How Going Paperless Can Save Your Business Time and Money

Digital file management is quickly rising in popularity among apartment owners who want to streamline their process and save time and money. This method is a more reliable and secure way to store and organize documents. Over the years, record keeping in apartment management has evolved along with new technologies, making filing cabinets a thing of the past.

Moving to a digital document management system provides the benefit of unlimited storage on a cloud platform. A digital workflow doesn’t mean you have to go entirely paperless. Digital file storage can serve as a safe backup to your current process to add an extra layer of security. Let’s look at how going paperless can save you time and money.

Digital file management can save you time.

An apartment with many tenants will have multiple files on each tenant who has lived in the property. As you know, you can’t get rid of files simply because a tenant has moved out. After all, you might need a specific file for reference in the future.

This accumulation of documents can make searching for a specific record a long and arduous task. Typically, you spend time searching in multiple file cabinets for one specific file. This process is time-consuming for property management staff, but can be inconvenient for residents as well.

However, when your records are stored digitally, you just enter the name of the tenant, or the record number associated with a tenet, and the computer simply pulls the file for you. Barcode technology allows for a quick and efficient catalog system to keep all your data quickly accessible in one place.

Most offices could use a little extra space. You don’t want bulky storage and filing cabinets being an eyesore to new and prospective tenets. Reducing equipment and large paper storage systems clears up that space to personalize the office.

Only so many file cabinets and storage units can fit into a single room before it becomes necessary to find new space to store your records. With limited space for storing documents, and the need to keep records, digital file management can be a major upgrade.

A property management budget can save a lot of money by switching to digital system, and eliminating the need to rent new space for storage needs.

How much money does your company spend on paper and printing supplies each month? With a digital file management system, you can greatly reduce or eliminate these costs all together.

These little costs add up quickly when working with paper products, and inefficiency is expensive. With a digital storage solution, your business can save on folders, binders, filing cabinets, locks, labels, boxes, and all the other equipment needed when working with traditional file storage systems.

You also won’t have to print out your documents all the time. Assuming you print out about 5,000 pages a year, you’re spending about $400 simply on printing. If you factor in ink cartridge replacement, which costs about $40 a cartridge, you’re looking at a recurring cost, that adds up quickly. All of this is eliminated when you use digital file management instead.

As the owner of an multifamily property, your ability to communicate and provide help to residents is directly related to the efficiency of the management system. Assume you are in a situation where you own multiple apartments and you want to find information about a tenant in another apartment. With a digital file management system, you would simply need to look up this tenant’s information on your own computer after having accessed the apartment management software on your account. If you need hard copies of a document, you just have to print the document out.

If you want to transport your files to another location when your apartment building still uses paper files, you’re going to be in trouble. The costs will shoot through the roof as you try to hire trucks and vans to take your data from one place to another. With a digital system, though, transporting data is as simple as downloading it to a flash drive and carrying it in your pocket. You can even store it in the cloud so it can be accessed from anywhere and printed as necessary.

With digital file management, your resident information will be safe in a secure digital cloud. Filing cabinets and traditional documents are a security risk in any office. They are vulnerable to theft and natural damage including fire, water, tornada etc.  They need additional physical security like alarms, locks, and more. With digital filing, you can save money and rest easy knowing all tenant data is secured and backed up.

Today, going paperless feels like a choice that isn’t just beneficial, but logical. As computers increase in storage capabilities and processing power, you gain more control over what you store, how you store it, and how safe it is. Take the time to switch your apartment management system over to digital file management today, and marvel at the convenience it brings.