How To Effectively Organize Your Office Space

While many offices are trying to go paperless, the fact remains that some paperwork is necessary.
Many business transactions require the proper paperwork and the IRS is just one organization that may require hard copies rather than electronic copies. If you have a small office you may find yourself running out of space to put all your paperwork. Organizing and properly filing your papers is essential should you ever need to find anything specific.

When faced with the dilemma of what to toss out and what to keep, business owners panic and keep it all. Years pass, until one day the storage room has overflowed. Documents are now lost in the massive piles around the office.
Management has the dilemma of organizing paperwork to prevent low productivity and direct failure of the business.

Barbara Hemphill, an expert on office efficiency, says that most small businesses dont deal with their papers until its too late. If there is one important piece of paper you need to find amongst hundreds if not thousands of other papers it could take you days to locate its whereabouts.
Management needs to take steps now to prevent this type of situation from happening.

Step One Towards Office Organization

Start by declaring an office cleanup day. All employees should pitch in and help organize any and all paperwork in the office. If at all possible schedule this on a day that youre normally closed to avoid any distractions. Paying your staff overtime for one day will be well worth it once you see the results.

It is possible to organize the office by yourself and even some true blue entrepreneurs have been known to set aside a day for the task.

The paperwork atop your desk needs to be first priority.
Organize by subject and then date. After sorting is out of the way, it is time to put everything in its proper place.
If file folders do not exist for some of the paperwork, then create some so there is a place for them.

Next, locate income statements, expense receipts, and sort them accordingly. Your accounting should be a priority.
Record transactions into an accounting system or ledger until youre current. If youre like me, you could spend the majority of your day just entering transactions.
Instead, end at a time that you can easily pickup from.

Once youve organized paperwork into file folders, youll need to assemble boxes or purchase crates to keep documents in. Your filing system will depend on the type of business you operate. Some businesses organize their files by the clients name, while others use job numbers. No matter what type of business you operate, you will always file your accounts receivable and accounts payable the same. All that matters is that you have a system to your filing.

Organizing your Computer Documents

Fire or water can wreak havoc on a business if either of these two hazards reach critical documents. Businesses have coped with these dangers by investing in scanners so that they can digitize their physical documents.

It is simple to file and access information stored on a cd, floppy, or even an external hard drive for the true techies. Whatever you choose to utilize, make sure to keep the storage devices in a fireproof safe or even off site if that is a viable option.

Online automated backup services are also available. For a small fee, you can backup computer documents to an offsite system. This is excellent for financial records. No financial business should be without a backup system.