The goal of maintaining the best filing system is to find what you need just in time, no matter how old the business record is! The more organized the filing system the less time-consuming the search will be.
Generally, the files are stored in a local manner. It could be a company server, mobile, desktop, or laptop but good management will protect you from fatigue, frustration, and time-consuming process for seeking asked data files.
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Have you ever faced any of the mentioned struggles as a businessman?
- Receiving a query from a customer and while listening to them you can’t find the relevant document they are talking about.
- Any of the employees have resigned suddenly or have gone on sick leave but there is a scheduled meeting with clients, and you can’t locate the relevant files.
- At year-end, you spend all of your time filing to wind up rather on your business growth.
- A disorganized file system made you pay the fine.
- Missing tax deduction records.
You are not the only one to whom this sounds familiar. A recent search says that several businessmen revealed that six hours a week are wasted over extra work as a result of disorganization. Being disorganized not only spoils your repute but hinders your growth as well. Since the time that can be more constructively used in business growth is wasted.
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Basics of Digital Filing System:
You may intend to use any of the filing systems, the key to success is being consistent in maintenance and avoiding being disorganized. The purpose of the filing system is efficiently organized records of business activity. The need for a storage system is real. It could be any local storage system, cloud or your company can also provide you with this.
The idea of a combination of storage works the best and is commonly used as well. Just keep the maintenance and organized working intact through the process.
Ground Zero For Filing System:
The popular name used for this is the root folder in the system, and this is for a reason. It is a general base location for all the business documents.
It totally depends on your work needs and requirements. Mostly, for root storage location shared documentation is used.
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Sub Folders:
Your root folder has many folders inside it according to the needs of your business and work pattern. The main folder inside the root folder usually has all the details of clients, suppliers, and relevant business activity.
Within the main folders, there are plenty of subfolders that carry the details of each customer or supplier individually. This is the easiest way to be organized. Ensure to use simple terminologies to name your folders to make them easily accessible in your absence as well.
For example, you have your main folders named as Active Customer and under this folder, you have subfolders named as invoice and that is further divided into different years. This way it will be easy to locate if the boss asks you about the invoice record of the year 2000 relevant to active customers. Also, it will become easily understandable by others in case you are absent. Best Filing System is not provided, it is actually made with the above-mentioned instructions.
Files:
All the files made with necessary information based on your business activity should be maintained and well kept in the relevant folders to create the best filing system.
The ideal method includes the following:
- Every document should have a descriptive name.
- Smart and specific names will be helpful and less time-consuming at the time of the search.
For example, you have a new client named John and the file you are making is about the email of new terms and conditions. The name of your file should be self-descriptive because you can’t humanly memorize all the details of emails. Rather than naming the file as John’s email, make it specific by adding an email about terms and conditions to save yourself from fatigue in the future.
Moreover, it is one of the important things to share documents to an email or some other portable devices, in case the file is corrupted or missing by any chance. Make it a rule to name the folders as specific as possible before sharing them as well. Since the recipient you send the file will keep it under subfolders. If you name the folder as John’s invoice July 2000, this will save you and their time as well. Also, your best filing system gets noticed for a good repute.
How to Keep Your Digital File System Intact?
To keep your best filing system intact is another challenge. When you see no need for some old files, deleting them permanently is not a good idea. Rather, it is suggested to make a folder with such no longer needed files and name it as inactive or closed. You can even move them to a separate drive to keep the important files in front.
Conclusion:
To sum up the discussion, this can be said that the manual filing system is an old-school story when you can replace it with a digital filing system that is less time-consuming and saves you from hours and hours of searching. However, in order to keep it smoothly working the key is to be consistent in organizing and maintaining it immediately after you update or add new information about your business activity. We hope this post helped you to set your best filing system as early as today!
