Most businesses and individuals start out managing their day-to-day activities using paper documents. But whether you’re storing tax documents, bills, receipts, contracts, or employee paperwork, keeping everything in paper form has severe limitations. Not only is paper costly and liable to damage, but it’s also an inefficient way to manage your information.
Anybody who has ever had to dig through several different filing cabinets to find a document can attest to the inefficiency of paper. The good news is that you can store your information using a document management system in electronic form instead. Here is our list of features and benefits that paper just can’t deliver.
Data Storage
Storing large amounts of information is extremely difficult when you’re relying on paper. Most big businesses quickly move over to electronic data storage after they have exceeded the limitations of their filing cabinets. But data storage isn’t just a problem for businesses.
Many homeowners now rent a storage unit to keep all of their documents safe. While it’s true that you have to keep prior years’ tax returns for several years, you don’t have to keep paper copies. Storing data electronically is easy. And when you’re using our servers to do it, you never have to worry about storage limitations.
Mobile App
Our document management system allows you to access your files directly from your phone or tablet. Having important information at your fingertips whenever you need it can come in handy. Pull up the last month’s sales in a meeting to impress your boss, or access the details of your employee’s contract during a performance review to give the best feedback you can provide.
Data Encryption
Technically, you can lock filing cabinets, but that only provides limited security. Our data management system uses data encryption to keep your documents safe from unauthorized access. In fact, it’s much easier to break the lock on a filing cabinet than it is to hack into data stored in our Cloud.
Full Text Search
Even if you meticulously label your files and filing cabinets, it can still take hours to find a particular piece of paper. With online data storage, you can use the text search function for instant results. Retrieving documents has never been easier.
Drag-and-Drop File Storage
Filing paperwork online is just as easy as finding paperwork. All you have to do is drag and drop your files into the appropriate storage folders. You can store hundreds of files in the same amount of time it would take you to collect a few papers, put them in folders, label the folders, and put them in the appropriate filing cabinet.
Scanner Utility
If your business still generates some paperwork, you can take advantage of an electronic filing system by scanning your important paper documents. Fortunately, it’s easy to scan large amounts of documents with the appropriate scanner setup. eFileCabinet makes it easy to store your scans in a way that makes it easy to find the documents again later.
Document-Level Indexing
Instead of using tabs inside of your folders to find the documents you need, you can use document-level indexing to keep your documents organized. Indexing your documents allows you to associate or “tag” documents using the same search term. If you are looking for a contract related to a large project, searching for documents indexed with the project name will immediately narrow your results. Searching for documents indexed as “contracts” will narrow it even further. And unlike the colored tabs on your folders, indexes never get separated from your files.
Folder Templates
Unless you’re an organizational wizard, you’ll appreciate the simplicity of having folder templates for your documents. Your average filing cabinet just can’t keep up with it. The best part is that renaming folders is quick and easy and won’t require you to find an eraser or whiteout.
Customer Support and Upgrades
Your filing cabinet won’t get upgraded unless you decide to spring for a new one. You also can’t expect anyone else to help you when a document gets lost. On the other hand, our document management solution provides you with customer support and upgrades whenever you need them.
SecureDrawer Client Sharing Portal
Keeping documents secure is especially challenging when you want to share paperwork with customers or clients. Instead of mailing documents back and forth, you can share files securely using our SecureDrawer client-sharing portal.
Workflow
One of the challenges companies face is managing the workflow of their in-office documents. Routing paperwork from one employee to the next inevitably results in missed deadlines, miscommunication, and lost documents. eFileCabinet provides an optimized workflow solution to keep your processes moving while still keeping your documents safe from unauthorized access.
MS Office Integration
Documents generated in any of the Microsoft Office applications are seamlessly integrated into our document management system. In fact, you can save your document directly to eFileCabinet from inside Microsoft Office.
QuickBooks Integration
We know how important it is to keep track of your financial information. That’s why the data that you create inside of QuickBooks can be directly stored in our data management system. And of course, we keep it safe and secure, too.
eSignature Integration
It can be challenging to take your paperwork online when you’re dealing with signatures. Fortunately, requiring a signature is no longer a reason to use paper in your office. Our solution seamlessly integrates eSignatures with your electronic filing cabinet.
Free Personal Account for Each User (in SecureDrawer)
When you need to share information with customers or clients, each user can have a free personal account. This allows you to keep their data secure while giving them instant access to the necessary documents.
Document Retention
Instead of having to go through your electronic files to rename, move, archive, or delete old documents, you can use document retention to automate the process for you. Managing your documents over a long period of time has never been easier.
Our document management system is many steps ahead of a paper filing system. Try a demo for yourself today by providing your contact information on this page.
But we’re not done. eFileCabinet has another long list of advantages over using traditional paper! Read Part II to this article to learn more.