Steps to Go Paperless!! – for improved Financial Management
There are many benefits to a totally paperless environment:
- Saves SO much time – filing, searching, boxing, sorting, sending, sharing, archiving, accessing
- Helps environment by reducing the use of paper & trees
- Provide easily accessible documentation for all approved users eg leaders, auditors, accountants
Steps
- Develop a plan. Start with one/ a few areas at a time. It is a progressive process that may take over a year to completely implement successfully.
- Research & purchase good scanning equipment. Slow, difficult scanners is a waste of time & money that will thwart your plan. Scanning must be easy to do for all those involved to participate
- Implement accounting software that stores documentation – we recommend Xero
- Communicate the plan to those involved – so that they know what is expected and why
- Provide training to all involved.
Paperless Environment for Financial Management
There are many areas that benefit from going paperless in the functions involved with financial management. Benkorp has been providing bookkeeping & accounting services in this online/web-based environment using Xero for over 5 years. We have tried many methods to attach documentation & allocate the accounts.
Using Xero Accounting software, here are the main areas we find extremely helpful for managing finances in a completely online paperless environment.
- Email approved bills and reimbursement requests to be paid directly to the Xero Inbox
- Email to & store other document directly to the Xero Inbox
- Attach related documentation to every transaction in Xero
- Alternatively email bills to a 3rd party program that automatically create purchases with documentation attached in Xero – eg Receipt bank, Shoeboxed
- With Xero – Unlimited approved users can login to Xero anytime and anywhere there is internet access
- Automated bank feeds – bank transactions are automatically pushed into Xero for most bank & credit card accounts 5 days a week. This easily enables daily bank reconciliations.
- Employee Portal enables the Timesheets & Leave requests to be processed online
- Users can us the Xero Discuss function to communicate about individual transactions
- Easily email invoices, payslips, Purchase orders, Quotes directly from Xero
- Other documentation can be filed & stored on online storage programs such as Google Drive & Dropbox. Approved users can be invited to access these documents
- Other online programs that connect to Xero that can be helpful for financial management such as AppsForOps, Expensify, Infoodle.
- Details about Communications with Customers & Suppliers can be documented in Xero for all users to access as required.
- Published reports are held in Xero
- Reduce questions by giving approved users Read Only access
If you have questions about this article or would like to discuss the financial management of your church with us, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Benkorp Management Services
1300 138 627