Benefits of Embracing a Paperless Office (and How to Go Paperless)

Sustainable business practices are good for you, the environment, and the office. A step towards achieving sustainability in your workplace is going paperless and embracing electronic documents. 

The shift towards electronic documents is gaining momentum, offering environmentally friendly solutions to reduce carbon footprint. Moreover, with the help of tools such as PDF to editable PDF converter, cloud storage, and other office management tools, storing and handling these electronic documents have become more accessible. 

What is a Paperless Office?

A paperless office is an organization that functions on minimal paperwork. This is possible with the help of the digitalization of documents and the extensive use of software and tools that make managing these documents easy. 

Benefits of Going Paperless

There are various benefits of going paperless. According to a survey by Unilever, one-third of global consumers like to support businesses doing something good for the environment or society. 

Hence, businesses must embrace digital transformation and use a paperless office.

Let us look at some of the benefits of going paperless: 

1. Paper reduction: The most apparent benefit of embracing e-documents and going paperless is reduced waste. According to a survey conducted by Gertner, almost 50% of business waste is paper. Therefore, when a document is created and stored electronically, it eliminates the need for paper. This is great for the environment and reduces energy wastage. 
2. Remote access: Electronic documents facilitate remote access. You can easily view a document from your laptop or mobile phone, even if you are not physically present in the office. 

As remote working finds a significant place amongst organizations worldwide, using tools and technology to work smarter is crucial. Cloud storage of electronic documents and PDF editors helps in accessibility and collaboration.

3. Saves time: Electronic documents are easy to organize and index. Therefore, finding a file when you need it urgently is much easier and faster.  This helps streamline work for the whole organization because the file is easy to retrieve.

4. Extended document lifecycle: Unlike physical documents, which may degrade over time, going paperless and embracing electronic documents helps preserve them indefinitely. With proper archiving and backup, these documents remain safe and reduce the amount of paper dumped in landfills.

5. Better collaboration: When documents are stored digitally, sharing them with your colleagues is easier. You can share a document’s past and updated versions without any hassle. This leads to better collaboration and optimization of workflow.

6. Cost efficiency: The Gartner survey also found that 3% of a company’s revenue is spent on paper. Electronic storage of documents minimizes the cost of paper. Moreover, it also eliminates the cost of physically storing and printing documents.  

Tips to Go Paperless

Going paperless is a significant step. Here are some tips that can help you implement a paperless office efficiently:

1. Take the help of project management tools: Attendance tracking, expense tracking, account tracking, and document signature are some of the primary functions of a business. You can take the help of a project management tool to digitize these functions.
2. Organize and edit digital documents: Create logical file structures for your documents and use appropriate file names for each folder for easy retrieval. Additionally, take the help of tools that can help edit your PDF for document revisions. These tools come in very handy when storing documents digitally.
3. Use cloud storage for your documents: Cloud storage app allows you to store your documents safely. You can save your documents in a cloud storage software to easily access them when needed. They also help easily share documents and keep the documents safe from being degraded.

Conclusion

The digital revolution is transforming everything, including how we store documents. Going paperless represents a sustainable solution to the challenges posed by traditional paper documents. 

However, apart from the environmental reasons, electronic documents are also beneficial in saving time, optimizing business operations, keeping the documents safe and organized, and, most importantly, saving the organization money. 

Furthermore, with the help of technological advancements such as management software, PDF editing tools, and cloud storage, embracing a paperless office has become very easy.

So take the benefits of these tools and go paperless!