You may or may not be surprised to learn that a typical accounting firm produces approximately 10,000 documents and emails per year. On top of that, a typical accounting firm is also receiving in excess of 50,000 documents and emails per year for every Partner in the firm.

Paper based systems struggle to cope with the shear volume of this and more and more firms are turning to software for a solution. While Windows Explorer is a commonly used alternative to paper filing, it is a bandaid solution at best and definitely not a long term method of managing such a large volume of documents and emails.

Any system that bases its storage and retrieval of documents simply on saving to and later browsing through a folder (directory) storage system is nothing more than a large ‘virtual’ electronic filing cabinet. The documents are there, but they can be slow to find, and are easily misfiled and are not sufficiently managed and controlled.

In the context of an accounting firm, a Document Management System should facilitate not only the filing of documents, emails, scanned mail and clients’ MYOB files, but it should also facilitate the creation of documents from standardised templates used throughout the firm. Imagine the efficiency gains and peace of mind that is instantly achieved by setting exactly what a document should be named and where it should be filed, for each template your staff members create documents from. You can eliminate the need for a team member to do a ‘Save As’ and click their way through a folder structure to decide where to file a client document, and what to name it.

These are just some of the things that an accounting firms’ Document/Knowledge Management System should be capable of doing. For more information on what a Document Management System could do for your firm, email us at hownow@businessfitness.net