Computors

[lorraine]

Having a company you have to keep 6 yrs of accounts, today, I was organising the boxes, 3 boxes for each year, 18 boxes of paper.
I know that big companies have different ways of keeping accounts, however my mind wandered, why can't we have a system, that takes a scan as we input, so we can get rid of the paper, or download the email invoice and keep it within the records in an orderly manner, thus ensuring we only have 1 box for 6 years.
Am I going to be shot down, is someone going to tell me the system, which shall it be!

We bought a new payroll system, because I had used the other from the same company since they beginning of time, and guess what, the new system, which is basic, has less on it than the system I was using, albeit it is for 10 employees, and a paid version, I have actually gone backwards.

[internetcynic]

Many companies have such systems, but many other companies wont grit there teeth and shell out for it.

I worked in IT 20 years, for a very large company, the IT dept alone was 200 employees. We were entirely paperless, as you describe. All incoming paper, ie mail, journals, magazines, delivery notes, invoices, etc were scanned and turned into pdf files, word docs, or email attachments and then the originals shredded there and then, and then emailed to the recipients. All internal communications was done electronically, even booking rooms, appointments, meeting notes, everything. The large seven storey office block we occupied had only one printer, a colour laser printer, per floor. Special permission for a personal printer was required. The only exception was a massive 48" x 36" inkjet plotter used to print plans.

Many companies have been run like this for years, but only large ones or local government. Its beyond most small companies due to cost or lack of expertise to implement.

SAP is the bees knees for this, a complete paperless integrated system. Its been used to run everything from small primary schools to the Exxon Oil Corps, because its fully and completely customizable. But you better have at least £100k to get started.

Even the crappy two bit fleet management company i worked for later on (6 employees) had a scanner and shredder, the junior used to sit there and scan in proof of deliveries and invoices.

[Besoeker]

Many companies have such systems, but many other companies wont grit there teeth and shell out for it.

I worked in IT 20 years, for a very large company, the IT dept alone was 200 employees. We were entirely paperless, as you describe. All incoming paper, ie mail, journals, magazines, delivery notes, invoices, etc were scanned and turned into pdf files, word docs, or email attachments and then the originals shredded there and then, and then emailed to the recipients. All internal communications was done electronically, even booking rooms, appointments, meeting notes, everything. The large seven storey office block we occupied had only one printer, a colour laser printer, per floor. Special permission for a personal printer was required. The only exception was a massive 48" x 36" inkjet plotter used to print plans.

Many companies have been run like this for years, but only large ones or local government. Its beyond most small companies due to cost or lack of expertise to implement.

SAP is the bees knees for this, a complete paperless integrated system. Its been used to run everything from small primary schools to the Exxon Oil Corps, because its fully and completely customizable. But you better have at least £100k to get started.

Even the crappy two bit fleet management company i worked for later on (6 employees) had a scanner and shredder, the junior used to sit there and scan in proof of deliveries and invoices.

Auditors, in my experience, like to see a hard copy trail.
I understand why.
I can scan anything and, without too much difficulty, alter it to show different dates or different amounts.

[lorraine]

Surely if you have the copy and the computorised system, then surely any cancelations later on would show up like a red light, you would then investiage?
People are using emails to send purchase invoices so the next best thing is to save them, they have to be reconciled with the statements and they can always ask for a copy from the other company using the invoice number and date.