10 Ways Document Management Helps Your Accounting Team Better Control the Business

With the rise of corporate organizations and multinational businesses, the importance of keeping the workplace as efficient as possible cannot be denied.

The same can be true for accounting—a field with its own layers of complexity and challenges.

However, one of the areas accounts have benefitted greatly over the last couple decades is the paper trail of documents.

Although it might seem insignificant, accountants understand the burden caused by the transfer, organization, and maintaining of paper documents.

It is from here that the introduction of document management, especially in the modern electronic age, began to rapidly increase in innovation, thus creating great benefits for countless fields.

In accounting, the benefits are undeniable and range from ease of access to internal security, all of which can help increase control of the business.

Benefit #1 – Enhanced Integration

With an abundant paper trail of invoices, documents, tax records, and much more burdening the typical accounting department, incorporating a document management system could be a great relief.

One of the most important ways that document management can help one gain control of the business is through enhanced integration.

Essentially, integration in this context refers to the ability to shift old systems into newer systems/environments.

To enhance integration is to create a framework which can be reliably followed so that the process is smoother.

Various document management systems can help greatly in the integration process. An electronic process for converting typical “Word” files into “PDF” files can create an increase in compatibility when entering a new method of functionality.

Traditionally, paper documents would remain burdensome, difficult to preserve, and ultimately needed to be scanned for duplication and copying purposes.

Benefit #2 – Preserving Documents

Electronic documents have numerous benefits over those kept strictly in paper format.

Disaster can strike at any moment in a number of ways. From fires to floods and everything in between, it does not take much for paper to be permanently destroyed.

With electronically-held documents, on the other hand, they can be kept in hard drives and USB sticks, providing, at the very least, one extra layer of security and protection. Although these are still susceptible to the elements, there is the added benefit of being able to digitally copy and duplicate, and then send electronically via email or other methods.

Additionally, modern document management systems actually utilize clouds—which are online stores of digital information. Whatever is kept in-house on a server or USB or hard drive can also be backed up on a remote location in the cloud.

Benefit #3 – Securing Audits

As a standard in accounting, audits are commonly observed and served a vital functions. Maintaining security and transparency cannot be overlooked, especially when it comes to handling finances.

From this foundation, auditing is an additional layer of discretion and security, creating the conditions for a wide range of checks and balances. Additionally, keeping a paper trail of audits regarding certain documents is essential for any valid record keeping.

Modern document management systems can keep digital tracks of every time a document is altered, edited, or tampered with. This creates a level of security and surveillance over what are, in some cases, even legal documents—which is truly invaluable.

Benefit #4 – Improves Workplace Cooperation

An improvement in workplace cooperation is greatly appreciated in any accounting department. When organizations are so large that there are five, ten, or more workers collaborating, it is essential that activities run smoothly, especially for the file share process. The portal of Filecenter DMS will make that job easy.

Document management can help boost workplace cooperation by creating extended levels of convenience and adding clarity to operations.

One example of this is with the cloud, where digital documents can be shared collectively from a single source, but can be accessed from anywhere.

With so much in the accounting world hinging upon access to information stored on paper or in digital document, the ability to access them at work, on a lunch break, or even at home, is essentially priceless.

Benefit #5 – Maximize Storage Space

Paper documents can become overwhelmingly burdensome quite quickly. It won’t be long before entire rooms are filled with shelves and filing cabinets.

The amount of paper consumed and stored for record-keeping can quickly run out of control, and the situations adhered to are not necessarily limited to any one field. With accounting, this is certainly the case as paperwork is foundational.

Being able to store many gigabytes worth of information in a single hard drive—or even completely off-site in the cloud—creates an incredible amount of extra storage space in the office. This is especially true in consideration of the cost of renting office or commercial space.

Benefit #6 – Reduction in Operational Costs

Operational costs within an accounting department can enjoy massive reductions thanks to the utilization and implementation of document management.

With the advent of electronic categorization and storage, the number of accountants needed to manage a company’s finances has lessened, creating savings across the board.

Additionally, there is the capacity that exists to ensure numerous increases in efficiency when it comes to time.  If time is money, then a more efficient workplace is also more profitable. From this perspective, the benefits are undeniable. You can even go through this 50 fantastic ideas of outsourcinginsight.com to reduce business expenses.

Benefit #7 – Remaining Within Legal Codes and Regulations

The handling of important, documented information—as seen regularly within accounting—is imperative for an organization’s success.

Within this, a number of legal and regulatory codes exist overseeing the world of financing and accounting—and failing to operate within those can lead to severe consequences.

Document management can help ensure proper compliance through various means including enhancing the security of private information. Regulatory codes, as well as the legal repercussions, reiterate the important of protecting client information. Document management systems can ensure that information is kept encrypted and hidden from unapproved eyes.

Benefits #8 – Maximizing Flexibility

As competitive as accounting can be at times, there is always room for improvement and efficiency. This is aided greatly with document management because these systems lessen the burden of cluttering paper trails and storage.

Flexibility enjoys a boost, as well, since digital documentation has numerous features nonexistent with physical paper storage. These include access through the cloud, ability to file share instantly through email, and transferring through convenient devices like external hard drives or USBs.

Benefits #9 – Diminish Human Error

The potential for human error—even with something as small as forgetting to include a “zero”—can create significant problems in the world of accounting.

Digital, document management systems can help greatly in reducing human error through the use of calculators, information tracking, and analysis to manage the flow of data.

Effectively, the burden of accuracy is placed more on machines and software rather than those with the capacity for human error.

Benefit #10 – Improve Company Marketing

Part of modern business aspirations is to maintain an eco-friendly, “green” approach. This provides a positive boost to the PR of a company and can even gain favorability from governments and regulators. Some cheap marketing ideas can help you to grow your business.

Having a document management system can help bring an accounting department into the 21^st century with a smaller paper trail and more efficient operations, including file share processes. Collectively, these keep the workplace lean and functioning in ways more aligned with numerous and essential modern corporate goals. The benefits are undeniable in the long as they provide means of attaining public grants and win over certain consumer demographics.