by Rhonda M.

Created on: April 14, 2005   Last Updated: April 08, 2007

Once you have began working in an office it does not take long to understand the importance of a good filing system. If you do not have one of these you are going to want to set one up. After all this is how you keep up with all your customers or clients as well as all your fees and bills. These are things that you will want to be able to find quickly. Being able to do this will mean having a well arranged filing system. How can you set one of these up for your office? It does not have to be that difficult as a matter of fact it can be rather simple.

The first step to deciding what type of filing system you will need depends on what type of items you are dealing with. If you are dealing with bills that are paid on a monthly basis you may need to fix a system with folders labeled with each set of bills and then arranged by date. If you are dealing with names you may want to file alphabetically. This will allow you to pull any files that you need to pull in a relatively accepted amount of time.

Once you have the filing system you need to form it is time to get the materials you will need to put the system into operation. You will need a filing cabinet, pocketed notebook, or book case. If you are going to use a filing cabinet you are going to need hanging folders. You may need quite a few of them so if you can buy in bulk you may be able to save yourself some cash. If you are going to use a book case you may need to invest in binders. These will be more expensive than folders. Thus this may not be the decison for you unless you simply need the information ever at your finger tips and in clear sight. The notebook will be the cheapest of choices. You can have the folders for the items you need to file and the paper before or after each of the pockets to keep important notes. This system only works if you are working with only a few items (5-10) max.

Now that you have your system and your materials you are ready to get started on making the system become workable. Color coding is a great idea. This allows you to immediately see which files are what you need. Then all there is left to do is look through those exact colors to find what you need instead of the whole shelf or cabinet. One way to color code is by due date for bills or by category of clients or in a case where you have a lot of files even by ABC order example all A's be a blue tab, all B's a green, all C's an orange, etc. This system can also be used for months of the year or numerical orders by each color representing a range such as 1-5 green, 6-11 blue, 12-17 yellow, etc.

You can also ask others how they arrange their information to get a few ideas of what works for them. If you think one of their ideas would work aside from a few factors use it and alter it to your own needs. A filing system is meant to work best for its user. This is the most important fact. If the system does not work for you it is a waste of your time to fix it.

Learn more about this author, Rhonda M..
Click here to send this author comments or questions.