by Charles Simmins

Created on: February 18, 2009   Last Updated: November 12, 2010

The advantages of going paperless are compelling. Look around every office, every business and what you see more than any other item are stacks of paper, files full of paper, machines for writing on paper. Many employees never work with another person, just reams and reams of paper coming onto their desk and being taken off their desk.

For three thousand years people have been writing information down and then filing it. From clay tablets to papyrus to linen to paper made from wood, people have been producing, using and storing information in hard copy form. All we know about some civilizations are the written records they left behind.

The modern business runs on paper. Time cards record employee working hours. Copiers churn out reams of printed material for distribution, comment and filing. Accountants print spreadsheets and balance sheets and worksheets. A visitor from outer space could conclude that the major reason to go into business is to accumulate paper.

The best way to reduce the amount of paper is to not to use so much. Printing errors, copying mistakes and unnecessary duplicates all add to the mountains of paper but are not needed. Pause before sending a document to the printer and make sure it is what you want and formatted the way you want. Check the settings on the copier before pressing the start button, and only make the fewest number of copies you might need. Consider who must have the document that you have created and who does not. All of these steps reduce the built-in waste factor of business paper use.

The next area to look at in order to go paperless is which documents can be viewed by computer. Instead of printing a spreadsheet, it can be e-mailed to those concerned. E-mails do not need to be printed out because e-mail software can easily archive e-mails. A slide presentation may actually look better if made available on a computer network and it also allows the viewer to proceed at their own speed not the speakers.

Many copiers and multi-use printers now have the ability to scan a document to an electronic file. Accounts payable can tie an electronic copy of an invoice to a check, and the backup will never be lost. Receivables and collections can access customer bills, and e-mail them directly to the customer while obtaining a record of the receipt.

Employees can log in and out via computer and the old time clock can be taken off the wall. Those hours can electronically feed directly to payroll or to a foreman for review and approval.

Look around the paperless business. Clean desktops, no piles of reports, no file cabinets. There is more room. Information is easily available and easy to find. People work with people and not paper. Those are the advantages of going paperless.

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