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	Subject - Digital vs Paper Trail. MONOLITH I'm sitting here looking at my file cabinet. Right now my office files for all the various things like clients, financials, etc, are half on the computer, and half in the file cabinet. While struggling to consolidate and better organize today, I contemplated doing away with the hard paper and file cabinets all together. Every document I have can be scanned and placed into digital storage. Need a copy of that proposal the customer signed? I scanned it, just print one out. My entire company and all it's documents can be kept on a few CD-ROMS. No more big filing cabinets, and tons of paper, often duplicates of this, that or the other. Locating information is as easy as inserting the Disc, finding the folder, and printing out what you need. What are your thoughts on this? Is it really necessary any more, in this digital age, to keep 'hard copy' records? JimmyDee Make sure you have a backup off site somewhere. I think its great. Jim MONOLITH Thanks Jim. Only one reply. You guys out there? John A. Peters Gee whiz, you already have 27 readers, in a short time. Not everyone is a fast typer like you and I. I would like to see you going to a paperless office. Tell us which programs and which hardware works and so on. What problems did you have to overcome? Let us know. It is a great idea who's time may have come. I'm am going to follow your lead. MONOLITH Let me elaborate on it just a bit. Everything begins on my computer. I make all of my own forms. Proposals, invoices, estimates, contracts, marketing; everything starts on my computer. I have software with which I make my own graphics and stationary, etc. My financial profit/loss statements are all done on Excel, on spreadsheets I configured myself. My procedure up until now has been, create an invoice/proposal on the computer, then print it out, interact with the customer, then file away the hard copy paper. Even after the hard copy paper is in a file cabinet, I still have the original PC version, saved on the computer. A redundant duplication, really. So today, as I tried to think of a way to better organize the paper stuff, I had this radical realization of 'why do I need it'? For recordkeeping? Even the IRS now interprets digital recordkeeping as acceptable methodology. What if you lose the disk, or the computer crashes? My answer is, what if my filing cabinet catches on fire? Every month, or every week, I can make a backup disk(s) of everything, and keep it in a safe. I can even keep a second set in a bank's safety deposit box. The advantages are, I can literally bring my entire companies history and data along in a laptop case. No more big filing cabinets clogging up my office. And, there's a privacy benefit. No paperwork to snoop through. It's all secure on a PCROM. It sure makes it a lot harder for someone to scrutinize my records, or follow my trail, (ie: the IRS in an audit, or the wife in a divorce settlement, not that I'm condoning immoral or illegal recordkeeping, but you see my point.) Anyway, I Believe we are in fact in the age of digital recordkeeping. I guess I'm looking for feedback from people on what drawbacks I may be overlooking? Thanks. Wirenutz John said it MONOLITH 'backup' i did'nt, and had a crash last summer it was kaos, and my contractors insurance co just laughed at me... ~W~