During an ongoing pandemic, the market has become increasingly competitive. Companies are striving to attract new customers and maintain existing ones.
But they can achieve this objective by enhancing their efficiency and becoming more productive. So which strategy helps you overcome your competitors in the 2021 marketplace? The answer involves going green, going paperless! In 2015, some 18% of organizations only had successfully eliminated paper.
Therefore, you should also join the bandwagon. Like the Bank of America and The Austin Company, consider switching to digital documents. Here we’ve compiled a few reasons why modern-day organizations can benefit from eliminating their paper dependency:
1. Arrange/store information
Where do average employees start their careers in a company? The journey begins – usually – from the mailroom! But arranging/organizing files/folders physically may become a headache for anyone. Saving all receipts/invoices and storing information in binders often lead to lost files and wasted space. Also, finding the relevant document turns into a time-consuming job when there’s a lot of paperwork involved. Thus, go digital to streamline file organization.
2. Attract future employees
New employees are more tech-savvy and expect to work in a paperless company. You can attract fresh talent by switching to digital documentation of files/folders. Even the recruitment process doesn’t have to involve any paperwork from now on.
Moreover, you attract and retain employees by providing training on using the latest in accounting technology to increase their familiarity with paperless processes. Distance learning has made the pursuit of higher education convenient via specialized degrees, such as an online master of accounting program. Upskilling will not only help in going paperless, but it will also increase long-term profitability and growth.
3. Declutter the office
Excessive paper dependency contributes heavily to clutter on-site that disturbs the environment of your office. But you can alleviate this mess by adopting digital documents. Incorporating workplace digitization allows you to declutter and reorganize all files effectively.
These digital folders require less space than filing cabinets and heavy cupboards. You can also remove junk files efficiently with a single click without worrying about recycling this paper wastage or harming the environment. Also, switch to digital documents to decrease the amount of useless litter in your office.
4. Track your expenses
It isn’t easy tracking your expenses and monitoring how much the company has spent while dealing with a paper trail. Until the documents are delivered, you can’t even correctly observe your business expenditures. Sometimes, it takes a whole month before your commercial payments are visible.
So, the solution lies in going digital, ditching paperwork, and switching to mobile business data. It allows you to send/receive information in real-time and universally track your business finances.
5. Share more knowledge
A paper-based workplace often encounters annoying hurdles in communication. For example, traditional offices can’t effectively collaborate when there’s a long paper trail involved. But opting for paperless accounting enables employees to share information easily. Now, there are several digital communication tools available for workers that prevent people from hoarding information. Also, the cloud offers instant file-sharing options that facilitate remote workers to communicate in real-time.
6. Avoid future audits
While around 1 in 100 businesses get audited every year, it’s better to prepare for serious scrutiny of your financial records. Your business expenditures must have corresponding documents if you’re willing to avoid IRS-imposed penalties. Moreover, audits – usually – take several days that often lead to work delays.
Au contraire, digital records clarify your transactions and make an inspection easier for the authorities. In addition, it ensures transparency by showing the IRS you’re not involved in anything shady.
7. Make automate backups
How many times have your employees accidentally thrown away an important piece of paper? Don’t lose your documents ever again by going paperless! Electronic record-keeping allows you to make regular copies of data. In addition, the cloud ensures timely backups of your files/folders. That’s how you reduce the chances of permanent data loss to a minimum. Now, you don’t have to worry about pre-scheduling manual backups or losing essential pieces of information by mistake.
8. Faster communication
You can communicate more effectively with your clients by removing paper-based contact lists and using digital folders on potential leads. It’ll heavily reduce your postage and printing expenditures – making communication cost-effective. Electronic communication, therefore, makes a customer more accessible to organizations since over 89% of Americans aged 15+ use email regularly.
9. Protect against disasters
Accidents may happen in offices – fires, floods, or break-ins – that endanger your documents and information. You’re liable for damages in such cases that often lead to penalties. So, companies can stop keeping their records in paper format.
Instead, it’s much wiser to go digital and store your essential documents on the almighty cloud. Remember that digital channels aren’t 100% secure, but data stored digitally can be restored. So, data recovery adds another benefit to our list of reasons for going paperless. Although, you can also invest in cybersecurity to bolster digital security.
10. Protect the climate
CSR (corporate social responsibility) has compelled businesses to rethink how their actions influence the earth’s climate. Even though we recycle, an American office’s paper consumption grows by 20% every year! An average employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper annually.
The USA consumes 30% of the world’s paper alone. But being green doesn’t mean you should lean back on paper consumption; the solution lies in its total elimination. Hence – for the sake of your environment – go paperless!
Conclusion
It’s not feasible for every organization to completely eradicate its paper dependency. But even modest deductions may contribute to business success and improved efficiency. An old survey by Informit shows that a typical American employee uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year.
Thus, companies spend $80 on a single worker’s paper costs annually (according to 2009 statistics). These outrageous expenses alone justify why you must adopt paperless accounting in 2021. Also, going paperless helps you arrange your documents more effectively and automate backups. It promises environmental friendliness as well as better data security to businesses. Organizations can observe a sharp rise in their reputation too.
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