Organisation is the key to running a good business. Having a clear and concise methodology present throughout every area of your business will increase productivity, morale and more importantly profitability. The same rules apply for your admin.
Administrative duties and paperwork come hand in hand with running a business and organisation is the most important in this area. Keeping track of transactions, correspondence and important documentation is essential and filing this paperwork away in a system which is easily accessible has many benefits.
Here are some of the reasons why organising and having access to your businesses paper trails will help mitigate business risk.
Investment opportunities
Growing a business is not easy and often needs outside investment in order to make plans a reality. This can come from a variety of places, but the most common is from a bank loan. In order for a bank to grant you this loan, you will have to provide them with a series of documentation. This is where all that time putting that new printer to work pays dividends.
By having detailed records of things such as annual revenue, your personal debt to credit ratio and net operating income, you will avoid any unnecessary delays to the process and give your business the best opportunity to walk away with your desired investment.
Ensures income legitimacy
Another thorough check which a bank or lender will often conduct when offering loans is into money laundering activity. Consumers will be aware of these checks when applying for a mortgage, and a similar set of checks are put into place for businesses.
Organisations must have a clear and detailed paper trail of any large investments which may look suspicious to outside parties looking in. This can come in the form of correspondence from the party responsible for depositing the money, copies of invoices which relate to the sum of money or any other paperwork which gives investigators a clear insight into where this money appeared from.
By ensuring these transactions are well documented, these checks should pass without incident.
Protects you against data breaches
In 2020 the vast majority of our documentation and correspondence is created and stored online. With mass amounts of storage space and cloud computing technology, there is ample room for businesses to store any and all information they would like to keep.
However, as the old adage goes “you should never keep your eggs in one basket”, and having important documentation kept solely online leaves you open to a few risks which could have serious consequences for your business.
Keeping essential documentation stored offline as well as online offers an additional level of protection against any cataclysmic data breaches or data losses, which could otherwise leave your business in a very difficult situation.
Paper trails are an important part of running a modern business in a transparent manner. Completing the admin tasks which are needed to set this system up could end up saving your hours of unnecessary research time later.
