Home Office Organization–21st Century Style

Go Paperless: The Best Home Office Solution

Home office organization can be pretty hard because we either have a small room, or just a corner or nook to use. Having to store lots of paper is out of the question. I know I don’t have room for rows of filing cabinets. I also don’t have room for multiple office machines like a scanner, fax machine, copier, and printer. Most of us have an all-in-one. It saves a lot of desktop and other “top of things” real estate in our home offices.

I’ve found an easy solution using my laptop computer and my all-in-one printer-scanner-copier-fax machine. Why store paper when there’s a wonderful nested-folder filing system on my computer that’s totally searchable? There is no good reason why every home office can’t be mostly paperless.

What Do You Need to Go Paperless?

You need a scanner that’s attached to your computer, and software that allows you to save documents as pdf files (so they can’t be altered) or text files you can edit, and photos as pictures. Scanners and all-in-ones come with the software needed for all the machine’s functions.

A flatbed scanner works fine if you don’t have much to scan. But if you have a fair amount of paper each week to scan, a scanner or all-in-one with a feed tray is essential. I have an HP OfficeJet 6110 with a feed tray. I use it often for faxing documents, but it can just as easily be used for scanning documents. I recently scanned one client’s file into my computer using the feed tray and it was great! I folded a load of laundry while the all-in-one and computer did the work.

Organizing Your Office Around a Paperless System

The only vertical trays I plan to have on my desk are “current work”, “to be paid” for bills, “to be scanned”, “to be shredded” and “to be mailed”. I’ve decided if it’s not going to be in use, paid, scanned, shredded or mailed, I don’t need it.

Well, there’s one exception. I have to keep the original, signed client service agreements which are paper documents – for now. When I can convince my state regulators to accept electronic signatures, those will be paperless, too. Those are filed in the top drawer of my filing cabinet as soon as I copy the signed agreement for the client and scan it into the client file. It’s the only folder in the drawer, so it’s easy to file quickly.

I use blank initial contact forms on a clipboard to jot down prospective client information during phone calls. As soon as the call ends, I enter the information into my CRM (Client Relationship Management) program and the appointment time into my Palm Tungsten E (my current PDA). My CRM program allows me to keep all notes about a client in that client’s file, so I have no handwritten notes lying around after I’m finished with a project. I scan the initial contact form into a new folder with the prospect’s name on it under the “prospective clients” folder in My Documents, and put the form in the “to be shredded” tray. That prospect’s file is moved to the “clients” folder when they actually sign the service agreement and make a down payment. I’ll shred when the “to be shredded” tray gets full, or have my son do it for me.

“Current work” will be all the paper documents clients bring to me and any handwritten notes I’ve taken during meetings. After I finish a project, the documents and notes will be scanned into the client’s file. Paper documents are either returned or shredded. I would love to take notes directly on the computer, but many clients are put off by that. Now I only do it if I’m working with someone who comes to a meeting with their own laptop and types their notes, too. Then we exchange notes, if needed, by email.

Any snail mail I get that I need to save will go in the “to be scanned” tray. I’ll scan it and then toss it or shred it.

Bills to be paid go into the “to be paid” tray and the contents of that tray are sorted twice a month. I do keep a paper monthly file folder for bills and receipts for my CPA. The IRS still wants originals going at least 3 years back, so there’s another place I keep paper.

I still have a spiral notebook I used to use to take notes, but now I use Notepad or MS Word to take general notes. I’m starting to use Google Notebook a lot. I sometimes write down messages from my answering machine in the notebook before I enter the information into my PDA. I can write faster than I can use Graffiti, and people talk so darn fast when they leave their name and number. Any calls I need to return go into my PDA to-do list along with the number in the to-do item. The prospect’s information goes into my PDA address book if I will need it in the future. My PDA is synced at least daily to my laptop to back it up.

Computer Back-ups are Critical

With everything residing on my hard-drive, keeping my computer backed up is absolutely critical. I’ll no longer have the paper files to go back to and reconstruct what was on my computer if it crashes.

I use SD memory cards to back-up my laptop. I have an SD card slot and all my data fits in 1-2 Gb. SD cards fit into a small lock box and a bank safe deposit box. You can also use USB thumb drives. They work just as well. CD-Rs and DVD-Rs don’t fit in a standard bank safe deposit box. I’ve tried. I keep my daily back-ups in the lock box in my garage (separate from my house), and my bi-weekly back-ups in my safe deposit box. I switch between 4 cards, two for daily back-ups and two for bi-weekly back-ups. If one fails, I replace it right away. You don’t have to use a safe deposit box for off-site data storage. A friend’s home safe or a second lock box in your neighbor’s garage is just as good. You just need an off-site location in case of a major disaster.

Other solutions include a second hard drive that mirrors your C: drive, and online back-up services that store your data securely on servers around the world. The upside of online storage is you have a really good back-up. The down side is your data is on the web and could conceivably be hacked. A spare hard drive is great if you can grab it on the way out in case of fire or flood. If you can’t, your data is lost.

Copies of important papers, like birth certificates, marriage license, divorce decree, etc. should be photocopied and given to a relative or friend out-of-state to keep for you. In the case of a catastrophic disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, you’ll have copies of these documents so you can get them replaced more easily.

There you have it, a way to get rid of too much paper in your home office. I hope you’ll use it.

Would love to have your feedback on this.

Sherri