Going paperless in a small business: where to start

Why going paperless pays off

• You find documents with a search instead of in a cupboard.
• You retype less, so you make fewer mistakes.
• You can work anywhere, including at home or at a customer's.
• Your documents are better protected than a folder on a shelf, provided you set it up properly.
• You lay the groundwork for automation, because software can't do anything with a sheet of paper.

That last point is often forgotten. Going paperless is the first step. Only once something is digital can you have it read, checked and passed on without anyone needing to look at it.

Where is most of the paper in your business?

For one week, keep track of what comes in on paper or gets printed. Usually it comes down to a few fixed streams:

• Purchase invoices and receipts.
• Job sheets, handover forms and checklists from field staff.
• Contracts, quotes and signatures.
• Personnel files and leave requests.
• Post from authorities and customers.
• Internal notes, schedules on a whiteboard and lists in a notebook.

Pick one stream that comes up often and takes a lot of time. That's your starting point. That way you get results quickly and learn what works in your business.

Going paperless: a step-by-step plan

• Step 1: Map the stream. Who receives the document, what happens to it and where does it end up?
• Step 2: Make sure it comes in digitally. Ask suppliers to send invoices by email or as e-invoices, and replace paper forms with an online form or app.
• Step 3: Choose one fixed place to store documents, with a clear folder structure and consistent file names.
• Step 4: Scan anything that still arrives on paper as soon as it comes in. A scanner app on your phone is often enough.
• Step 5: Automate the processing where possible, such as reading and forwarding invoices.
• Step 6: Agree on ways of working with your team, and only clear out the old paper once the new way runs smoothly.

Digitising documents with AI

Scanning alone gives you a picture. Only once the content is read can you really do something with it. With OCR (text recognition) and AI, details such as the date, amount, supplier or customer number are pulled from a document automatically. They then go straight to your accounts, CRM or schedule.

For invoices there are good off-the-shelf solutions. Read more in processing invoices automatically. For other documents, such as job sheets or forms with their own layout, a custom solution is often more practical. In reading documents with AI we explain how that works and how reliable it is.

E-signatures and digital forms

Printing, signing, scanning and emailing back contracts takes a lot of time. With an e-signature, a customer signs on their phone or laptop. There are plenty of services for this, with different levels of assurance. For most quotes and order confirmations, a simple e-signature is enough. If you're unsure about a specific contract, you can ask a lawyer which level is needed.

The same goes for forms. A paper job sheet or intake form can be replaced with an online form or a simple app. Then the details land in the right place straight away, and nobody has to retype them.

Digital archiving and record-keeping rules

You usually have to keep your business records for seven years. In many cases you may do that digitally, as long as the data stays complete and readable and you can show it during an audit. Ask your accountant or the Dutch Tax Administration (Belastingdienst) what applies to your situation before you throw away paper originals.

With digital archiving, also pay attention to security and privacy:

• Make automatic backups and test now and then whether restoring works.
• Only give staff access to the folders they need.
• Don't keep personal data longer than necessary. That follows from GDPR (AVG in Dutch).
• Turn on two-factor authentication for your storage and email.

Common mistakes when going paperless

• Trying to convert everything at once, so nothing gets finished properly.
• Scanning without a fixed place and naming, so you swap paper chaos for digital chaos.
• No agreements with the team, so half of them keep printing anyway.
• Choosing a tool before you know which problem you're solving.
• Separate apps for everything that don't talk to each other. Then you still retype data, only now from screen to screen.
• Forgetting field staff. That's often where most of the paper is.

An example from the day-to-day of many installation and cleaning companies: staff fill in a paper job sheet at the customer's. At the end of the week the pile goes to the office, where someone retypes everything into the schedule and invoicing. Sheets get lost, handwriting is illegible and invoices go out days later.

With a digital job sheet on the phone, the engineer fills everything in straight away, the customer signs on the screen and the data is in the system immediately. The invoice can go out the same day. Read how to approach such a step and what it delivers in what automation pays back.

Look at the people who'll use it, too. A new way of working only succeeds if it's easier than the old one. Involve your team from the start, let them test it and listen to what isn't working. Give it a few weeks before you judge.

Going paperless with Violexa

We help small businesses with AI and automation: reading documents automatically, digitising forms and passing data on to the systems you already use. An automation starts at €1,799 excl. VAT (€2,177 incl. VAT), one-off. Larger projects get a fixed price upfront, in writing.

Want to know which paper stream you can make digital first? Book a free quickscan. That's a 30-minute conversation, online or on site. Afterwards you get short written advice with a price indication, with no obligation.

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