There are crucial documents about an enterprise, no matter its size. These documents should be stored in a safe place to prevent them from being misplaced. Examples of these forms are financial records and internal documents.
Leading companies have a clear record of all their contracts stored in secure places. It is advisable to put the data together to give you fast contract renewals and other advantages.
This article will discuss some top tips on how to store your business contracts. You can also enjoy a free software trial online before you enroll in the paid plan.
- Put Passwords to Keep the Data Safe
Most small-scale entrepreneurs keep essential documents on their PC. This is not advisable. The data might land in the wrong hands in case the machine gets stolen or lost. It is advisable to have a password to keep the data secure always.
You can also go with the password protection option available in Microsoft Word.
This prevents other people from accessing your documents. It would help if you also did the same to PDF documents. You can achieve this using Adobe Acrobat.
It is advisable to always secure PDF documents before you send a contract out.
- Make use of e-signatures.
Once in your life, you have gone through many stages to get signatures from your client. This whole process led to the leakage of critical information via e-mail.
However, those days are behind us. This is because of the introduction of e-signatures. This forum lets you sign documents online. It is possible to sign documents with ease using tools like Adobe Sign.
- Make Use of your Smartphone
It will help to lower the urge to use paper receipts by using your phone. You can use your phone to take photos of purchases related to your business. You can also track expenses with ease, thanks to tools like Expensify.
Remember, e-mails are forwarded to your account when you buy things in stores like Staples. A smartphone will give you an alert whenever a receipt is sent to your mail.
- Make Use of Digital Copies
It takes more than a locked filing cabinet to keep your documents safe. It is easy to access hard copies, meaning you should make digital copies to make them secure. This makes it essential to have a digital backup.
Here, it is advisable to buy a high-quality scanner to get the job done. A scanner will enable you to convert your documents to digital files. It will help to scan all documents and secure them to a safe cloud-based service like Sugar Sync.
This cloud-based storage will let you store files on servers that you can access easily. Also, you do not have to worry about the files in case a disaster occurs. These instances include a fire or other disaster.
These cloud-based enterprises let you track who accessed specific data.
- Make Better Internal Policies
It is advisable to implement policies that will transform your small business. It would help if you shared the internal rules with your team to ensure they all know what is expected.
Examples of these policies include;
- Avoid leaving critical data in visible places where everybody can pick them up. You should retrieve the document immediately after you finish using it. This works best if you share the printer with a big team.
You should also consult your IT person to make sure they erase all information from the scanner. They should also get rid of encrypted files in the printer after a certain period.
- Use your senses to decide the files you need to keep and have rules about how long you should keep them.
- Get rid of unwanted documents. Examples are records from past events that might have your security details. It will help to save these documents in a safe area if you must keep a copy.
- Buy a good shredding machine. This will ensure all documents will important details are disposed of well. It is also advisable to use a cross-cut device in place of a strip-cut. This aims to ensure nobody can put the pieces together.
- Revoke ex-employees access to your network as soon as they leave the organization. This will prevent them from accessing essential details.
- Put the Documents in an Easy to Reach Place
It is advisable to put your documents in a place you can reach with ease. The last thing you would want is to have difficulty locating an essential document in time of need.
These crucial documents should stay in a safe but visible place to make this possible. This, in turn, will save a lot of time.
Final Thoughts
You should store your documents in a safe place to make sure only you can reach them. With the above tips, you now have information that will enable you to keep your data safe.
