Planning the Paperless Office

Source: The CPA Technology Advisor

Suggestions for launching a paperless office system include:

• Assign one person to lead the effort. This person should be a partner or manager interested in technology and with knowledge of the existing systems. An IT person should assist.
• Determine which operations in your firm can most benefit from being paperless. Usually the tax practice is high on the list.
• Accounting and tax software should be integrated with the paperless system.
• You will never have too much hard drive space.
• Network speed must be upgraded dramatically.
• Each PC should have 1GB or more of memory.
• Think about using a hard drive backup system in lieu of tape.
• Scanners with 25ppm or more are needed.
• Review your file naming system. Include date, description, and file number.
• A paperless system will affect your record retention policy. When will files be archived? What archive capacity does the software have?

Resources you can use include:

2003 Guide to Paperless CPA Firm Administration, www.cpaadmin.org.
Creative Solutions by Thomson (Engagement CS and FileCabinet CS)— www.creativesolutions.thomson.com

Lacerte by Intuit (Document Management)— www.lacertesoftware.com.
ProSystem fx by CCH (Engagement and document software--
http://tax.cchgroup.com.

From The CPA Technology Advisor, Tax Season Survival Guide, January-March 2007, Best Practices: Paperless Office Planning, Cygnus Business Media, Shawnee, OK, 800-456-0864. For the complete article, click on the following link: http://www.cpatechnologyadvisor.com/article/article.jsp?id=1483.