Published on August 23, 2017
For many small and medium-sized Canadian companies, a solid document management solution is not only intelligent, but also necessary. After all, the ability to keep track of your corporate data is critical if you want to survive and succeed in today's information-based business world. To keep your business organized, competitive, and secure, there are a few reasons why a well-developed document management system will do just that.
Invoices, receipts, contracts, reports, memos – all Canadian companies create a variety of irreplaceable documents. However, if you can't keep an eye on everything, you may be wasting time, money, and effort chasing the traces of the paper.
The first thing you want to do is sort your documents into categories – customers, providers, full-time and part-time employees, finance, marketing, etc. – and save them in a localized filing area.
With a document management system, you can avoid misplaced files, endless manual searches, and lost productivity to avoid things of the past. Your entire collection of records is in one place that is immediately available to you day and night.
When it comes to document retention and compliance guidelines, you can never be too careful. Some documents can be critical to your business, while others can be important for historical purposes. In both cases, make sure you know exactly which records you need to keep and for how long. Otherwise, destroying information too soon or too long can cause serious financial, civil, or criminal problems.
By putting an effective document management system into operation, you can ensure that all of your information is taken into account to the full extent required retention periods and destroyed in due course.
Good document management means keeping an eye on all of your information. Otherwise, you have your hands full to find out who handled which documents and when. To avoid confusion (and unnecessary blame), make sure you restrict access to certain documents and have a checkout system that tells you what changes were made by whom. Track the lifecycle of your documents from creation to for storage.
Security breaches, human error, or natural disasters – Your documents are exposed to a variety of threats that can have a serious impact on any Canadian company. Keeping your documents on site could be a major disaster just waiting to be done. Why should you take the risk with your valuable information when you don't have to?
Because the integrity of your records is critical, the secure storage of documents should always be an integral part of any document management system. Contact a professional external storage provider for the most secure documentation.
Don't you have an effective document management system? Maybe it's time for you to do it. With the right plan and the help of an external storage provider, your Canadian company can work more efficiently, increasing productivity and saving money.
Here at BCRMS we know what it takes to develop the perfect document management system for your Canadian company. Contact us today to meet all business, legal and regulatory requirements!
