In the 21st century it might seem silly that so many places still use old-fashioned paper bills and notes to run business on a day to day basis. For those businesses or individuals who are looking for solid ways to reduce the amount of paper they use in order to run a neater, cleaner and greener office space there are a few, solid methods for accomplishing those goals.
Use Electronic Fax Programs
One of the easiest ways to cut down on the amount of paper one’s office uses is to an electronic fax service rather than to use traditional, paper faxes. The way these services work is that faxes are sent to an email address instead of a physical fax machine, thereby rendering any print-outs unnecessary. These accounts are relatively cheap, and in many cases they can be created for free. The amount of paper they save on is often enough to make a business seriously consider e-fax as one step closer to being completely green.
Paperless Billing and Electronic Records
These two methods represent a double threat that can reduce a business’s paper load by quite a lot. Paperless billing cuts down on the amount of trees a business sends out to clients, but it also cuts down on the amount of postage a business uses. Two big savings in a single fell swoop is a pretty good move, and it’s why so many businesses offer an electronic billing option for their clients.
Keeping electronic records also has a lot of advantages over keeping paper records. For one thing electronic records take up a lot less space. Copies of them can easily be stored in a number of places, and if necessary a printout can be made of any record. These records can be transmitted over the Internet at a moment’s notice, and looked up from any computer with access to the database. All in all they’re safer, more convenient, and use a lot less paper than traditional records.
E-Signing
While this isn’t an ideal application for all businesses, e-signing is a good way to save time, money, and paper. Whether it’s a book contract or just a small stack of business documents an e-signature means that the individual can just click a button and upload a signature over the Internet. There’s no need to fax documents to an individual’s office, and there’s no need to wait for traditional mail or couriers to deliver documents. All important signatures can be given instantly, no matter where in the world a client lives.
Online Storage
A great way to share information as well as necessary documents is to make sure that all information is stored online in a company box. Drop Box and other services make sure that print outs don’t have to be circulated; instead, employees can just look the documents up on their own as they need to by accessing the storage from any device that’s connected to the Internet. It’s that simple.
It might not be possible to reach a completely paperless office by the end of the month, or even the end of 2014. However, for those who are determined to use less paper and to be just a little bit greener there are a number of steps that can be taken with remarkable ease right now.
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This article was written by Thomas Jay from Orlando, Florida. Thomas works at FindAFax.com, the only interactive online fax service comparison site. He enjoys the outdoors and spending time with his children.