An Organized Filing System is Essential
You or your helper has finally tackled that pile of paperwork on your desk. Everything is tucked away in the filling cabinet. Great! Now, you won't have to worry about those documents anymore. At least not until months or maybe even years later when you will need an important document that has been filed away.
Being able to go directly to a file or needed paperwork should be quick and easy. You should be able to know exactly where to look. Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to file properly. At home and at the office, if you do not have an organized filing system you will flounder at best. Enormous amounts of time can be spent thumbing through files to find that needed document that has been misfiled away for months or even years. Although your home filing system contains personal business and may differ a bit from your professional documents, the two filing systems will have certain factors in common. Both filing systems should have just that, a system. Each system should be developed and implemented based on the types of files or documents to store. In addition, the type of home/family or business plays a part in determining what system to use.
The system, how it is set up, is as important as making sure everything is properly filed in alphabetical order. This article is primarily about the system. How to file alphabetically will be a short blog to follow this one.
Here are a few pointers and important must do's for organizing a filing system;
For Your Home~Or Your Business~It Works the Same For Both
Some people like to set up their paid bills' files by the month. That is an okay system, and it generally works. Personally, I prefer a method similar to the filing system in the above photo. I have tried it both ways, and what I have found is that when I set up my system with monthly files, I struggled to remember what month a certain bill or credit occurred. So, yes,as time consuming and frustrating as it was, I had to go through each month to find the particular bill or statement that I needed. My preference is to set up the files by vendor (who was billing me,) and by categories for those bills that are not ongoing as well as other important documents. For example, look at the photo above-those files are category files. If you have a lot of files and you have at least two drawers in your filing cabinet, you may want to set up one drawer for vendors and the other drawer for categories. Try to set up any client or customer files in their own drawers or a separate fling cabinet.
Your vendor section should consist of a file for each of your utilities, credit cards, mortgage company, landlord, and any other bill that you pay on a monthly basis. You can label the files by the company names (my preference) or by the type of service or product; cable, electric, phones, etc. This type of labeling is especially helpful and saves space if you have more than one provider for any given service, such as one company for cellular phones and another for a land line phone. Organize these files alphabetically in a section together.
Your category section can consist of things such as permits, licenses, taxes, taxable receipts, shot records, home repairs and home maintenance, (those that are aside from the monthly services,) insurance policies and records, birth certificates, etc. Once you have all of your files labeled, it is important to file them alphabetically so that you can go right to them when needed. As I will discuss in the next blog, a proper alphabetical order does only file the first letter alphabetically, but each word or name is in alphabetical order.
Really, the only difference in a home filing system and a business filing system is that the business may have customer/client files. And, the home system may have health records, children's sports and school records.
Customer and client files should always be labeled with the customer/client 'last name, first name+date of last service on the tab.' It is of absolute importance that these files are filed in proper alphabetical order and are dated on the outside tab. The date on the tab helps you identify your oldest files for ease of moving out the old to make more room for the new. As a general rule, keeping the customers files in the current filing system for about two or three years (if space permits) is a good practice.
The most important contributes for a filing system that won't cause you grief is that it is well organized from the start, that it stays organized, it works for you-that you understand it, and that you can be consistent with the system. Additionally, that you will be able to find whatever document or information you need at any time, even months or years later.
When Your Filing Cabinet Gets Too Full~
Do you just keep adding new filing cabinets to compensate for the ongoing additions? No! You will spend too much money and run out of room in your office with wall to wall filing cabinets. In the office's that I have managed, I "thinned" my files every year. If the business operated on a fiscal year, I thinned my files at the beginning of the fiscal year. If the business operated on a calendar year, I thinned the files at the end of December or the beginning of January.
Here's how to thin your filing cabinets and how to organize the boxes so that you can still find those documents when needed...
At the end or the beginning of the fiscal or calendar year, label duplicate files for all of your vendors. On the label, be sure to include the name of the file and the appropriate year just passed. Then, move the bills and documents from the files in your filing system over to those files. Leave the original files in the filing cabinet for the upcoming year. Place the previous year's files in the same alphabetical order in a box that is suitable. Bankers boxes are perfect, and they can be bought at any office supply store. If you have had room to save a few paper case boxes throughout the year, they work well and do not cost any additional money. Go through your category files and repeat the process, labeling files appropriately for what you are thinning out. Be sure to keep any documents that you will need for the upcoming year in the current filing system, while only moving out documents that you know will be renewed in the upcoming year. You should always keep your previous year's taxes in your current year's system. You will need to reference the previous year's taxes when filing the current tax year documents. With a permanent marker, mark the box on all sides and the top with the type of documents the box contains, along with the year that it contains. For example, 'Accounts Payable-2014.' If you need additional boxes, repeat those steps until you have brought your filing system up to date for the new year. Store the boxes in a dry, safe place, that you can easily access when needed. You should learn how long you are required to store certain documents. Below is a helpful link on how long you should keep records on hand.
How Long Should I keep My Records
I recommend that when it is time to thin out your customer or client files, that you use a good sturdy, separate box, and pull individual files that are older than the number of years that you decide to keep them in the current filing system. Continue to keep these files in alphabetical order, and label your box, "Customer Files, from ______Date to ______Date. Also store these in a dry and access-easy location. I have had to go back three to five years to find a client file, and when the storage system is organized, it is quick and easy. When the old file storage system was not organized and not easy to access, I have spent as much as an entire day trying to find one important file. Time is money! So, you will save time and money by being organized.
Personnel files should always be kept in a locked manager's office. Be on the lookout for an upcoming blog on personnel files.
I hope this article helps you establish and manage an organized filing system. Be sure to look for the article on proper alphabetical filing techniques. Also, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have via the email link below. Happy filing, and more importantly, happy hunting for old files!