subject: Be File Wise [print this page] If filed not properly documents can get really nasty. For better office management and time management you need to have a proper filing system. You start by asking yourself a few essential questions is highly necessary before you go out for shopping.
What you rely on while retrieving matters the most. It can be your client's name or a reference no. sequence or division into various categories. For example bills, letters, receipts etc. separately handled.
Next you should ask yourself what volumes of documents are handled by your office daily, monthly, and annually. This should give you a rough idea on the storage space that is needed for your paper. Also, how often you need to access your papers.
For this your filing systems should have hot-sites and cold-sites. Hot-sites are basically made for those documents which need to be accessed very frequently. These are the documents on which work is being done currently, or was being done in the recent past.
So these hot-sites need to be within few metres of your reach. This can be done by having them located within your desk. They could even be placed in a file-cabinet within your room.
The cold-sites are off-location. Though they can be within your company's premises. These contain such documents that are no longer in use by the company but stored for historical record purposes.
So you need to see whether you have to create separate files for each category with colour coded divisions or whether creating separate drawers would do. Also it needs to be seen whether you want to buy lots of document binders to keep one type of documents stacked together or a whole room filled with compartments and drawers is needed. So divide and rule!
Investing in a new filing system needs a lot of time and money. But at the end of the day it is the efficiency that saves you a lot of money. So prioritize your paper today!
