Documentation management in a big company

The bigger the company, the more documentation belongs to it. This supposedly basic fact leads to even simpler conclusion. With the growth of the firm, it’s getting harder and harder to take care of invoices, orders, offers or contracts. It leads to stacks of paper laying down all around desks of accounting department, where appears a thin line that separates us from losing necessary business documents. Does this sound familiar to you? If that’s the case, we encourage you to read this article, in which we will tell you how to manage documentation in a big company, how does the process of electronic management program implementation work and how to take care of papers and employees surrounding them.

Managing documents in a big company – what do you need to know?

Correct document workflow management in organization covers processes such as registering, structuring, classification and right archaization of inside and outside documents. Worth to keep in mind, that new company documents will never stop appearing. No matter how much we would try covering this problem under the carpet or going around it using short term solutions, we need to know this is a process which will be with us for the rest of the company days. There will never be a moment, when invoices will stop coming. Changes need to be made without stopping of the finance-accounting flow. It is recommended to adapt some of the tips that will make work with documents easier.

How to improve the documentation management in a big company?

First of all, the most important thing when it comes to organization management is implementation of document management electronic system. Those platforms can be integrated with currently running business process automation systems, personnel and communication management systems or Business Intelligent, which are designed to improve the company’s performance. The document management program is a necessity for global enterprises. Thanks to the system, an invoice doesn’t have to wait to be passed from one hand to another and our employee doesn’t need to think about which steps should be taken now. System is doing it all by themselves, making sure that tasks are completed in a right order and all problems reported to the right person with just few clicks. The costs of accounting are lowered and what’s more important data is easy to access at any time by authorized staff, while being completely prevented from stealing or losing. You can learn more about the benefits of electronic document workflows in an article.

The document workflow management in a company is supposed to be planned that way, so any downtimes and multiplications of tasks for one person are avoided. The whole process should be putted into control when any problems occur. When checking the documentation workflow status ask yourself few questions: Is the procedure entire lawful? Are documents being stored in a safe place? Are they categorized in a clear manner?

Document categorization is another crucial problem, that needs to be addressed. Documents should be placed and named in a way, so it would be quick to find them. Physical archive allows us to segregate data in a one way. We can do it by date, type of file or alphabetically, it depends on your preferences. When using electronic archive, the data sorting is build-in inside the system what comes very handy, since you can sort documents by any data accessible.

Setting rules for the employees

Perfectly polished system will not be any useful unless your employees will be following procedures. The comments about potential improvements or existing problems are always welcomed, however doing things your own way or “the way it used to be” will only make current situation worse. You need to make sure that your employees are fully aware about new procedures related to document workflow and don’t have any concerns. This also applies to personal data safety. Even though it seems useless to underline the importance of carefulness when it comes to personal data, the penalties for not fulfilling those laws are great reason why it is recommended to inform employees about seriousness of this problem. Those informations under no circumstances should be shared to unauthorized people or used for personal use. In case of document expiring, good thing to do, is to destroy it right away in the shredder (never throw it away in one piece). More practices regulating personal data safety is stated in the GDPR.

Implementation of electronic document management program

Implementation of electronic document management program can by one of the most revolutionary projects in the company’s history. Solutions like these can handle thousands of processes and employees, so you need to be prepared for a long execution time. Mostly producers of those softwares are by your side during every step, but it is recommended to pick a person inside your firm, which will be responsible for the implementation process. His main task will be gathering of information about every department, with every single document and flow process. It is best when this person knows the company structure and authorizations of personnel very well.

Pre-implementation analysis also means preparing report with all the requirements and needs when it comes to the system, as well as development of entire projects documentation with solution proposed. After complete acceptance from both sides, the implementation process begins for real, which can take anywhere between 2 and 12 months. The time when virtual workplace is being created is a perfect moment to prepare your employees about incoming changes and when the system is finished, to conduct trainings.

More about how to implement document management program into your company.

Taking care of paper tidiness

It is impossible to manage documentation effectively and in long-term without being systematic in action. Every activity like document keeping, their flow among employees, segregating, numbering, describing or digitalization should be planned thoroughly and executed continually. No matter if it is a piece of paper or digital record, remember to avoid multiplications of document.

Every document has its expiration date. After particular period of time, they lose any value and can be destroyed without consequences. It is recommended to keep in mind those dates and regularly get rid of files that are no longer useful.

Paper tidiness is much easier to execute when you use right tools. To organize and secure documents you can use sheet protectors, which can be putted into segregators or folders, which later go on selected place mostly shelfs. Shredders, laminators, binding machines or Esselte shelf can also be helpful. Some people can’t work without sticky notes or Self-adhesive tabs to make document categorization even easier. It’s up to you to choose whatever tools suits your and your employees needs.

Summary

Who has already operated with document workflow systems knows how significant of improvement is a business automation. The rational document management in a company traditional way, even when planned perfectly, will leave us with problems of physical nature that we can’t bypass any other way. The right papers categorization, getting rid of downtimes and safe data archaization won’t be as effective as in electronical systems. The document workflow management in a digital form will help us save costs, time and avoid countless mistakes.