You may be able to avoid using these files if you are using a computerized bookkeeping system and set up the bill pay reminder system in your accounting program.
Accounting paper filing system.
For instance if you study law separate your papers into contract law.
If you work with many different subject areas consider arranging your paperwork by topics.
Access to financial files and data should be limited.
As bills come in you can place them in the 12 month file for the month they are due.
At this point we re not focusing on the detail of your filing system.
Accounting employees handle a lot of paperwork and without a filing system the office can quickly become a mess.
How you arrange your paper filing system will depend on what you use it for.
5 steps to organize a filing system to get yourself and your business on the right track follow five steps to make sure papers are easily accessible and easily identifiable.
So instead of taking that receipt for a printer toner cartridge and filing it under p in my main filing system i file it.
Look at your current filing system or that pile of paper that you ve been meaning to file for months and start sorting your documents into broad categories.
Then move the current month s bills to the 30 day file by the day they are due.
If you work with a lot of different clients or customers an alphabetical system might be best for you.
It s common for accounting departments to have many filing cabinets including locked ones to safeguard payroll and other confidential information.
Use a filing system that makes other office chores easier not harder.
The manual process can be tedious and prone to errors but it is simple and inexpensive making it a perfectly good choice.
If you choose to digitize your files you will need to start by scanning and converting your old files a process that can be time and labor intensive.
The number of folders or binders you need will depend on how many transactions your business carries out.
Many people find it much easier to organize a digital filing system over a paper filing system after every paper file has been converted to a digital format.
Most of the paper that i need to be filing is related to the process of doing business and these documents need to be entered into the accounting system before anything else is done with them.
Very small or new businesses can start off with one folder filled with dividers for each section.
As the business grows the sections can be split out into new folders.
Paper and pencil used to be the way accounting was done before the advent of computers.
Though setting up a paper filing system sounds difficult it is a relatively easy task that can be made easier through a few filing tips and tricks.