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Harold Mansfield
05-28-2013, 10:29 AM
I've always been terrible at keeping up with important paperwork. At one point I purchased a really nice office safe, and then lost the combination. I still have it, but have no idea what's in it.

So a while back I committed myself to being paper free.

This weekend I was cleaning my office and saw that the paper in my printer had dust on it. I've probably used it 5 times in the last 18 months.
I never have to check the mail anymore. At this point all I'm doing is emptying it just to make room for more junk, and tossing 99% of it in the trash.
The only paper on my desk are notes.
My stamps are so old that I'd need 2 of them to send a letter.

Except for the things that people send me in the mail, I've pretty much done away with needing anything on paper anymore and I'm far more organized with way less clutter.

So my friends say, "What if we have a catastrophic nationwide power outage that lasts for weeks?"
My answer: "We're all screwed anyway because no one else is storing paper. Banks. Government. No one. Even if I have papers in hand, if there is no power no one will be able to verify them".

I do have emergency backup power of about 30 minutes. So if anything biblical goes down I can print out my important documents (or back them up to my phone) before I set fire to the place and hit the road fighting zombies as I make my way cross country.

What about you guys?
Does not having paper back ups of everything make you nervous?
Is your office full of file cabinets?

Anyone else out there paper free?

vangogh
05-28-2013, 11:09 AM
I think I'm similar to you, though maybe I use a little more paper. I still have my bills come in the mail and I still buy a few magazines and of course there are print books. I might use my printer less than you. Once or twice a year to print a boarding pass is the extent of my use. For receipts online I just save to PDF instead of printing.

There's no nervousness since most things are digital and backed up beyond my computer. I imagine in time I'll switch the bills to be online only. I wanted the paper versions mostly when it comes to tax time, but the last couple of years I ended up looking up the information online instead of grabbing the paper copies for most things.

I doubt paper will stop completely any time soon though. Others will still use it and send me stuff on paper, but it's definitely a lot less than it was even a few years ago.

nealrm
05-28-2013, 11:59 AM
Harold,
I don't agree with you at all. It's going to be vampires and werewolfs that we will need to be fighting. So I have stocked up on garlic, silver and holy water.

As for the paper, I am a not there yet. I still have clients than need a paper bill. I even have a few that call up and ask for a FAX?? number. (Here is the Wikipedia link for those that don't know what that is Fax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax)). Missouri does require a check for some tax items, so I still print those. And I print some things so I have a check sheet to work from.

billbenson
05-28-2013, 01:31 PM
I noticed while at the doctors office the other day that all their files where missing from where they used to be and every office had a workstation in it.

vangogh
05-28-2013, 02:47 PM
I even have a few that call up and ask for a FAX

I do not understand these strange words you use. What forked tongue do you speak? :)

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier, but I'm redoing my mortgage now and instead of having to visit the office and sign a bunch of papers I was able to do everything electronically. My mortgage broker set up the forms digitally, marking up every place I needed to sign clearly and not letting the form advance to the next page until I had signed. Signing was a simple act of clicking in the space. My name and the date were filled in automatically with the click.

Paper isn't going to disappear so soon because it's become the standard for so many things, but year after year I see all sorts of digital equivalents making paper less of a necessity. My guess is it'll just take more time for the people who grew up using more paper to leave the earth and for more people who grew up digital mostly or only to enter.

Harold Mansfield
05-28-2013, 02:48 PM
Harold,
I don't agree with you at all. It's going to be vampires and werewolfs that we will need to be fighting. So I have stocked up on garlic, silver and holy water.


If that's true, thank God Wesley Snipes is out of jail. We're going to need him.

KristineS
05-28-2013, 05:12 PM
I'm gradually going paperless, but it's a slow process. Medical bills and statements from my insurance company are the worst. I need all that stuff for taxes, and it all comes in paper form. I do request information via e-mail when I can, but that's not always an option.

nealrm
05-28-2013, 07:42 PM
http://www.small-business-forum.net/images/misc/quote_icon.png Originally Posted by nealrm
I even have a few that call up and ask for a FAX



I do not understand these strange words you use. What forked tongue do you speak? :)





It was a device that was used by the ancients. It took an image of a piece of paper, change portions to either pure black or very dark gray and then sent it to another similar device. The second device then print out half the page. Upon receipt of the half page, the received called the sender and requested it be resent. It is unclear at this point if this was some sort of bonding ritual, an attempt by the government to keep employees occupied and employed, or an attempt at communication. Eventually it was replaced by the digital scanner. This allowed the sender to provide the receiver a very high, full color image of the document in a file format that the receiver could not read. While the results of both were similar, the scanner provided an advancement in allowing color and greater speed.

Harold Mansfield
05-28-2013, 08:12 PM
It was a device that was used by the ancients. It took an image of a piece of paper, change portions to either pure black or very dark gray and then sent it to another similar device. The second device then print out half the page. Upon receipt of the half page, the received called the sender and requested it be resent. It is unclear at this point if this was some sort of bonding ritual, an attempt by the government to keep employees occupied and employed, or an attempt at communication. Eventually it was replaced by the digital scanner. This allowed the sender to provide the receiver a very high, full color image of the document in a file format that the receiver could not read. While the results of both were similar, the scanner provided an advancement in allowing color and greater speed.

From what I understand these ancient machines required wires to operate. They had to be connected to the old Bell system of land lines that was implemented back in the 1940's.
Kind of like Morse Code, but with paper.

KristineS
05-29-2013, 12:20 PM
I want to laugh at the whole fax thing, but we have customers that still fax us stuff on a regular basis, so I can't.

vangogh
05-29-2013, 03:40 PM
I'm so glad we don't live in ancient times. Paper and wired machines? What a confusing and frightening time to live in.


Medical bills and statements from my insurance company are the worst. I need all that stuff for taxes, and it all comes in paper form.

I take it the medical and insurance bills and statements have no digital equivalent. Kind of surprising. Most companies want you to go paperless, since it's generally less expensive for them.

huggytree
05-29-2013, 06:06 PM
I am completely opposite

I would prefer to be 100% ON PAPER

more and more customers prefer my bids via email....I give them what they want

Harold Mansfield
05-29-2013, 06:09 PM
I take it the medical and insurance bills and statements have no digital equivalent. Kind of surprising. Most companies want you to go paperless, since it's generally less expensive for them.
I suspect that they printing out a good deal of this and then mailing it. Especially statements. Those are NOT hand written.

KristineS
05-30-2013, 01:12 PM
It could also be that there is a way to request all this stuff be e-mailed to me and I just don't know what it is. Doctor's offices, hospitals and insurance companies are not, as a general rule, customer friendly entities.

Harold Mansfield
05-31-2013, 10:01 AM
Some people won't email. I seem to remember having this argument with a company before, basically saying to them, "Look, I know you're just priniting this stuff out and then mailing it. Why can't you just skip the print part and email it?", and they wouldn't do it.

I think mailing docs is some kind of verification thing to insure that it's going to the correct person. It's frustrating.

nealrm
05-31-2013, 11:41 AM
It can be several reason, It could just be that is the way they have done it for the last x year and that is the way they will continue to do it. They don't want to change. It can also be that their system is built around mailing item out. Emailing out just one or two item is a hassle because it is an exception to how the rest of the items are handled.

I cases where you are handling 100's or 1000's of items on a repeat basis, you want to handle each item in the same manner. That keeps error down and overall improve efficiencies. Handling one item differently disrupts the standard process and leads to errors.

billbenson
05-31-2013, 01:20 PM
Never been an issue. 99% deal by email. If I get one fax a week that's a lot. Every once in a while I need to send an invoice by snail mail.

As far as quotes are concerned, the faster I get a quote in a customers hand, the higher probability of a sale. I try to get their quote in hand while I have them on the phone if possible. I'm sure that doubles my closure rate.

vangogh
06-03-2013, 11:37 PM
If I get one fax a week that's a lot.

There's that forked word fax again. What is the fax thing everyone is talking about?