If you’re a small business owner, chances are you always have one eyes on your operating costs and the best way to reduce or eliminate extra expenses and improve staff efficiency.
One great way in which you can gain some great cost savings is by eliminating paper.
Paper-based tasks increase storage, postage, and compliance costs and can be a major overhead for modern-day businesses.
Here are five ways you can reduce paper usage and save yourself some cash in the process.
Smart Project Management
Traditionally, the process of managing company projects that involve different departments and multiple people generates massive amounts of paperwork.
More contemporary organizations are taking the smart project management approach through the use of cloud-based solutions, such as Basecamp, Asana or Trello, which allow you to ditch the paper while running a project online with unlimited users.
Electronic Payroll
Rectifying payroll issues costs half of all small business an average of $850 annually. Using decent payroll software reduces the errors and facilitates paperless processing. An electronic payroll system automates all the manual calculations such as tracking hours worked, calculating salaries, and filing taxes.
Salaries can also be paid electronically rather than printing checks or visiting the bank.
The additional benefits of electronic payroll include self-service functionality, and allowing staff to view their payroll data, such as personal details, tax deductions and pay slips online from any device.
Receipts and Invoices
Eliminate paper (and postage costs) by offering customers the option to receive electronic receipts either by email or text.
Your customer will then have it for future reference. Ask suppliers to issue and email digital invoices, which you can save into your accounting software.
Cloud Storage
Small businesses spend a lot of money to purchase, fill and maintain filing cabinets!
Switching to cloud storage can reduce most of this cost as many services, like Dropbox, offer a free allowance.
Most cloud-based options also allow you to organize documents into separate folders.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software
CRM software can reduce the extent to which you rely on paper to store and track customer details, purchase orders, quotes and other correspondence.
Features include the ability to store customer data and interactions, manage staff details and vendors, and store documents.