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In a large organization, pieces of information can go astray if you don’t have the necessary procedures in place for managing business documents.
Not only could this be costly to your business, but 82% of employees believe poor document management causes issues with productivity.
Whether you’re managing documents online or handling paperwork, you need to have the right procedures in place to manage your documents. But what should you be doing to take control of your paperwork?
In this article, we’ll look at the top five mistakes to avoid when managing business documents.
Contents
1. You Haven’t Converted Paper Files to Digital
This may seem like common sense, but so often businesses fail to make digital copies of important paperwork and items end up getting lost, misplaced, or damaged and the data is gone for good.
Back up your paper copies by scanning them. Then, make sure to save them as a PDF file.
2. You Have a Lack of Proper Indexing and Document Organization
Whether you’re storing physical paperwork, or you’re talking about the digital documents management system, you need to have a method for indexing and organizing your documents. Without a system, it’ll become impossible to find information.
Standardizing your folders across all departments will mean that anyone from your document management team will be able to access information when they need it.
3. No Document Shredding
Throwing out old paperwork in the trash may be common practice in your business, but it could be doing you harm. Your trash may be a treasure trove to thieves and fraudsters. The best course of action when it comes to discarding any paperwork is to shred it.
If you haven’t got the time or resources to shred your documents on-site, you may want to consider having them safely destroyed by a professional document destruction company.
4. Not Complying With Data Protection Regulations
Data protection laws are there for a reason and you need to adhere to them. Litigation issues occur quite often.
Failing to keep confidential records as directed in the regulations can result in costly lawsuits as well as damage to your business’s reputation. Make sure your company thoroughly follows the letter of the law when it comes to data protection.
5. Not Organizing Your Digital Folders
When it comes to digital folders, you should make sure you standardize names for files. Keep all of your folders in alphabetical or numerical order. Check out this blog post that explains how to organize your folder menus.
Mistakes to Avoid When Managing Business Documents
There are many different mistakes that should be avoided when managing business documents.
These include not converting paper files into digital, not organizing your digital folders, not complying with data protection laws, not shredding documents, and not organizing and indexing your files and folders.
For more informative articles, check out the rest of the site.
