Going paperless has many benefits for businesses. It can cut down on the costs of printing and improve your workforce’s productivity. A paperless office also makes collaboration easy between employees and with customers from anywhere around the globe. Plus, you can always rely on paperless business solutions to improve your data security by steering away from the inherent security loopholes in many paper-based processes.
In a world that champions environmental conservation, going paperless can be your business’ way of contributing to the cause. While there are plenty of solutions to help you with the move, choosing to go paperless requires some planning. You need to ensure that you can still uphold high-quality standards in your business processes and support employees’ productivity. It all comes down to the business solutions you choose.
Here are four tips that could help your business go paperless:
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Adopt Cloud Faxing
Faxing documents is an essential function of modern-day businesses. Faxes are required to send legal documents with valid timestamps and authentic signatures, lengthy and detailed contracts, and even business proposals. Often, sending such documents through traditional fax affects your business’ productivity.
Fax machines need maintenance and repairs, not to mention that they tie you down to a specific location. Not to mention, this makes it difficult to send out documents to remote employees. Cloud faxing allows you to send documents without any of the disadvantages, while embracing a paperless office.
With the right cloud faxing provider, you can simply use your email or existing fax numbers to share documents with your business’ stakeholders. You can also sign documents digitally, which eliminates the need to print them out. Most providers have a fax app that makes using the service easier than sending a traditional fax, especially considering the widespread use and access to mobile devices.
Create a Central Repository
One of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks of operating a paper-based business is that you need file cabinets to store physical documents and someone to accurately file them. It can be tricky to organize these documents and difficult to find what you want later. With a paperless system, locating the document you need takes seconds. It’s a simple matter of creating a central repository for your documents with a search feature.
Within a few moments, employees can find any information they need from any location. If you have integrate an archive section for long-term retention, the system is even more convenient. In the past, keeping digital copies of your documents meant scanning each one individually. But with the many document scanning apps available on the internet today, scanning and storing your data in the cloud is quite straightforward and seamless.
Utilize Paperless Payment Solutions
Physical checks can easily get lost in a pile of papers. You could also lose physical receipts, making it tough to invoice clients correctly. Cash-based payments also add a layer of complexity to business processes – you have to visit banks physically, and the risk of loss or theft is high.
Turning to tech-driven payment solutions eliminates all these issues. For example, if you want to receive payments directly from clients, use a POS system for in-store payments. You can also use online invoicing tools to track receipts, send invoices, and remind clients of overdue payments. As an added advantage, you can do your banking online securely with technology-based solutions to help protect your business from financial fraud and data breaches.
Use Project Management Tools
Gone are the days when bulletin boards were adequate to delegate tasks to employees. With the world embracing remote work more than ever before, innovative project management tools can improve task delegation and your overall workflow. Luckily, there are many online project management tools available today, such as Trello or Asana. Learning how to use these tools is easy and the benefits are great.
Conclusion
What part of your paper-based business processes would you want to eliminate? There will almost always be a tool online to help turn such processes into paperless ones. Your business stands to gain a lot from going paperless and finding the right solution for your needs is just a few keyboard clicks away.