Because a Virtual Assistant is a remote worker, people often think they can’t help with document management. The reality is that while a Virtual Assistant is limited as to how much they can help with hardcopy files, there’s a lot they can do to help with document management in your business.
Ideally, you will start out with a filing system in operation from the early days of your business. That will mean that organisation is simpler and maintaining good document management practices will be much easier. However it’s not until you’re trying to locate a specific item within a large volume of files in no particular order that you realise how badly you need a system.
Regardless of where you’re at in your business, a Virtual Assistant can help you to clean up and organise your files. It doesn’t matter if they’re paper or electronic files stored on your computer or in the cloud.
Hardcopy files
Whether you have an office full of filing cabinets, a paperless office, or a mixture of both – at some point you will have to deal with the paperwork and put it into some sort of order. A Virtual Assistant can help ease the pain and take a lot of the hassle off your plate.
A Virtual Assistant can help with:
- Setting up a filing system by creating a paper file or starting an e-filing system
- Scanning documents to create an e-file instead of storing paper files
- Finding someone to do the scanning for you, particularly if you have a large backlog
- Developing a schedule to make sure you keep documents for as long as is necessary for compliance.
- Creating systems so you discard documents once they’re no longer required
- Create and document a filing system for your hardcopy files so it’s easy for you (or for someone you hire) to do your hardcopy filing
- Create labels for files so all you need to do is print them and apply them to the file folders or suspension files.
- Order supplies such as manila folders, suspension files, file tabs, labels and stickers
If you have a case of dire disorganisation and a local Virtual Assistant consider asking if they would come to your office to do a once-off organisational session to get you on top of everything.
Digital files
Whether all your files are mostly stored in the cloud or taking up space on your hard drive – your Virtual Assistant can help de-clutter and sort you out.
Some of the ways your Virtual Assistant can help organise your digital files are:
- Organise your emails using tags, categories, stars and folders.
- Create autotext or templates for frequently used emails and phrases
- Sort your documents, images, videos etc. They can also make sure you have a consistent naming format that makes it simple to put your hands on what you need.
- Make sure you have templates for all the documents and presentations that you use on a regular basis
- Set up an easy access system so you can access your essential files from all of your devices
- Create a filing system and a naming standard. Then organise the files on your computer and in your Dropbox and Google Drive folders appropriately.
- Sort and rename files on a regular basis. So you can just save files into one directory on your devices. Then each day/week/month/as needed your Virtual Assistant sort and rename files as needed.
Don’t drown in paperwork whether it’s hardcopy or softcopy. Just get a Virtual Assistant to help you get organised and stay on top of your filing forever.
These are a few of the ways a Virtual Assistant can help with document management. There’s always more we can do to help. It’s just a matter of discussing your pain points with your Virtual Assistant.
