SMEs: Go paperless with expenses and never look back!
Health and safety awareness has come a long way in the past few decades. Yet, millions of office workers surround themselves with an avoidable fire hazard on a daily basis without second thought: paper. Stacks of paper in an array of filing cabinets, with more in cardboard boxes hidden away from sight just in case. Many businesses lag behind in adopting paperless systems due to years of status quo.
Not only is paper a fire hazard, it also makes maintaining a viable backup impossible. Moreover, paper documents are vulnerable to physical breaches. HMRC currently requires backup going back six years for VAT returns, for instance. Yet, it is unlikely that any business keeps additional backup copies of each receipt used for reclaiming VAT on expenses in the last submission. Not to mention how hard it would be to locate each receipt in case of a review!
In a nutshell, paper is an expensive and inefficient medium. In an ideal world, with the technology available today, every business would choose to go paperless.
The foremost advantage of going paperless is the ease of storage. Forget filing cabinets, everything can be stored digitally and even in the cloud. In the case of a physical breach or an unfortunate disaster, layers of security credentials, encryptions and cloud storage will keep the data safe. Hence, the processing, sharing and finding of documents is secure and simplified in a paperless office.
Furthermore, access is almost instantaneous and possible from virtually anywhere with an internet connection. This opens the doors for remote and flexible working. Moreover, if an employee is away on a business trip and their expense approver, for example, is at an investor meeting abroad, the expense approval and expense reimbursement can be done remotely. After all, simplified expenses are bound to make employees a lot happier!
When everything is paperless and digital, there is an indisputable audit trail. Gone are the days of running after people to sign and initial hard copy documents. In a paperless office, layers of processes can be simplified to increase efficiency and effectiveness! Even if a business is not yet required to be externally audited when it decides to go paperless, it would help to have the paperless processes grow with the business. The time saved on administration and bookkeeping can go towards more productive endeavours.
In a world where customers, suppliers, contractors and even regulatory authorities are increasingly going paperless, keeping paper copies is actually counter-intuitive. Why waste time and money on printing something that was received electronically? By deciding to go paperless, you can cut the cost of printing by purchasing fewer reams of paper and toner cartridges. Moreover, the opportunity cost of administration, including filing, can instead be channelled to more productive and efficient running of business. Lastly, going paperless is often not as expensive as you might fear. Most mainstream accounting software are capable of storing backup electronically. Moreover, it is simple enough to find an app to manage expenses that all employees could have on their fingertips!
It is also great for the environment, so why wait? Go paperless and never look back!
Request a free demonstration with no obligation of Access Expense, the cost-effective and easy-to-use expense management software from Access. Chat through your concerns with one of our expense experts and see how we can help with the transition from paper-mountain to paperless!
