Reducing costs with records management

Believe it or not, there are a number of records management techniques capable of saving your company money. Every company produces a seemingly endless supply of documents. Not only do these records take up valuable office space, they also require proper care, protection, and management. Furthermore, failing to ensure the protection of one’s documents can lead to even bigger costs – fraud, theft, and even legal trouble. Let’s take a look at three common records management services, and the ways they can help your business cut costs.

Savings with Off-site document storage.

Storing documents yourself can be costly. For small firms, this usually amounts to a stack of boxes in the office containing all sorts of records. These files take up valuable real estate. Instead, consider storing your records in a secure, off-site records storage facility. The task of storing large amounts of documents yourself can be daunting, and expensive. Document storage facilities offer easy solutions, and are often much cheaper than managing your own storage space. Many facilities are equipped to handle your other valuables as well.

Loss prevention through Certified Destruction

For many businesses, the majority of the paperwork created is meant only for short-term use. Bills, invoices, and company memos can all be described as having short document life cycles. While they only need to be retained for a few days, these documents often contain sensitive financial and other information. Should these documents ever fall into the wrong hands, the consequences could be disastrous. With certified record destruction, your records management firm will typically provide your office secure bins to dispose of sensitive papers. Simply fill them up, then call your records management firm to have them replaced. This way, your papers are guaranteed to be destroyed. While certified destruction does have some up-front costs, these costs are outweighed by the long-term benefits of minimizing loss due to fraud and theft.

Reduce storage and administrative expenses with document scanning

Scanning documents can save your company money in two ways. First, scanning documents greatly reduces their physical size, allowing your company to save on storage space. Electronic files can last forever, and document scanning is an excellent option for archival records. The savings from document scanning can amount to quite a bit for records with a long document life cycle. More importantly, scanned documents are much easier to manage, which saves your company money by reducing administrative costs. Searching for a file on a computer, after all, takes just a few seconds, compared to the minutes or hours necessary to track down a paper file in storage. Remember, “time is money”; accessibility saves time.