How To Effectively Organize Your Office Space
By Vlad Ehrsam
While many offices are trying to go paperless, the fact remains that some paperwork is necessary. Many business transactions require the proper paperwork and the IRS is just one organization that may require hard copies rather than electronic copies. If you have a small office you may find yourself running out of space to put all your paperwork. Organizing and properly filing your papers is essential should you ever need to find anything specific.
Business owners will tend to keep everything in an effort to avoid having to decide what to keep and what to pitch. In time, the storage room door cannot be opened and hope is all but lost for finding any documents that may be needed. It is the responsibility of management to make sure things remain organized to prevent lowered productivity or a complete shutdown of business operations.
“Most small businesses don’t deal with their papers until it’s too late,” said Barbara Hemphill a well-known author on the subject of office efficiency. Paperwork piles up and documents are impossible to locate. If management and owners learned more about time management, paperwork would be in its place.
Step One Towards Office Organization
Set aside a day to commit to organizing your office space. To eliminate the distraction of customers or phone calls, schedule it on a Saturday. But if Saturday doesn’t work well for you, dedicate one day each week as “Office Cleanup Day.” Then, require all staff members to participate.
It is possible to organize the office by yourself and even some true blue entrepreneurs have been known to set aside a day for the task.
The paperwork atop your desk needs to be first priority. Organize by subject and then date. After sorting is out of the way, it is time to put everything in its proper place. If file folders do not exist for some of the paperwork, then create some so there is a place for them.
The accounting should be a top priority for obvious reasons so find all of the income statements and receipts lying about the place and sort these too. You always want your records to be current, so stick to the task of posting transactions to your books until everything is up to date. I can be a slacker on this one myself and wind up spending the majority of the day recording transactions. If it looks like you are not going to get finished, then just quit at a point that will be easy to start back up from again.
Once you’ve organized paperwork into file folders, you’ll need to assemble boxes or purchase crates to keep documents in. Your filing system will depend on the type of business you operate. Some businesses organize their files by the client’s name, while others use job numbers. No matter what type of business you operate, you will always file your accounts receivable and accounts payable the same. All that matters is that you have a system to your filing.
Computer Documents
You need a contingency plan for all your paperwork and electronic files. If there was ever a flood or fire and your documents were destroyed you need to have a backup plan. For your important paperwork consider getting a scanner and filing backups electronically.
Always keep extra copies of your computer documents and files in a fire resistance safe at another location. Files can be stored on backup tapes, floppy disks, CD ROMs, or external hard drives. Be sure to keep a log of what files you have stored where.
You may want to consider an automated backup service for your financial files and records. For a reasonable fee you can have all your important documents stored on an off site server. This will keep your files safe give you peace of mind.
Hemphill says that “Your ability to accomplish daily tasks is directly related to your ability to find the right information at the right time.” If your office isn’t currently organized make it your number one priority. It will save you time and money in the future.
About the Author
Vlad Ehrsam is the chief writer for, and editor of Full Info on Business, there’s a wealth of knowledge on the website, plus while you’re there sign up for the free newsletter.
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