Perhaps you have a “to file” basket, piled high with paperwork waiting to be archived. If there’s a possibility of your file being in the pile, you’ll have to shuffle through loose papers, hoping to find it. There’s no amount of color-coded labels that will help you if the document is lost in the no man’s land of the filing cabinet room.
Filing systems for physical documents can be so elaborate, that only a few in the office truly understand them and are able to sort through the chaos to find anything. So when these people leave and new help is brought onboard, they’ll likely be baffled by the complicated system and be at a loss when asked to fetch a specific document. There is a way to end the frustration of tracking down lost documents.
Eliminate Human Error
If your filing system relies on the expertise of few or can be rendered useless if a file is lost, then it may be time to reevaluate how your office handles documents. By transitioning to a paperless solution, you have the opportunity to not only save resources by eliminating the need for paper and filing cabinets but also reduce the chance of losing a file due to human error.
Folder Templates
An all-digital system opens up so many possibilities to revamp your filing processes. Document management systems such as eFileCabinet come with several quality-of-life features to help you never lose a file again. Your preferred filing system doesn’t have to be completely thrown out, just digitized.
OCR and Full-Text Search
Files uploaded to eFileCabinet are processed with Zonal OCR, to capture data from standard forms. You can program the system to automatically file different forms into the create location, and even create a new folder structure if necessary. If you’re uploading documents for a new client, the system will generate a new folder structure based on your template.
Having OCR capabilities means having the power to conduct a full-text search for your documents. You can search using any words in the content of the document.
Looking for a document for a client named John Smith? Typing in John Smith gets you several results, for multiple clients named John Smith, but you happen to remember that the one you’re looking for lives on a street called Birch. Key fields like address, income, occupations, and anything else are recorded and populate a profile of each individual document.
Portfolios
If you have a group of documents that you use often, there’s another way to have quick access to them. Portfolios are separate folders where you can add shortcuts to folders and files. You can easily add files and folder to a portfolio with the right-click menu.
Having a digital solution for documents means being able to take the chance for human error from filing important documents out of the equation. We still need coordinated filing systems to better browse our documents, which is why folder templates are still a big part of eFileCabinet, however, full-text search means having all of your documents just a few keystrokes away. In business, there’s hardly any time to waste, so having the power to bring up any document, instantly, is a great asset.
To find out more about how eFileCabinet can make it so you never lose a document again, fill out the form below to view a free demo.
