Document organization is a necessary evil, and a poorly designed indexing system can make things much more difficult than they need to be. Whether you currently have no indexing system in place or a struggling with a poorly-implemented one, here are some of our best tips for setting up a document indexing system in your office.
Properly Prepare Your Documents
Before scanning documents into your indexing system, make sure that they are ready to go. Documents should be free of any staples, paper clips, or pins. If they aren’t properly prepared, they can damage the scanning machine itself and lead to even more delays. Once you are done indexing files, you will never need to do this again!
Separate and Catalogue Your Documents
Next, catalog documents based on what broad category they are a part of. Most businesses use four main categories initially to create loose groupings: medical records, employee records, legal records, and human resources records. This initial sorting makes the scanning and indexing processes much simpler down the road.
Create a Game Plan
Before you complete your current scanning and indexing, come up with a plan for what you will do for indexing in the future. Whatever document management system you choose will need to properly give you what you need when you need it. If you need to search for social security numbers or policy numbers, for example, make sure that your document management system and indexing system will allow you to do so easily.
Effectively Manage Your Resources
Last but not least, the scanning and indexing process can take a surprisingly long time. Make sure that you don’t devote too much or too little of your manpower to tackling the task. It can take months for companies to get the job done on their own. If you are ready for some help, call Micro Records to take care of your document scanning needs!
Document Indexing for Your Office from Micro Records
Micro Records can help your business transition to a paperless way of life with quality e-forms and technology. For more information about how we can help your business utilize proactive monitoring, transition to doing things digitally, get rid of sensitive documents securely, or benefit from new technology solutions, visit us online or give us a call at (877) 410-SCAN. For more tips on transitioning your business to paperless technology and going green, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Flickr.