It’s amazing how much time is wasted due to insufficient filing systems. If you’re not very organised when it comes to filing, putting a system in place for your documents and records can seem like a daunting process. It needn’t be. One of the biggest problems facing businesses is the misconception that they need to keep every document, and every email.

When it comes to managing your records, and putting an efficient filing system in place, there are several things you need to consider…

Which documents do you actually need to keep? What documents would you consider to be a record of your business? Are you likely to refer back to it? Is the document accessible elsewhere? How are you going to store your documents? Have you considered what happens to your emails?

Having a good clear records management system in place will also greatly assist with ISO compliance.

There are a few tips below which will help you with organising your systems:

Think of everything through the READ / ACTION / DELETE cycle Do you really need to keep it?

Introduce naming conventions to all your documents and stick to them. This will make  them easier to find in future.

Make sure you incorporate version control into corporate policies and procedures. You are then able to make sure you are always looking at the most recent document.

Name your emails to stand out! If you ensure all emails are titled with the area of business to which they refer, and whether there is an action to complete, this will improve efficiency immensely.

Think about who you are sending your email to. Nowadays our in boxes fill up with so many emails and more than half of them are irrelevant to us.

Where possible, try to stick to paperless working, and scan paper items. By keeping your documents online, you are only dealing with one system which is easily backed up and requires less storage space!