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Filing Best Practices
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that there will be great difficulty in later locating it in the computer; in effect, the
document is lost in the storage device. Thus, there are a number of issues to be
aware of before installing such a system. Generally speaking, the cost considera-
tion alone will keep smaller companies from implementing this solution, unless
they are in industries that require enormous amounts of paperwork, such as the
legal or medical professions.
Cost: Installation time:

10–5 ELIMINATE STORED PAPER DOCUMENTS IF
ALREADY IN COMPUTER

Most companies store the bulk of their data in their computer systems and then
periodically print it all out and file it away—even though all of the data still exists
in the computer system. Though an argument can be made that employees are
accustomed to handling paper documents more readily than digital ones, and that
computer systems are too unreliable to constitute the sole repository of informa-
tion, these are objections that can be overridden with the proper degree of training
and system changes. In Exhibit 10.4, shown later in the ‘‘Total Impact of Best Prac-
tices on the Filing Function” section, there are a number of other best practices
listed that will make a computer system essentially ‘‘bombproof,” and therefore
make it available for use during normal business hours with very few exceptions.
Those best practices, which are described elsewhere in this chapter, are as follows:

• Archive computer files
• Avoid purging computer records
• Extend use of the computer database
• Improve computer system reliability
• Use document imaging

Once all or most of these best practices have been put in place, it is time to
implement the one described in this section—to eliminate any paper documents
already stored in the computer system. This is a step that must be completed with
extreme care, for the computer system must be thoroughly proven to be fully
operational and virtually incapable of failure before the paper files are removed
from the corporate premises. The logical sequence of steps to follow for this
implementation is to wait for a sufficient period of time to pass to verify that the
computer system is thoroughly ‘‘bombproof”; then to shift all paper documents
to an off-site location, so that they can still be called back in case of an emer-
gency, and then, after a longer interval, to completely eliminate those documents
except the ones required for legal purposes. This is a long implementation
process that may require several years to complete, but it is essential that the