Image Source: Pexels.com
Workers use between 20% and 30% of their weekly working time handling paperwork or paper-based data. Switching to a paperless system can lead to many benefits for your company. Consequently, more companies are embracing more efficient strategies to handle their data and processes.
The following are the top five reasons why your company needs to go paperless.
1. Increases Productivity
As stated earlier, workers use between 20% and 30% of their weekly working time handling paperwork, which translates to 12 hours per week. Therefore, employees end up wasting valuable time they would have otherwise engaged in productive activities. Besides, research indicates that workers use a minimum of six hours searching for paper documents on an average working week.
On the contrary, workers who use paperless systems were found to spend nearly no time looking for paper records. Paperless or digital work documentation renders your workers more productive and enables them to finish jobs efficiently. Ultimately, going paperless benefits your business by increasing employee productivity.
2. Makes Payment Processes Faster and Reliable
If your business gives clients products on credit, you may have to send them an invoice at some point. Rather than sending paper invoices to your customers, you can use ACH processing to send the invoices and process payments electronically. This not only saves your business cash on postage, paper, and envelopes but also offers a fast and reliable method of invoicing and processing payments.
Additionally, you could also send an invoice through email, which your client will receive instantly, expediting the payment process. If you leverage software that allows you to generate and keep track of invoices, you’ll be able to manage due invoices effectively.
3. Promotes Sharing of Knowledge Among Your Workers
Exchanging knowledge between your workers is vital for the development and growth of your company. However, if all the information is kept on notecards, sharing knowledge can be impeded. On the contrary, leveraging paperless collaboration tools minimizes paperwork and promotes the circulation of knowledge among the workers. In turn, this enhances team spirit, hinders knowledge hoarding, and promotes innovativeness.
Additionally, paperless or digital tools allow workers to transfer documents, folders, or projects through any effective medium. In the end, your workers can collaborate through cloud-based systems rather than waiting for team members to send them paper documents. Ultimately, this allows your team to work on a project effectively and on time.
4. Eliminates Errors and Keeps Data Safe
Often, more errors are made when entering data in paper formats than when in digital formats. For instance, an error can happen due to misinterpretation or illegible handwriting. On the other hand, when using digital data entry, misreading and illegibility errors can’t occur. Therefore, going paperless can benefit your business by eliminating unnecessary errors.
Another crucial benefit of why your business should go paperless is that you can back up digital databases instead of paperwork. If a disaster like floods or fire, your paper records will be destroyed, and you can’t recover them. However, when using paperless records with backed-up copies, you can easily recover all your business records. Overly, going paperless can help your business recover from a disaster without losing any data.
5. Facilitates Easy and Quick Access to Information
When using paperless records, you don’t have to search for a specific record through piles of paperwork. A cloud-based record-keeping system allows you to access information using any device from any location as long as you’re connected online. For instance, if your business uses cloud-based accounting software, you can alter the information at any moment, from any geographical part.
Additionally, going paperless enables you to retrieve client data faster, leading to more efficient customer service. Furthermore, going paperless can allow you to send personalized email campaigns to clients rather than mailing them your latest offers.
Regardless of the availability of digital tools and systems for filing information, most companies are still using paperwork. However, there are many reasons why your business should go paperless. Some of the benefits of going paperless include increased productivity, faster and reliable payment processing, and easy transfer of knowledge among your workers. Other benefits include eliminating errors, keeping company data safe, and facilitating easy and quick access to information.
