Managing Paperwork - your best tips?

I have paperwork coming out of my ears, property stuff, home stuff, development stuff, software stuff, kids (school, childcare etc) stuff, medical stuff, bills, invoices, receipts, warranties, bank statements, loan statements, credit card statements, car stuff, truck stuff, tax stuff... STUFF from companies and trusts..

I have, in the past, ended up with multiple full in-trays for filing each 6 inches high

One thing that started working well for me now is I've changed from filing cabinets to Ring Binder folders right there ON desk that is (almost) dedicated to managing STUFF.. My hole punch, envelopes, stamps, cheque book in easy reach.. maybe it'll continue to work well, maybe it wont, I have a long history of failed great ideas in keeping organised

I'm thinking of dedicating a set time each week to keeping STUFF under control.. I'm a terrible terrible pro-crastinator.. maybe that'll help too.

I bought the "Getting Things Done" book by David Allen but I havent read it yet

Here's my "STUFF Desk":



I'll hire a personal assistant when the cashflow permits.. in the meantime..... I'd love to hear everyones tips for keeping on top and organised.. I guess its all self discipline, but any cool hacks, ideas, thoughts, websites, software ideas, etc.

Sorry, no ideas, no help! Mine's worse! I wish I could wave a magic wand & have it all sorted out. I hate paperwork & I get more & more of the stuff each year.

Three piles

Hi Dunc,

I've tried a few methods -
- weekly/monthly filing
- temporary folders/binders
- multiple filing trays

None of them worked for me. The current method is pretty simple and doesn't require much ongoing effort - three piles.

Pile 1 is Action (usually contains bills) with the date to be paid highlighted. This pile is kept in date order, so I just need to look at the top item each morning.

Pile 2 is Business Filing - Filing was supposed to happen every month, but I haven't actually done it since July. It's a largish pile. The upside is that it's all in one place, so I definitely know where all this years stuff is.

Pile 3 is personal filing - things which don't need to go to accountant, but probably need keeping

In July I plan to file some of it and create another pile to go to the accountant. This kills two birds with one stone - I used to hate getting everything together for the accountant & also hated the monthly filing. This way I also keep everything for this FY seperate from last years (& next years) stuff.

This year has been a quiet IP year with only minor renos & no sales/purchases. So I have been fairly sure that I won't actually need to access anything (& search 'the pile') during the year. Previous years filing require an assistant & a large floor area & a whole day.

My filing cabinets of previous years are pretty well organised.

A little mentioned upside of B&H shares is the lack of paperwork - just buy a lot of a LIC & filing is 2 dividend statements p.a. & maybe a margin loan summary statement.

Cheers,

Keith

keithj said:

A little mentioned upside of B&H shares is the lack of paperwork - just buy a lot of a LIC & filing is 2 dividend statements p.a. & maybe a margin loan summary statement.
Keith

Click to expand...

Hey Keith that's the filing system I'm using from now on.

I can't believe the amount of paperwork investment properties generate especially where there's a body corp involved. For the IPs I just record the financial information into Quicken then file the paperwork in a dedicated file for each IP.

With the tax crap, for each entity (ie me, wif, trusts, SMSF) I have a separate business file with plastic inserts divided by major tax categories (eg vehicle, home office, Investing etc). I start a new lot each financial year. Come tax time I just send the world's best accountant (ie Dale ) my Quicken tax reports with a few notes and only absolutely mandatory paperwork (eg group certificates).

Cheers - Gordon

duncan_m said:

My hole punch, envelopes, stamps, cheque book in easy reach..

Click to expand...

Don't forget a stapler!

Assuming that bills, PM statements, insurance renewals, etc are an average of two sheets, a stapler effectively reduces the number of seperate papers by 50%.

Another two:

1. Open mail near a bin; >50% of what you receive (even solicited mail) will end up in there anyway.

2. A book I read on reducing paperwork suggested 'Prevent double-handling; Do it now, then file'. (To contradict this, if it concerns paying bills, and the amount is substantial, then deferring payment until the due date is better for cashflow)

Lever-arch files here include:

1. General Finances (1 file per financial year)

Sections include:
- Asset & liabilities statements (prepared June 30 and Dec 31)
- Dividends
- Managed Investments
- Cash Management Acct (for investments)
- Loans (for investments)
- Savings Account (personal use)
- Credit card (personal use)
- Charity donations
- Superannuation
- Health
- Group certificates/last years tax statement

(Even though the rest of this place is a mess, I have maintained the above arrangement since 1995)

2. Property Investment Research (seperate files for each state of interest)
- with sections on each city of interest

3. Property file (1 per IP)

Sections on
- Purchase documents
- Building/pest inspections
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Managing Agreement
- Property Manager Statements (the biggest section)
- Inspections

When intersate, receipts for improvements have been put into an envelope. I have written on the receipt the purpose of the expenditure where this is not clear from the receipt.

Rgds, Peter

I come from a line of "long livers" (don't go there Geoff, nothing to do with a 12") and to my mind there has not been a control freek among them.

Perfection in paperwork is an unworthy aim


Quote: If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.

Quote: A tidy desk is a sign of a sick mind.

Good topic Duncan.....

The pic tells a story. Seems you'd be better with 2x2 drawer filing cabinets holding up your desk top, rather then trestles. Or you might try sourcing narrower lever arch files or ring binders, and archiving them yearly. This will reclaim lots of desktop real estate. You could also whack some shelves above your trestle desk.

Accounting Stuff
I file business expenses, personal expenses, and debtors in their own separate lever arch files, divided into FY monthly transparent plastic pockets. The plastic inserts save two hole punching every piece of paper. Agree with above about stapling multi page bills. At the end of FY, I take em out of the binder, string em, and stick em in a FY box.

I used to file by cashbook account (tax category or chart of accounts), but that confounded things when reconciling with electronic imported bank statement data. (Once a bill's data is in the cashbook electronically, rarely do I refer to the paper bill again, so I don't benefit from filing bills via tax category.)

I don't bother reclaiming expenses paid by cash anymore, but stick cash receipts into monthly expense pockets all the same. They might total $150 a month sometimes, but the time taken to manually process cash receipts isn't worth it to me.


Non Accounting Filing
Non accounting paperwork and correspondence goes into suspension files in filing cabinets by major category and sub cat-
Expenses: lease, vehicles, disposables, office, professional, education, travel, utilities, tax, accountant, solicitor.
Income:
Assets:
Loans:
Investments: property, shares, research etc


Desk
I organise my desk left to right:
- 4 trays...'in tray' on the left, then 2 vertical trays for chronological action (action later than this week underneath, action this week on top), then filing tray to right.
- bin on floor to right.

Buy a notebook computer rather then a desktop computer. saves so much space.

Totally agree with 'do it now'. But I tend to file and do data entry once a week.

When opening mail, I ask myself 'will I use this info within 12 months?' if no, then I bin it. I bin a lot of stuff.

I find a good business card indexing system is indispensible. It is always a dilemma who goes into the outlook address book for export to mobile phone.

Use a diary. day to a page if necessary. notate important phone calls.

When researching and making notes re property, business, anything:
- some use spirax notebooks either via theme or date.
- some use loose leaf filed in loose pockets, which can then be filed in suspension files. I find this better than spirax when trying to find info from the past

Being organised takes time, but a good system saves more time than it takes to maintain.

Now, let's not get started on computer storage and backup setup...

Duncan M,
You look pretty organised to me; if my desk looked like that I'd be PROUD!

Least you can actually SEE the desk and have a clear area to work on.

I have three piles; the one I need to file now; the one I should have filed in the last 12 months and the one I should have filed in the last 12 years!

Funny enough I can still manage to retrieve something if need be(given 24 hours notice)!

Silene101

silene101 said:

Duncan M,
You look pretty organised to me; if my desk looked like that I'd be PROUD!

Least you can actually SEE the desk and have a clear area to work on.

Click to expand...

Oh I forgot to mention that was AFTER a blistering afternoons work to get things up to date.. keeping it that way is another thing.. hence this thread

Spiderman said:

Don't forget a stapler!

Assuming that bills, PM statements, insurance renewals, etc are an average of two sheets, a stapler effectively reduces the number of seperate papers by 50%.

Another two:

1. Open mail near a bin; >50% of what you receive (even solicited mail) will end up in there anyway.

2. A book I read on reducing paperwork suggested 'Prevent double-handling; Do it now, then file'. (To contradict this, if it concerns paying bills, and the amount is substantial, then deferring payment until the due date is better for cashflow)

Lever-arch files here include:

1. General Finances (1 file per financial year)

Sections include:
- Asset & liabilities statements (prepared June 30 and Dec 31)
- Dividends
- Managed Investments
- Cash Management Acct (for investments)
- Loans (for investments)
- Savings Account (personal use)
- Credit card (personal use)
- Charity donations
- Superannuation
- Health
- Group certificates/last years tax statement

(Even though the rest of this place is a mess, I have maintained the above arrangement since 1995)

2. Property Investment Research (seperate files for each state of interest)
- with sections on each city of interest

3. Property file (1 per IP)

Sections on
- Purchase documents
- Building/pest inspections
- Insurance
- Maintenance
- Managing Agreement
- Property Manager Statements (the biggest section)
- Inspections

When intersate, receipts for improvements have been put into an envelope. I have written on the receipt the purpose of the expenditure where this is not clear from the receipt.

Rgds, Peter

Click to expand...

Scaaaaary .... thats exactly how I do it. Works good too.

T.

Duncan

Did it take you all day to do that?

Trust me if you're anything like me it wont stay that way for long.

I am planning a huge bonfire one night though, everyones invited!

Silene101

Duncan,

whoa boy can I relate to this thread!




My system is very simple, very streamlined and works well. For 12 properites, plus 3 lots of super, insurances, mutliple shares/managed funds, banka accounts etc, I have the following simple system:


1) Rule 1 - my desk is tidy ALWAYS, it only ever contains a keyboard, mouse, slimline monitor and multi-function printer/fax/copier etc (this is because an untidy desk scatters my attention and I cannot work this way, it is clinical clean - hey it looks organised and nice and modern too).

2) I use a ONE DRAW filing system in my desk - yes you heard it right, one Draw. This draw contains everything relevant for the current financial year for all the above stuff.


This is how I do it:

1) Mostly open mail at PO Box and dump all crap in bin at Post Office

2) Maintain one folder per IP, sorted by relevant areas (statements etc)

3) By TAx time, the draw is FULL, I mean full. It gets the crap cleared out if it, and archived to in Office Works folder container boxes stored in the roof, using the same filing system (one folder per property, later it will require two folders per property)

4) I only every keep things that are relevant and necessary for either tax, law, contractual, financial records or something that I actually will definitely need.

Has worked for four years so far. The key is to be ruthless.....


Cheers,

Timbo

When I went to the Accountant's last year I took my porter's trolley and stacked it with the files when I arrived at the car park.

I actually couldn't quite see over the top of the stack and had a hard time getting the trolley to bounce the single, tiny step into the office!

I left the Accountant's with all the same stuff, leaving behind about 12 sheets of paper which was a summary of all the year's work.

However, the trolley sat in the family room for some months after that organised effort and I still have files on the floor next to my knee (surrounded by texturally interesting cat fluff) which were offloaded from the trolley and there they have sat.

Ask me any questions, though, and I can quote or find the receipt / statement / file in about 15 seconds. Trouble is, my brain doesn't have a back up system so if it short circuits then there goes nothing!

Which reminds me - when I have about 40 spare hours I must get 2003 - 2004 tax returns done!

Cheers

Kristine

Yours looks much neater than ours. We have the same problem. Just finished cleaning out all the files on the pc. We have paperwork everywhere, bills, just a lot of filing and probably 6 mths worth of loads of bank statements to file if I can find them.

The thing is, I have worked as an Executive Assistant, Office Manager etc I am actually a very highly organised person when I work for someone else but at home I just procrastinate!

Like most people, I'm far more organised at work than home. And my busy time at work is when I should be getting organised at home i.e. tax season.

I've set up various systems with trays and folders etc and I always feel better after I've done it. It's just that after I've done it I don't maintain the system. I actually avoid going into my home office - it's easy to do as it's sort of in another building.

But I've now acknowledged my shortcomings and I have a foolproof system!

Obvious junk mail is binned without being opened. Everything else goes into a pile unopened.

Then I pay someone $20 per hour every 6-8 weeks to come around, go through it and do the filing (I've got 2 x 2 drawer cabinets). A couple of times I've got one of the admin people from work to come over after work. I open a bottle wine for us, cook dinner, wander into the office every now and then to answer questions, and 3 hours later it's all done!

It's the best system I've come up with yet.

Scott

duncan_m said:

I have paperwork coming out of my ears, property stuff, home stuff, development stuff, software stuff, kids (school, childcare etc) stuff, medical stuff, bills, invoices, receipts, warranties, bank statements, loan statements, credit card statements, car stuff, truck stuff, tax stuff... STUFF from companies and trusts..

Click to expand...

Duncan

Why doesn't your property record keeping software allow you to scan and attach paperwork.

My lever arch folders are taking over the house too!

Seriously though does anybody scan and keep their paperwork electronically? I'm toying with the idea of just scanning everything and using Copernic free desktop search engine to find it???

In the office I've used all sorts of different document management systems "DMS's" but they all fell down through the need to fill out some database fields.

Has anybody tried to use ACT! for document management as well as contact management???

Cheers
N.

NigelW said:

Duncan

Why doesn't your property record keeping software allow you to scan and attach paperwork.

My lever arch folders are taking over the house too!

Seriously though does anybody scan and keep their paperwork electronically? I'm toying with the idea of just scanning everything and using Copernic free desktop search engine to find it???

In the office I've used all sorts of different document management systems "DMS's" but they all fell down through the need to fill out some database fields.

Has anybody tried to use ACT! for document management as well as contact management???

Cheers
N.

Click to expand...

Hey N!

It does allow scanning and electronic storage! Its just not released yet.It rocks But I'm still uncomfortable with not filing the stuff, at least for 6-12 months whilst I get comfortable with the version..

Send me a PM if you'd like a beta copy

i tend to let the filing build up over 3-4 months then tackle a "big file" session. strangely, including having the piles sorted all over the loungeroom floor, the whole process only takes about and hour.

but damn - don't those arch files fill up quick!

lizzie

NigelW said:

Duncan

Why doesn't your property record keeping software allow you to scan and attach paperwork.

My lever arch folders are taking over the house too!

Seriously though does anybody scan and keep their paperwork electronically? I'm toying with the idea of just scanning everything and using Copernic free desktop search engine to find it???

In the office I've used all sorts of different document management systems "DMS's" but they all fell down through the need to fill out some database fields.

Has anybody tried to use ACT! for document management as well as contact management???

Cheers
N.

Click to expand...

I scan most things into my laptop, and file the hardcopy immediately with the path name of the scanned doc written onto the hardcopy. but I really do prefer hardcopy rather than electronic.

lizzie said:

i tend to let the filing build up over 3-4 months then tackle a "big file" session. strangely, including having the piles sorted all over the loungeroom floor, the whole process only takes about and hour.
lizzie

Click to expand...

Hahah I had the "piles" system operating yesterday.. works good! especially when you start to memorise the location of the piles accurately and you can start to do things quickly.. I had a 14 week old puppy who also wanted to nibble on my piles which slowed things down a bit.

I really appreciate everyones input, I've got some great ideas out of the thread.