Top Reasons Why You Need to Digitize Your Important Documents

In this day and age when everything that you can imagine is digital, the paper has become the temporary medium for information. Not only that the large amounts of paper are expensive to maintain, but it is also very hard to store it without fearing the risk of valuable documents being destroyed by fire, water, or deterioration. Here’s how to digitize them.

Many companies and individuals nowadays decide to scan their paper documents and store them online which not only reduces their financial costs but improves security and the environment. Here are the top reasons why you should digitalize any important documents you might have. 

Possibility to Have Restricted Access

Some documents that you own, have private or extremely personal information which you would not like anyone else to be able to access but yourself. By creating virtual copies, you can set a password that will protect those records from any unwanted guests. You can set certain restrictions so that the information can not be saved, copied, or edited. Since the topic is about important documents, clarification is needed which would fall into such a category. 

Digitize Private Documents:

• Birth certificates
• Car Insurance policies
• Divorce documents
• Home  insurance policies 
• Life insurance policies
• Marriage documents 
• Medical records
• Passports
• Prescription records
• Property deeds
• Social insurance Cards
• Tax Returns
• Trusts
• Wills 

Digitize Professional documents:

• Client lists
• Customer contracts 
• Employee contracts
• Financial records
• Health report
• Insurance policies
• Partnership agreements
• Payroll records
• Profit reports
• Safety report
• Sales reports

Improved Security

Digitalizing will give you improved security over your sensitive documents. By uploading your files and storing them online, no matter what the type would be, you will be able to prevent prying eyes from breaching in. At the same time, your files can easily be shared with whomever you would want, regardless if it is with office colleagues or your doctor. For example, storing your medical documents online is easy and will give medical healthcare workers quick and flexible access to your files which is beneficial when diagnosing any illness you might have at that particular moment. Another instance would be an advantage over the unexpected disaster which might occur that can ruin your business by destroying all of the important papers you have stored in your office. Whatever may be the case, have in mind and be assured that you will be able to access your most important files with ease and that they will be safe and sound. Digitized documents, besides providing secure and quick access can also be beneficial in different ways.

Efficiency

It is much easier to find data and digital documents within stored centralized management systems for companies and individuals as well, compared to the documentation that is made on the paper. One of the major upsides of digitalization is this level of improved accessibility according to The Houston Chronicle. 

Instead of putting too much effort through traditionally made documentation and wasting your time, you can instead find the necessary documentation immediately with a simple online search. 

In companies, for example, digitalization has helped employers to save on their labor costs and worker efficiency has been greatly improved. In order to take full advantage of your digitized documents, you need to use the right process. Meaning, if you simply scan your documents as images, it can be proven to be quite difficult for you to find something you need right away. 

The best possible choice which is advisable is to employ any software which has optical character recognition for example that will allow you as a user to search your document through text. 

Can Digitalization Affect the Environment? 

Having digitized files and other documents are not only helping you to be organized but are also environmentally friendly. The average person would go over 10 thousand sheets of paper in a year according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA for short. By reducing paper use in one office, for instance, the environmental benefit would save up to 0,75 acres of pine forests which are absorbing carbon. 

The use of less paper is more than good for the environment, but also, if you are a business owner, your costs might be reduced. Transporting huge amounts of paper to a company is also taking its tolls, and by going digital, the emission of carbon is greatly reduced. 

Are Businesses Able to Benefit as Well? 

In today’s work environment, collaborating on a project with full force is of utmost importance, although such a thing can be quite difficult to achieve if documents are not fully digitalized and as a result, the project may turn out to be inefficient or clunky. About 83 percent of knowledgeable workers are losing their time on things that are unsorted and not well organized every day, which dramatically harms work efficiency. 

It does not matter which line of work would be at stake. Let us say that one of your team members makes changes to certain documents and sends them forward to someone else. It arrived at its destination but not everyone saw the new version on time.

Every single colleague will work based on the version which is now outdated which ultimately brings them to the point where you and your fellow employers will have to start everything again from the top. By digitizing documents, it is possible for multiple users to make much-needed edits in real-time which will surely be proven to be beneficial. You and your team’s efficiency will be improved with the implementation of electronic documentation and communication as well.

Promoting ideas, as well as receiving or giving feedback will be done easily and freely. The overall result is higher productivity, less waste of time, and better correspondence. 

All emergency preparedness experts would suggest keeping your important documents and files online where you can simply “grab” them and run in case of any natural disaster. The value of digitizing information is seen by more and more people. 

By following this advice, you will make sure to give yourself a head start, not only when you are looking for something specific or give you the opportunity to avoid rebuilding everything from scratch in case something unexpected happens.