Transition to a Paperless Office with Sage 100 ERP

As competition among businesses around the world rises, companies are looking for ways to reduce costs and maximize efficiency in the office. By reducing the amount of paper used in the office and in everyday tasks, businesses can take back control of their efficiency. More than an environmental strategy, going paperless can save businesses a significant amount of time and money, as well as boost operational efficiency. Research has proven that paper intensive processes actually waste time rather than save time. When businesses rely on paper-based processes to run their operation, their efficiency suffers. Just think of all the time it takes to print, fax, file, and gain approval for all of your documents – that’s a lot of time wasted!

In fact, according to recent research, paper usage is becoming a big (and costly) problem for many businesses today and is contributing to office inefficiencies. Statistics show that the average office worker uses around 10,000 pieces of paper each year, and the average business is increasing that usage by 20% every year. Businesses have reported that their employees spend up to 40% of their working hours searching for information in email records, filing cabinets, and documents. The average business-related document is copied 9 times, and it costs an average of $20 to file that document throughout its lifetime. Statistics also reveal that misfiled documents can cost businesses up to $125 and lost documents can cost somewhere between $350 and $700. That’s a lot of money!

What many companies don’t know, however, is that their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system already contains the paperless capabilities they need – they just need to know how to use it. In fact, Sage 100 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and Sage ERP MAS 200) contains several features designed to help your business transition to a paperless office, such as:

• Journals and Registers
• Job Cost Invoices
• Period-End Processing
• Purchase Orders
• Report Viewer
• Sales Orders and Sales Order Invoices
• Payroll Direct Deposit Stubs
• Accounts Receivable Invoices
• Electronic Forms Delivery

By activating the Sage 100 ERP Paperless Office feature in your Sage 100 ERP system, you can begin taking advantage of all the paperless features Sage 100 ERP has to offer, including converting your documents into PDF files so you can store them electronically within your system. This will make it easy to locate your documents in the future and when you need to share a document with an employee or customer, all you have to do is share it electronically. No more copying, scanning, or faxing!

The benefits of going paperless are numerous: reduced overhead, improved employee productivity, increased efficiency, and contributing to the environment. However, transitioning to a paperless office will take some time and require some adjustment, particularly for your employees. We’ve created a few tips to help make the transition to a paperless office easier on everyone involved:

1. Stick to a consistent naming convention.
   Eliminate any confusion by using a consistent and precise naming convention. Name menu items what they are and don’t be vague (ex: “HR”, “Finance”, “Payroll”, etc.) This will make the system easier to navigate and alleviate the frustration many of your employees will face when they are looking for a specific document. When in doubt, ask yourself: “What would I look under to find this document?”
2. Prepare your employees for role changes.
   Whenever you automate business processes, you will face a slight change in roles and job responsibilities. While these are positive changes, your employees may have a hard time adjustment. Make sure that you introduce the change in phases so you employees have time to ask any questions or voice any concerns, and reassure them that their jobs are not in jeopardy even though they’re undergoing some changes.
3. Don’t expect the ERP system to do everything – it won’t.
   The biggest mistake companies who have transitioned to a paperless office make is that they expect the system to do everything for them. While ERP certainly eliminates the majority of manual tasks and paper-based processes, you may still have to manually track and record data for some things. The difference is you now have time for tracking and data entry because your other tasks are being taken care of by the system.

Overall, Sage 100 ERP software can reduce the paper burden on your company. If you’d like to learn how to take advantage of these capabilities, give Mindover Software a call today. Their ERP experts would be more than happy to help make the transition to paperless a seamless one.
Mindover Software is a Sage business software reseller which offers a broad range of accounting, ERP and CRM software including Sage 100 ERP, Sage 300 ERP, SageCRM, and Acumatica. From offices in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Boise, Mindover Software’s team of professional consultants help companies achieve greater efficiency, cost savings and profitability. For more information visit our website.

Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net