Guides

Moving from paper files to a digital invoice archive: a step-by-step plan

Going paperless does not have to be a big project. The companies that manage it start with today’s invoices and work backwards only as far as they need to.

Step 1: Start with today

From a chosen date, every new invoice goes into the archive: paper ones scanned at the printer, emailed PDFs forwarded to the archive’s address. Do not wait until the old files are done; that day may never come.

Step 2: Bring in what is already digital

Most companies have years of PDFs on a shared drive. Upload those folders as they are. A good archive keeps each folder name as a label, reads every file and skips duplicates, so thousands of documents go in without anyone opening them.

Step 3: Scan back only as far as you need

Decide how far back people really look things up – often the current year and the last one. Scan those in batches with separator sheets between invoices. Older paper can stay in its boxes until its retention period ends.

Step 4: Agree who sees what

Before staff start using it, set up departments and decide who can add, who can change and who can only view. It is much easier to do this at the start than to untangle it later.

Step 5: Check before you shred

Rules on keeping original paper, and for how long, differ from country to country and by type of document. Ask your accountant or tax adviser before destroying originals. Until then, the digital archive is your fast way to find things and the paper is your backup.

Step 6: Make sure it is backed up

An archive is only as safe as its backups. Ask where the data is stored, how often it is backed up and whether your company’s documents are kept apart from other customers’.

How long does it take?

Step 1 takes a morning. Step 2 is usually an afternoon of uploading that runs by itself. Step 3 depends on how much paper you choose to scan – and many companies find they need far less of it than they expected.