How to Go Paperless - Untold Secrets about Going Paperless

Before you can start scanning all the documents, your task is to sort your documents by categories. This way, you can scan one category, shred it, and then move to the next one. There is a right, and wrong way to sort documents by category. The right one is by category and usages.

In other words, your main category can be invoices, resumes, study material, or anything similar. And then, you sort them by usages. Invoices are usually the most used category. Sort that one first. There is another way of sorting documents, and that is sort, scan and shred, or sort, scan and keep.

This is the moment to invest in the best scanner for going paperless, and that is the Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500. A good scanner is the most important part of your goal for going paperless. You can also take pictures of documents, and convert them into PDF documents. The new and shiny smartphones are well advanced to do this. However, we must note that scanned documents are clearer.

If you purchase good software for going paperless, you can get a plan that will store all your documents in the cloud, where they will be secured with a state of the art encryption. But if you like to keep your expenses at minimum at the beginning, just store all documents in one computer, and share the drive in the network of the company.

We would also recommend here investing in good PDF software that will help you edit scanned material. Wondershare PDFelement main features include editing scanned documents, but also pictures. You can also merge and convert standard documents into PDF documents. Think about it.

Now that you have scanned all the documents, it might be time to think to get rid of all the clutter in the office. You cannot fully go paperless until you remove the paper from the office. Since you've already sorted the documents in Step 1, this is the time to think which documents should be shredded, and which one can be recycled. Some files, like invoices and taxes, are best to be shredded.

The trick is to shred sensitive information, and recycle documents that do not contain sensitive and company-related information. You can never be fully sure what happens with the paper you give for recycling. If you've ever watched a movie with criminals, you know they shred the sensitive information at the second they get suspicious. Not to say that you are a criminal, but you don't want to share documents that contain sensitive information.

First thing you need to do now is sign up for electronic delivery of utility bills, taxes and finance reports. This is arguably the easiest step, which only requires that you shift your habits and change the way US mail delivers paper documents to you. Every bank and utility service provider now has an option for electronic delivery on their website. All you have to do is sign up. We have to note that e-billing and e-payment systems are different, depending on the company. But you'll get the hand of it eventually. It might take you a month or two, but you'll understand what is needed where.

And you also need to manage incoming paper. You can contact Earth Class Mail, as the company turns your physical mailbox into a digital inbox. Your mail is forwarded to ECM, and you get scans of every piece of document you receive.

There is another way, you can invest in a central inbox, a cheap metal one. Get every piece of paper into the central inbox, and use the top shelf for receiving every document. Once or twice a week, go through the top shelf, and decide what to do with the papers. It will take you five minutes. In most cases, you'll find junk mail that can be thrown away instantly, and then there will be documents you need to scan. Move them to the middle shelf, and then scan away.

With those two great scanners, you also want PDF software that can handle all the PDF documents you get. And since we already established that working with the best is the way to go paperless, we need to introduce the best PDF software. After you have the best scanner for going paperless, the time is now to invest in Wondershare PDFelement.

The software allows you to edit scanned documents, merge documents, create new documents, and much more. But the thing you want the most is the perfect, and second to none OCR technology. OCR helps you search through documents easily, and the technology not only searches between titles and document names, but also the body of the document. Simply put, there is nothing better on the market.

For companies, there are always confidential documents, some need to be stored carefully and some have to be shred to protect the business information. Or there are always papers which is no use at all and can't be reuse, in this case, companies should shred them and sell the shredded paper and recycle them. This is also a environmental friendly way.

Let's just state the obvious: not every scanner is a good one. When you want to go paperless, it is imperative that you invest in a quality scanner that can handle all your documents, receipts, and oddly-shaped papers you have in the office. What you want is a scanner from a trustworthy company, one that comes with software support, and much more.

Canon's CanoScan LiDe220 is arguably the best scanner you can get for home usage. The price is extremely low at just $90 - $100, and you can use it for scanning photos and documents. As a bonus, you can organize PDFs, and the software setup is minimal. The downside is that it does not offer 3D scanning. Mac users have reported several problems with the software setup, but you should expect some setbacks from a low price scanner. If you are looking for a budget scanner, CanoScan LiDe220 is your trustworthy quality scanner.