Paper isn’t the biggest expense at your office. It probably isn’t even in the top 10. But when you think of all the ink, toner, and work hours that are spent dealing with paper-related problems, it’s clear to see why many companies can benefit by implementing a paper-free office policy.
Do you want to run a paperless office at home or in your business? Here are 4 easy tips to implement today:
4) Scan everything that comes through your office
A good scanner can be a life changing piece of equipment for your office. Scanners can be big or small or even handheld. By scanning all of the paper documents that move through your office, you can easily spread and share those pieces of paper to wherever they need to go without ever using a piece of paper.
Another advantage of scanning everything is the magical ability of the cloud. Upload all scanned documents to the cloud and it’s impossible to forget that important document at the office.
Today, many printers have a built-in scanner – including the large multifunctional printers found in many offices.
3) Embrace the 21st century with paperless faxing
For some bizarre reason, faxing still plays an important role in the business world and the legal world. Unfortunately, most companies can’t get rid of their fax number just yet. But what you can do is set up paperless faxing.
There are a number of popular online fax services that will take your incoming faxes and send that data to your email inbox in the form of a PDF. These services are ridiculously easy to use, save a lot of paper, and cost only a few bucks per month. Check out eFax and similar services to see how easy paperless faxing can be.
2) Electronic signatures
How annoying is it to receive a PDF document over your email, print out that document, scribble some words, and then scan it back into your computer and email it back? The process is ridiculously inefficient, which is why digital signatures are such a valuable thing to have in your office.
Digital signatures can easily be set up directly from Adobe Reader. Just look for the Sign button in the top right corner of your screen and click the Place Initials button or Place Signature button.
1) Use digital note-taking services
In all likelihood, the paper on which you write your notes is not a huge paper-waster in your office. However, digital note-taking apps can save both time and paper for your office. Try:
-EverNote
-Microsoft OneNote
-One of dozens of other note taking services
Together, these note taking services can unify your notes between home and the office while also drastically reducing the number of Post-Its you use on an average day at the office.
Yes, there are always going to be times when printing out stuff on paper is simply unavoidable. But by following the tips listed above, you and your company should be able to save a significant amount of time and money and embrace a (mostly) paperless world. Sorry Dunder Mifflin.
