Bendable’s hoarding thread got me wondering. Has anyone given up their file cabinet for OCR scanning and digital storage? I file (scan) things I’ll probably never look at again. I guess it’s hoarding, but it takes up so little space, what’s the difference?

Anyone else?

I've been paperless since the day I finished school, about 10 years ago, and ran an entire law office with several attorneys completely paperless.

The only time I've ever needed an original were things printed on security paper, like social security cards, car title, birth and marriage certificates. Wills and Trust documents still require wet signatures too.

My advice to you is to develop a file naming convention that makes each individual document name descriptive, if the document gets separated from the folder it's stored in. It should also makes sense when looked at in list form. After many years, I've recently changed from doing something like BofA_Stmt_180409 to putting the date at the front of the file name like 20180409_WellsFargo_Mortgage. I find that it's more helpful to have the files arranged chronologically ( your mind paints a better picture of what's happening). Don't rely on the file date, because that date is usually the date the file was last edited or originally scanned, not the date on the document.

When I had a law firm, I made all the associates and staff mark all the files with the date and time and initials (180409-1330_abc) rather than go back with edits like Letter-Final-Version2-Edit-FinalFinal.

Obvioysly, when creating folders, make them funnel from wide to narrow. But, also do this for individual file names. For example, instead of naming a File "Appraisal_1234 Ash Street, Springfield IL," name it "IL_SpringField_Ash_1234_Appraisal." That way you see all of the documents that pertain to similar things listed next to each other in lists. In this case, all the documents pertaining the the 1234 Ash Street Property are next to each other, but also all the properties that are in the same street, same city, and same state are listed similarly as well.

Use a scanner that scans both sides at the same time in a single pass (Automatic Document Feeder with Duplexing). I scan most documents in grayscale at 200dpi as a good balance between space and resolution. I mark every document that goes through the scanner, but doesn't immediately go into the shredder, with the date of scan so it doesn't get rescanned. For instance, if I get an insurance card for the car in the mail, I'll scan and mark it, and put the original in the car.

Mail gets opened, and it either immediately goes into the shredder, or gets scanned (and then into the shredder_. I keep a little tray of documents that are awaiting scanning next to the computer if my computer isn't on when I check the mail.

I do not OCR the PDFs, it's not reliable enough for searching. I just make my naming and filing conventions consistent and comprehensive so that I can find the document image in a few moments, and be certain that if it's not where it's supposed to be, then it doesn't exist.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Aeteocles,

Make sure you use your left hand for the paperless reasons and right hand for eating.

Aim carefully, and go for the warm water option.

I am near the end of going paperless. Before, the paper bills were a physical trigger for me to do something.

Now, I can set up reminders as I need to in Google calendar.

As Aeteocles point out, naming convention is a key part. But, you have to decide on a naming convention based on how you see looking for any particular file.

I've learned not to go hog wild with folder heirarchy. Sometimes, flatter is better; for example, "Bills - ATT, Bills - Water, etc." is better than a major folder "Bills" with subfolders inside for ATT, Water, etc. I do append a date name on file names. It's not consistent across my data because depending on the source where I download it, the date or a variation of the date may be included in the fil name also. In that case, I keep it in order to be efficient. But inside the same folder, the naming convention is uniform, be it date in front or in the end. And to use the computer to help sort it for me, know that the computer sorts yyyy mm dd or yyyymmdd or yymmdd. As needed, I add a letter for further sorting between same dated versions of the source documents.

I also use a scanner that scans both sides, I also have Evernote on my app that takes a picture and converts it to a file I can save as a pdf. Other pdf phone apps are available.

I assume storage location and security is also a consideration for you. I bought a software Rohos that encypts a hidden volume on my C drive that doesn't show unless I open it. It can also encrypt secret volumes in USB hard drives in which I sync the files I have on my C drive. I also invested in a cloud storage pCloud to store synced copies in an encrypted volume also.

I've switched all my statements and bills to e-statements except for my water bill because they don't offer it. Any paperwork I wish to keep, I jsut convert it to pdf.

As paperless as I can.
I use PayTrust for bill paying; paper or electronic bills go to them; if paper they scan it and post it on your personal account, you can retrieve those later at tax time or as needed.
What paper comes to the house gets scanned by a Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500 that is sheet-fed and does duplex scanning (both sides of page). Documents are saved as pdf files. I don't OCR everything; but may start as OCR gets to the point it doesn't slow down the scanning process.
I use Adobe Acrobat for viewing, editing, and saving pdf files. The advice given above about file naming (wide to narrow) is good; I save business pdfs with the year (2018) dot [descriptive file name] in a folder for the payee/utility/whatever.
Using a descriptive file name (e.g. "2006 Odyssey.State Farm Policy" makes it easier to search by name.
In addition to my folder organization, I save all scans in a separate ScanSnap folder by date and time of creation; I batch OCR those periodically so as a backup I can find files by text content (e.g. bank account number).
Saving files in folders (within folder) has made it easier to find stuff, but takes more time than just saving files by date and using OCR to mark the text for later searches.

The only documents I keep in paper form are important personal documents, and some materials that I may need for a while (health plan benefits brochures, for example).

My wife is always impressed that when the need arises to find a document, whether a bill or our marriage license, I can find it in seconds.

I save tax-related documents in a tax folder by year and by category (1099's, taxes paid, charitable contributions, etc.). I can give all that to my accountant at tax time, along with a spreadsheet that includes a file of expenses by tax-related category from which he develops his returns.

A very important benefit to the paperless system was when I was working in temporary jobs; we always had our files with us on my computer.

Needless to say, there are hard drive backups and cloud backups.

We have given away all our old file cabinets save one two-drawer that is almost empty.

No, I will not go paperless.

I have my tin foil hat on.

I am in a position where I have said no to paperless, and I am still paperless, for now.

Every. Chance. I. Get.

Hate hate hate paper. Have to keep some because of records for my car service for Uber etc and it's not worth taking the time to scan/save as a digital file, etc. I have a 4 drawer filing cabinet but only one draw has any paper in it.

Have a question for the Almighty, Allknowing, Allwisdom SF crowd:

Banks and Utilities companies give us all that crap about protecting the ecosystem, woods, atmosphere and the dodo so no more bills, all in the clowd... using the interwebs for all this does not generate a lot of heat and other emissions that are worse times all the users?


Computing ain't eco friendly AFAIK

0-0

If you go paperless, just print your annual summary statements once a year. You can file them for ten years in one drawer. Shred them after ten years. If the grid ever crashes, you will have what you need, with minimal file space consumed.

But keep paper records/receipts for all of the improvements to your real estate. You want to be able to prove this when you sell a property and wish to reduce the capital gains accordingly.

Mostly paperless. All bills paid online with digital archive. Paper bills and other non legal documents are scanned and archived. I keep several backups. In house media and cloud. I'd say 90% paperless which reminds me I've got about a 4 inch stack to scan and then shred.

quote:

But keep paper records/receipts for all of the improvements to your real estate. You want to be able to prove this when you sell a property and wish to reduce the capital gains accordingly.

We have all that scanned. You mean the IRS is not going to accept pdf documentation? My accountant says don't worry about it.

Trying....

Bought a Snapscan for paper docs. Save items as searchable PDF.

Try to do most of bill paying online with downloadable statements, again PDF.

quote:

Deep

I’m as paperless as possible. I hate getting mail and then having to shred or burn in the winter. I have all my bank and brokerage mail statements turned off. I getvmost of my regular bills ( utilities, credit card etc. sent by email and I pay bills electronically. I can almost always go and get paper copies if necessary. I keep paper copies of tax returns in a locked file cabinet is my tax returns and all my gun purchase receipts.

Let me know when it's secure and then I'll think about it.....

I don't trust computers to be secure and never will...

For my uses , a computer is little more than a toy and distraction.... I don't understand why anyone would put anything important on one.