5 Tips For Organizing Your Files At Work

A single business can create thousands, if not millions, of documents each year. Before you know it, you’ll find your employees buried in paperwork and facing cluttered, disorganized desktops. While office file organization doesn’t happen overnight, there are a few simple tactics that will get you on your way to having a more efficient, productive office in a matter of weeks.

Short-term And Long-term Organization

Employees must have both short-term and long-term filing solutions for their documents. If you find yourself surrounded by stacks of paperwork, most likely the majority of these files can go into long-term storage. Keep a short-term system, such as a tabletop rack, for current documents, like project files. Then, create a long-term system for papers that you need to keep, but don’t use on a daily basis, such as tax forms.

Color Coding Folders

Do your employees spend a lot of time and energy searching for the files they need? Create a company-wide color coding system to eliminate these issues. Make a list of file categories, such as client projects and monthly meetings. Then assign a color for each category. You can use folders in different colors or offer colored labels to stick on the top of each folder.

Streamline Filing Systems

The bottom line is that employees are never going to keep up with complicated filing systems. Once you have the color coded folders in place, encourage employees to create simple tabs and to order the files in a way that makes sense to them.

Regular Clean Out Schedule

The best way to keep a filing system organized is to clean it out on a regular basis. Set aside office time on a monthly or even a weekly basis so that employees can go through both paper and digital files. This time should be used for filing new documents, reorganizing misplaced files, and discarding documents that are no longer needed.

Document Management Software

A document management software system, like Square9 Softworks’ SmartSearch Enterprise Content Management (ECM) suite) that UCI offers, eliminates paper based filing systems, automates document routing and notifications, and heightens document compliance and security. It is also makes it easier for employees to share and collaborate, thanks to the integration of content management, workflow, variable data printing, and web forms management.

UCI is a full-service copier company in the Texas Panhandle that offers a wide range of copier, document, and managed services. Regardless of your specific office needs, we are here to help you in every way that we can. To learn more about our document management software and other document services, such as document destruction, contact us.