying less paper – although you will need to set up data storage systems and backup systems, which involves an initial outlay, once these are in place they probably won’t need to be replaced for a few years. If you calculate how much you spend in a year on paper, the overall savings could be significant, particularly for a larger company.

Space is another important factor; even the small office can benefit from clearer working surfaces, shelves to store things other than stacks of unfiled paper and you will feel less cluttered working in an office that is more open if it doesn’t have six filing cabinets along the wall. Space is often at a premium in home offices too – where paper might end up relegated to boxes. Many people waste hours searching for that elusive receipt or bill – because they haven’t the proper system or space to file away paper documents.

Developing New Habits

Once you have decided to reduce the use of paper, you need to write down an obvious action plan to show where you will act first. Setting up a storage system and back up location for all incoming and outgoing faxes, for example. Never printing emails – another storage system and back up for those you want to keep. Bills and receipts can be scanned, turned into PDF files and organised and backed up. Most suppliers and contractors and clients will accept electronic invoicing now – so these need never be printed apart from when you need tax information for your accountant.

It is possible to take several steps towards a paperless office but still to accept that some paper will end up on your desk. It is good to be ruthless about whether you still need the individual pieces though – throwing print outs away when they are finished with – and recycling the paper you have used on both sides – is the most ecofriendly way of dealing with temporary paper documents. Going through filing cabinets on a regular basis is also essential. Something that seemed vitally important at the end of one year, may no longer be needed a year later, so files can be continually slimmed down.

Getting Used to Less Paper

In the early stages, using less paper can mean extra work setting up the electronic systems that will eventually make work and life easier. It takes a few months to change long-held routines and habits but once they are changed, they start to feel like second nature. Keeping an eye on that paper account, so that you can see your expenditure going down over time can also help motivate you to keep up the good work.