paper trail 88 Responses

Last post: 12 months ago | Thread started: May 25, 12, 8:25 a.m.

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• bjladams

  do you leave much of a paper trail? (for work)

  i.e: physical printed copies of work related things- invoices, receipts, quotes, job notes, expense reports... etc.

  May 25, 12, 8:25 a.m. – Permalink

• utopian

  what about bookmarks, cache and or the history on your computer?

  

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  Dog-earMay 25, 12, 8:25 a.m. – Permalink

• bjladams

  haha - sorry - i was thinking more along the lines that these last couple years everything is recorded electronically...
  apps for mileage logs, recepts, etc
  finance reports are all pdfs sent to the accountant
  job notes are all in project management programs and then exported to an hd at the end.

  my paper trail is almost non-existent

  but a good friend of mine works at a place that i did for 5 years - they keep huge amounts of paperwork for everything... quite excessively. boss man says he doesn't trust the longevity of saving things digitally. but he keeps the old paperwork (from 25+ years ago) in a storage unit- and looking thru to find things, it's all covered in mold and eaten by bugs.

  

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  Dog-earMay 25, 12, 8:32 a.m. – Permalink

• see_thru

  Keep everything....especially your email; screenshots are worth gold.

  There's nothing more satisfying than that 'ta-dah' moment and watching the colour drain out the f##kers face.

  • yeah, everything is kept. i'm still just referring to a actual paper.– bjladams

  

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  Dog-earMay 25, 12, 9:58 a.m. – Permalink

• sine

  what does your accountant do? he might keep physical copies of all important documents? stuff like receipts, etc. for tax purposes... you have to be able to show the original documents/files...

  interesting question though...
  digital/scanned copies of documents are getting more and more acceptable, even when dealing with 'traditional' institutions like banks. you can file tax-returns online, sign and scan important documents. legal documents/contracts still often have to be signed in ink and delivered by hand though, or kept as proof.

  • we get plans and contracts approved physically by meeting with clients and require an ink-on-paper signature...– sine1/2

    ... signature– sine2/2

  

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  Dog-earMay 26, 12, 4:02 a.m. – Permalink

• sine

  even though i do all of my banking online, my bank still requires me to go to my branch for certain (security-sensitive) functions, but even then i enter a pin/password, and never have to 'sign' for anything anymore...

  

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  Dog-earMay 26, 12, 4:05 a.m. – Permalink

• bjladams

  that's along the line of what i'm thinking on sine.

  we hardly ever get paper receipts now - even at the coffee shops around, it's all digital, sent via text when i check out. banks send thru everything electronically, and all client notes are in project management software. as far as the accountant, i'm sure he's got a more extensive (printed) collection of us than we do.

  we still do have paper, and files on all clients for contracts and other misc items - just noticing that over the last 4 years or so, that while the workload is increasing, the amount of physical paper is significantly decreasing.

  

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  Dog-earMay 26, 12, 5:34 a.m. – Permalink

• sine

  my opinion is that if it's not something originally in 'paper' format, it doesn't need to be kept in paper/hardcopy.... you're not gonna print out e-mails... i know our financial manager/accounts dep. takes care of all the essentials. once i've sent my scans or hard-copy receipts to them i don't worry about it any further.

  • all my bills are sent electronically as well, and payment is accepted in an e-mail confirmation. back that up, or have it on a server/service you trust and that's that...– sine1/2

    ... up, or have it on a server/service you trust and that's that...– sine2/2

  

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  Dog-earMay 26, 12, 5:57 a.m. – Permalink

• chris_himself_2

  Accounting wise I probably have most things covered in paper. So many times I file something on paper I know is saved and backed up multiple times.

  

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  Dog-earMay 27, 12, 1:59 a.m. – Permalink