For some businesses, getting organised might mean becoming a paperless office or having significantly less paper. It frees up physical space, is less of a fire risk, is easier to manage and secure, and lets you access data from anywhere, anytime.

Create an electronic filing system which makes sense for your business. Imagine how you would file printed documents in a cabinet, if that helps organise your thought process.

Ensure your business has a clear process, making it quick to save and find documents. It is also good practice to keep a master spreadsheet documenting all files; making it simple to search for a file, which may have been incorrectly filed. Such a spreadsheet can be created using the Excel Power Query and updated easily on a regular basis.

Remember, it is your responsibility to protect important documents saved in cloud storage, and we recommend either encrypting with a third-party solution (e.g. Boxcryptor) or using encrypted cloud storage (e.g. Sync or MEGA). For further information, read Data Security. 

If scanning a lot of paper, a decent scanner with an automatic feeder will be required. For organisations with less paper, a normal scanner will suffice. Alternatively, Office Lens turns a smartphone into a scanner: