More efficient with the paperless office

Industry 4.0: Eliminating paper in the office offers many advantages. Businesses not only save time and money, but they can also find digital documents more quickly. This requires a clear strategy.

This article is part of the special topic Digital Crafts

The piles of files are getting higher and higher, important notes are piling up on the desk, and an urgent invoice has disappeared without a trace. On stressful days, this scenario cannot be completely avoided, even in well-organized offices. Only one consistent measure can remedy this: Switching to the paperless officeIn everyday work, digital documents can be found not only faster thanks to a central storage facility, but also on the go from any device. increases productivity of all employees. And the cost advantages are already noticeable in the medium term: craft businesses not only save a lot Storage space for files, but also regular expenses for paper, printer, ink or toner. At the same time, the environment benefits from this.

Clear structures for digital order

To successfully switch to a paperless office, only three steps are necessary: ​​First, all existing digital documents in the company centrally and with a meaningful folder structure We recommend saving several Main folder with names such as "Invoices," "Quotations," "Orders," "Tax Returns," "Customers," "Suppliers," "Employees," "Products," "Documentation," or "Regulations and Standards." Several subfolders, For example, for incoming, outgoing and paid invoices. For offers and orders, a classification according to Product Categories or Customer names It may be useful to do this. A network drive or cloud storage is recommended as a storage location for all documents. For maximum data security, it is recommended to back up all data to a cloud storage at least once a day. Backup drive In addition, access to each folder should be restricted to employees who need this data for their daily work.

The second step on the way to a paperless office: The future transmission of all Documents and messages electronically – because digital communication is now standard in many areas. This means that offers, orders, and invoices can now be sent to customers easily and in a legally compliant manner by email. It is important that invoices contain all legally required information and that the Document cannot be changed subsequently The PDF format is suitable for this purpose. Communication with suppliers can thus be switched to digital channels.

Archiving old paper documents

Photo: © Thomas Busch

The last and often most time-consuming step is the Scanning and saving existing paper documentsBoth traditional scanners and apps that use a smartphone camera are suitable for this purpose. Scanners with Full-text recognition, so that keywords can be easily found later. It is also important to meaningful name for each document: The label should contain important Keywords or data which employees will later search for. If there is a legal retention period for paper documents, for example, for contracts, accounting records and invoices for tax returns, this should be strictly observed until expiration. Furthermore, with electronic accounting using software, the legal "Principles for the proper management and storage of books, records and documents in electronic form and for data access" (GoBD) to comply.

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There are now many apps and programs available that allow you to create digital documents – from letters to offers and invoices to digital notes or personal messages (see table). In larger companies, the installation of a Document management systems be useful: This provides many practical functions for the processing of digital documents – from digitization to audit-proof ArchivingFor the transition to a paperless everyday life to be truly successful, consistency is required: All documents should be created digitally and no longer printed. Mixing analog and digital documents often significantly reduces the overview.

Towards the paperless office

1.) inventory: In which departments does how much paper generate each week? How extensive is the company's internal archive of documents and files?

2.)  Target setting: What should be achieved? Where can paper documents be replaced by digital solutions?

3.)  Concept creation: How and with which means, devices and digital tools can the transition to the paperless office be realized? 

4.)  Legal certainty: How can all legal requirements be met during the transition, for example in the areas of accounting, audit security and data protection? 

5.)  Data securityHow can maximum IT security be achieved? Which employees need access to which data? What is the best backup strategy to protect against data loss?

6.)  Implementation: Installation and implementation of all measures for the transition to a paperless office. Training of all employees.

7.)  Improvement of: Daily use shows where individual measures can be further optimized over time.