Have you ever considered how much it costs your business to use paper? We hardly think about it, but businesses spend a lot of time and money moving paperwork around. Even though the concept of the ‘paperless office’ is not new, in fact analysts have been predicting the arrival of the paperless office for more than two decades; it’s yet to take full effect.
In almost all areas of business, it’s now possible to get rid of paper entirely. Digital documents are simpler, easier to store and send, more searchable and more versatile than paper.
And yet many businesses have a long way to go before they become paperless. In this guide we’ll look at the benefits of digital documents, and how you can reduce your paperwork to help you run your business more efficiently.
Ok, so before we look at the benefits of going paperless, it’s worth understanding why paper is still so common. For one, we may need to send out official headed letters. You may be required to keep paper copies if the government demands it. We like to have a paper payslip, but are they really necessary when a digital version is just as accessible?
Paper is cheap and easy to distribute. However, that’s only part of the story. Once you start paying for printers, toner, servicing, maintenance, connectivity, cabling, user support and all the other associated costs, paper starts to look more expensive. And that’s before you consider the cost of document storage!
Paperless solutions
Going paperless is more beneficial than it might first appear. Here’s what can happen when a business starts to cut back on paper.
• Cost reduction
You will save money on printing, postage and associated costs. You could even pay less rent – because you won’t need all that space for your files
• Fast access to information
Your digital documents can be stored, retrieved, indexed and searched much faster than paper ones.
• Faster communication
Paper mail takes a day to arrive – if you’re lucky. Emailed documents arrive within seconds. At a time when businesses need to move swiftly, getting rid of paper can give you a helpful burst of speed.
• Simpler disaster recovery
An entire company’s documents could be stored on a single laptop instead of rooms of shelving. If there’s a fire or flood, recovery from a backup is much easier with digital storage than with paper.
What about considering all your business processes in one paperless system? Imagine being able to streamline your sales process, whilst expanding your market!
• Save time
Processing your orders via using a software option will accelerate your order processing up to 80% by reducing manual routing and order handling time.
• Reduce costs
By reducing order handling time, you will reduce costs by lowering your order-to-cash processing costs while reducing stored data costs via electronic archiving.
• Happier Customers
Free up staff time up to 65%, allowing staff members to focus on more value-added tasks such as customer service. Meet customer requirements more effectively, respect SLAs and priority orders, and maintain high customer satisfaction rates throughout the entire order cycle.
• No More Errors
Increase data entry accuracy up to 99% and prevent lost, duplicate or misplaced orders by keeping them electronic. Less human intervention should also reduce error rates, which saves time – and therefore money – and improves compliance.
• Full Control & Visibility
Oversee your inventory, production, finances and sales forecasting with ultimate control and visibility.
• Expand your market!
Have the opportunity to process orders from anywhere on the globe! With order processing online, your location is limited only to your product shipping area and to costs customers are willing to pay to receive your product in their location.
So…..
Utilising accounting software can enable companies to go ‘paperless’ and gain access to wide range of additional benefits for businesses, simply because it makes the business easier to run. This ultimately will result in more time for more crucial aspects of your business.
Using software really can be an all-in-one solution that provides everything a business needs: affordability, ease of use, credit card processing and more. You can process 100% of your orders regardless of how they arrive — paper or electronic. As well as being able to track when a client has viewed email invoices, taking the mystery out of whether the invoice has reached the customer.
If you choose the package carefully, investing in accounting software and going paperless can be one of the best decisions you can make for your businessr