Get Organized and Structured

It’s a virtue that’s instilled in all of us early on in life. Being organized is key to being productive, coordinated and prosperous. Our lives are full of essential documents we need to keep track of, and if we’re unable to quickly find them when we need to, it can mean a lot of headaches down the road.

Disorganization is the bane of businesses of any size. Every company needs to keep track of their essential documents not just as a good business practice, but a requirement of the law. If you need to pull up an old statement, contract, or license, and have no idea where it is or have a way to find it, that’s a bad sign. You’ll waste precious time and money looking for it, and if it’s really lost, you’ll likely face some consequences.

A structured, organized file system is key to finding what you need, when you need it. You’ll be surprised by how much more you’ll be able to do when you or your employees aren’t having to go hunting for a document.

Getting Organized, The Easy Way

Starting from the ground up, it will take some upfront work to go from disorder to a well-oiled machine. First off, you need to find a method of storing your documents, of course the most common for physical paper being a filing cabinet.

In order to make it work, and not just be a box where you randomly toss receipts, you need to create a filing system with folders and sub-folders. They need to be categorized and labeled in a consistent manner so they’ll be able to lead you to the correct file. For example, if you deal primarily in documents for clients, the most common method of filing is by client name, and having sub-folders within for dates, projects, or file types. The most important aspect is be consistent, otherwise, it’s likely that a document can get misfiled.

There’s an easier way to get organized, one that doesn’t involve repeating work. eFileCabinet is a document management solution that makes organizing documents easy and fast. Staying organized takes work, but it doesn’t have to take a lot of work.

Folder Templates

When working with an elaborate filing system, events like taking on a new client means creating a whole new record for their documents. However, if you already have a consistent filing system, you don’t need to repeat it every time you need to create a new record. Just do the work once by creating a folder template that you can use as many times as you need.

Design your preferred folder structure with sub-folders and names for everything. Along with the folder structure, you can add pre-defined file names. These commonly include spaces where you can insert the a quick name and date to a document you drop into the folder, ex. Invoice [Last Name, First Name mm/dd/yyyy].

Portfolios

Besides having a structured folder structure, you can organize the documents you use the most so they’re immediately on hand. You can favorite any documents to go into a portfolio where it’s only a few clicks away.

Now That You’re Organized, Stay Organized

After putting forth a plan of action, it’s time to enact it and stay on top of it. eFileCabinet makes it easy to stay organized, especially if you follow a one-touch strategy with paperwork. The idea is to only touch a document that comes across your desk once and not let the paperwork pile up. If you have a “To File” basket, you might as well relabel it “Procrastination Pile.” When it hits your desk, you review it then decided what to do with it. You can trash it, or approve and archive it. eFileCabinet automates the process of archiving it, so you don’t have to worry about spending time to file it, because you already did the work.

Zonal OCR

Scan and shred. For a physical document, all you need to do is scan it into Zonal OCR, which is loaded with templates to identify what form it being uploaded and the prevalent information contained in preselected fields. eFileCabinet can be setup to automatically file the document where it belongs in your system. If there isn’t a folder ready for it, then it will create one automatically. For example, if you have a new client, the system will recognize there isn’t already drawer for the client and will create one based on your preferred folder template. Don’t forget that this is all preprogrammed, so all you need to do is scan the document, then shred it.

Workflow

Say that a document needs the approval of a supervisor before you can archive it. eFileCabinet can do that. Workflow tools allow you to set up an automated office procedure, which tells the system to send the document to certain locations or perform certain actions based on certain parameters, including factors based on what’s in the document. If a certain checkbox on the document is filled-in, the system can detect that and automatically send it to an assigned user. More stages in the workflow can be added to send it to multiple locations.

eFileCabinet is your key to getting organized. It takes a little upfront work to get your system going, but our experts are available to help during every step. To learn more about how eFileCabinet can make you more organized, fill out the form below to view a personalized demo.