Managing paperwork is one of the most time-consuming, yet inescapable responsibilities that finance professionals face. With dozens of financial document types, it can be challenging to stay organized and on top of every file that may come their way. Document management is key to departmental efficiency by making document organization a breeze.
What is Document Management?
In simple terms, document management is a software that can help you properly manage all of your documentation, from invoices to income statements and more. The right system will help you automate your processes, secure your financial data, and keep your records organized.
Here are seven of the top ways that document management can keep your financial files in order.
Centralized Files for Easy Access
Document management can centralize all of your documents. You’ll know exactly where to access every document needed for any process. They’ll all be available to you in a single location. Instead of keeping documents scattered throughout your computer desktop, filing cabinet, and email, you can open one platform and have access to everything.
You can store any document type from PDFs to spreadsheets, slide decks, images, and more. The right document management system can even import files directly from your email and store them into your document management system. If you need to look over an expense report, you’ll know exactly where it is, no matter what.
Automated Filing to Promote Standardized Organization
One of the paperwork setbacks that limits your department’s productivity is searching for misfiled documents. When someone doesn’t file something in the correct location, it can take hours to locate that misplaced document and even longer to recreate it.
Intelligent document management can take your filing to the next level and keep your file organization standardized. It can recognize information within each document like names, dates, document types, etc. and file them accordingly. Human error will never cause a document to be misfiled again.
Advanced Search Capabilities to Locate Any File
Even if your files are filed correctly every time, it still can be a time-drainer when you’re forced to open layers of folders to find a specific document. The simpler alternative to manually looking through your folders is using document management’s advanced search capabilities.
Your document management system should be able to search for documents not only with the file name, but also with full-text search. This allows you to find any document by entering a few keywords, even if you can’t remember the document’s title. Your document management system will help you locate any file in seconds.
Secure Document Sharing
Another challenge that finance professionals are often faced with is the disorganized and unsecure process of sharing documents. Without the help of document management, you’re probably sharing information through email. This means that your files are likely in many different locations that you don’t have any control over.
And this doesn’t even touch on the issue of how dangerous it is to share sensitive financial data through email.
Document management helps you keep your document sharing completely organized and secure. Instead of sending your files to other individuals, you can instead invite them to the secure platform where they can view them. You won’t have sent your files anywhere outside of your control.
Simplified File Versions
When multiple team members collaborate on the same document, keeping track of the various file versions can be especially challenging. Some team members may change up the name while others leave it the same. Imagine how much simpler work would be if all the file versions could remain under the original file.
Document management does just this to assist in your document organization. Every version of the original file can be accessible under the original document name. So finance teams will no longer have to try to remember if they’re working with the most recent version of a certain document.
Implement Role-Based Permissions
Since a finance department is filled with different job functions that require access to different document types, it isn’t always practical to take the time to check that the right digital folders are accessible by the right people.
Finance teams may spend their time monitoring each file to make sure to share it with the right person. Or they can use a document management system to take care of that for them. It will allow users to create folders on a cloud-based system with customizable permissions so that all the sensitive information will only be visible to those that need access.
This can even be done when finance teams share documents involved in the month-end process with other departments, like sales. Using document management will keep things organized because every document can have their permissions adjusted in a single platform with a few clicks. Those permissions will stay intact unless the administrator changes them.
Bookmark Commonly Used Documents
To adequately perform certain processes, finance professionals may need to look back at the same document over and over again. Under normal circumstances, the choice lies between searching out that document every time you need to access it, or moving the document away from its intended location to make work more convenient.
Manually finding the document every time will likely be a time-drainer. And moving the document is risky because it’s easily misplaced. The right document management system will allow you to bookmark documents that you want easy access to. So you won’t have to choose between convenience and organization.
The Right Document Management System
Document management can be a powerful tool for finance teams looking to improve their organization and paperwork processes. Every document management system won’t necessarily offer everything you need, so be careful as you make your decision.
Revver can improve your department’s document organization with all seven of these capabilities. And it doesn’t end there. As a leader in document management, Revver simplifies even more tedious processes so you can experience new levels of efficiency across your department. Read up on how Revver eliminates risk from your finance department.
