We're delighted to MTD (Making Tax Digital) prompted so many businesses to review their accounting procedures. For those of you who would still like a hand to do so or take it further then please do get in touch.

But are there any other systems that can be moved away from paper?

Document management system

Often it's just a case of not printing out the documents you created but defining an online filing system for Word, Excel, and PDF items. You might want to invest in a document management system for maximum searchability but even ordinary File Managers are quite powerful. Storing these in the cloud with OneDrive, GoogleDocs etc. can make them accessible to your whole team if you wish to share them.

When devising a filing system you should bear in mind how often documents are retrieved and ensure that filing time does not outweigh retrieval time.

Software

Sometimes additional software is required:

• If you're not already doing it then we can recommend software for your purchase invoices and receipts to be automatically uploaded into your accounting software through a photograph, a forwarded email or a scan. The invoice will be stored electronically as well as creating the accounts record.
• Can you keep an online appointments system which works with your CRM?
• Can you schedule and keep a record of staff hours? (See Deputy). It may be possible to like this with your payroll software too.
• Can any site inspection documents completed and stored electronically?
• Can your clients book appointments online? (see Calendly for a free tool)
• Can your team share work and ideas online? (see Trello, Slack, Asana)
• What about meeting records? We're communicating much more with Zoom and Teams. If you record a Zoom meeting (do let the participants know) you will have a record of these meetings. If you need a text record then you can use transcription software with the saved audio file.
• Online signatures can save printing out reams of paperwork for contracts. Signable is UK based so complies with GDPR.

There are all sorts of possibilities which can help you to operate remotely, more efficiently, and reduce your environmental footprint.

Post in

Any paper post will need to be scanned. Depending on your volumes you might want to invest in a fast feed scanner or just photograph single documents.

Legacy paperwork

Old paperwork can be scanned OR you can just move to paperless from today and gradually archive the paperas time passes.

There are so many ways you can go paperless and, as always, we'd love to help your business efficiency and sustainability.