When your entire business is focused on bringing customers the services they need, paperwork often feels like it just gets in the way. However, in the digital age of virtual documents and cloud storage, the hassle is completely unnecessary.
What is a Document Management System?
Imagine a world without collating, sorting, or searching for hours through big filing boxes of old documents for a single form. What if you didn’t even have to organize your own folders of digital paperwork on your computer? Whether your office is running on pure paper documents, has successfully gone digital or, like many, runs in a strange hybrid of the two, a document management system can make your business life a lot easier.
A document management system is an online platform that stores digitized documents, organizes them for you, and makes them available for secured access from anywhere. This is built from a combination of great software design, cloud storage, and a strong security infrastructure to help you store, organize, secure, and access all your important business documents from anywhere with an internet connection. In many ways, using a document management system is like your own personal concierge that never sleeps, always knows what form you need, and doesn’t require a paycheck or a tip.
Putting Your Business Documents Online
Most restaurants have a few documents that get a lot of use and many more that are only needed on occasion, and a huge collection of documents that are relevant only to internal business procedures. Even if your business procedures still involve getting signatures on paper documents, why keep the originals or even your for-the-record copies in physical form where a stray cup of coffee could ruin them? Consider how many of your documents will be you need to access every day or every now and again and how easy it would be to simply search for them through a helpful online platform rather than shuffling through your local records or hauling around file folders. Scanning all your documents is a big task but it only needs to be done once.
Flexibility in the Field
One of the biggest challenges of any restaurant industry business is being away from the office. With an online document management system, getting needed paperwork (accessing pricing, inventory, vendor paperwork, etc.) on the floor is quick and easy. All your employees need to do is log in through their mobile device.
With full mobile integration, employees can also take a picture of incoming documentation (i.e. invoices) with their device and the management platform will upload it into your document system.
Easy Digital File Sharing
File sharing is a major part of any business as you make sure that everyone has a copy of all the documents they need. These may be client documents full of useful information, blank forms to be put to use later on, or important memos that inform the team of new policies. Whatever the document, sharing can either involve a lot of scanning, printing, and collating or you can simply make an online copy available to the correct list of people. Your document management system can quickly and easily ensure not only that your employees have access to all the documents they need to do their jobs, but also that clients and business partners get a digital copy of anything they require without the hassle of printing, stapling, and delivering by hand or through the mail. With role-based permissions, you can even be certain that no one will be able to access any private information that they don’t need.
The Perfect Disaster Recovery
On top of everything else a document management system can do to increase your efficiency, flexibility, and accessibility, it also provides protection against disasters. From ransomware encryption attacks to rampaging hurricanes, even if your restaurant is completely wiped out, you will still have access to all your vital business paperwork. With documents stored on the cloud instead of in physical folders or local hard drives, you can rest assured that no matter what happens, you can still access files from any computer or device with internet access. Client information, financial records, and work product will all be perfectly safe in your cloud-based document management system.
About the Author
Jesse Wood is the CEO of document management software vendor, eFileCabinet. Founded in 2001, eFileCabinet, Inc. began as a cutting-edge tool to digitally store records in accounting firms. As it grew in popularity, eFileCabinet developed into a full-fledged electronic document management solution designed to help organizations automate redundant processes, ensure security, and solve common office problems.
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