Going "paperless"

[Bigtimedime]

If you're an expert at the "paperless" lifestyle please share your best tips, strategies and ideas. If like me you're trying to make the transition to "going paperless" lets hear from you what you think! What a massive change in technology over the past decade or so.

I've been finding it difficult to keep on top of all my paper filing at home and work which has piled up, but our workplace has largely made the move to Google docs mostly for day to day work. Many of us are using a confusing mix of both.

I took the plunge this weekend and bought the Fujitsu Scansnap IX500 scanner to scan, store and shred boxes of old seemingly important documents. So far I think this is one awesome bit of technology.

It really struck me what a huge change in the way we live our lives this is after a lifetimr of working with paper. And I wonder why there isn't much more discussion forums dedicated to this massive topic.

What are your thoughts?

( BTW I wasn't sure what subforum this topic fit best... sorry)

 

[acerinpa]

following-wife wants a scanner for Xmas - she is a CPA and wants to start "NOT" having all the paperwork everywhere.

my big question is: is the IRS, etc. going to take a scanned digital receipt as legal evidence or not?

 

[Bigtimedime]

Yes it looks like the IRS does.

" IRS has allowed electronic tax records and receipts since 1997. Another truth is that you must adhere to IRS guidelines governing “electronic storage systems.”
...
What makes an electronic receipt valid in the eyes of the IRS? Each receipt must include the vendor's name and address, transaction date and the amount paid. Also, be sure to note what you bought and its business purpose — just in case you face an audit later down the road."

source:
Guidelines for Electronic Tax Receipts | TIME.com


I just bought a high speed document scanner yesterday; the Fujitsu Snapscan IX500. It's highly rated and it looks like quite a few law offices are using it to quickly and accurately scan a backlog of case files to reduce file storage needs. It cost more than I wanted to spend, but I'm glad I got it as it's working very well so far. Some times you pay for what you get!

 

[Spud1200]

following-wife wants a scanner for Xmas - she is a CPA and wants to start "NOT" having all the paperwork everywhere.

my big question is: is the IRS, etc. going to take a scanned digital receipt as legal evidence or not?

Thats a good point. I have questioned this in our country with our authority my self. I have loads of paper work I have got too keep. I do internet banking and the fist thing people or company ask for is a copy of your bank statement or a picture of your passport ECT: Also Driving licence, that sort of thing.

I used to Gamble Heavy and I mean heavy. I was border line addicted and nearly lost everything so my point in mentioning that is when you withdraw funds ECT: online they want digital copy's of your credentials like I said Driving Licence ECT: Our Government has just revamped the Systems and yes you can go to the post office and get a paper copy of the paperwork to apply for you licence but now you can do it online with a Debit Card and secure payment if you want to apply for your Licence that way.

A lot of company will screw you over big time so be careful bigtimedime because they don't all ways provide necessary information on digital credentials as you would maybe expect to get on paper. I'm trying to get at legal situations were you need proof of evidence and that sort of thing. If your making the transition make sure you keep off line secure original copy's of you paperwork and yes if you want print them out your self with the original digital copy it self you have safe.

 

[setishock]

Having managed hotel properties and having done forensic auditing, I do know one thing that is a must do. You have to keep hard copies of all your business transactions for 7 years. We would do that and at the end of the 7 years the daily report pages was scanned in for reference if need be and the rest went to a secure incinerator.
After 7 years you are allowed to dispose of documents. If you are called on to show anything past 7 years and you have disposed of it, you simply tell them you have lived up to the requirements and you're too late.

 

[cb600fshornet]

I can't remember what it was for, but recently I needed to provide a couple of letters/bills to provide proof of address. I struggled to come up with physical letters because I'd gone mostly paperless... note to self, get more paper bills!

 

[1etherer]

I can't remember what it was for, but recently I needed to provide a couple of letters/bills to provide proof of address. I struggled to come up with physical letters because I'd gone mostly paperless... note to self, get more paper bills!

Or print them out when needed?

 

[acerinpa]

Print= assuming the format has not changed to the point of it no longer printable- that is one of my other concerns. Say you scanned it into windows XP, and now all your PC's are usign win10 - will the scanned documents still print?

 

[carnageX]

Print= assuming the format has not changed to the point of it no longer printable- that is one of my other concerns. Say you scanned it into windows XP, and now all your PC's are usign win10 - will the scanned documents still print?

Unless you're using some proprietary format or software that manages those scans...why wouldn't they? If you scan in as PDF or an image, those are universal formats.

 

[Bigtimedime]

Print= assuming the format has not changed to the point of it no longer printable- that is one of my other concerns. Say you scanned it into windows XP, and now all your PC's are usign win10 - will the scanned documents still print?

I'd say any standard scanned image format from 10 years ago would still print fine such as TIFF, JPG, PNG, PDF as long as it was good quality. A full page at 300ppi resolution is ideal, but slightly lower than that is still as good quality as any photocopy would be.

PDF is pretty much looking like the defacto standard for digital document archives and record keeping.