Filing solution

[bullseye]

I scan practically everything and shred the paper. (Not one thing that can identify me goes in the rubbish.)

The handful of certificates and suchlike needed in hardcopy all fit in one inch-thick plastic case.

This is me just checking, Does HMRC accept the scanned receipts? Any linkys?

[SantaClaus]

Do you use a little penknife for sharpening your quill pens too?

I scan practically everything and shred the paper. (Not one thing that can identify me goes in the rubbish.)

The handful of certificates and suchlike needed in hardcopy all fit in one inch-thick plastic case.

Yep, everything gets shredded here too. Take note MrYouKnowWho (TM)

Does anyone actually trust their council to recycle their credit card bills, etc?

[RichardCranium]

Crikey, don't take it so much to heart!

Done. Rant deleted. You were on the receiving end of a response that belonged to a couple of twats.

OK I'll admit I'm a teeny bit jealous of people with enough room for a separate, office, filing cabinet and all, and maybe that came across.

There is a cost. We always have to take on a property with one more bedrooms than we need. But back in Ye Olde Days it used to be worthwhile doing that. It's not really worthwhile any more (£2 allowance a week for a room is taking the piss - where can you rent a room for £8 per month?).

But I still reckon that these days a scanner and shredder is far more useful and effective than a filing cabinet (although admittedly it takes a bit more time to process papers).

and no, I don't scan supermarket receipts and suchlike. I wish to God I *was* more anal - Might be able to figure out WTF half my money goes!

Another bit of software I find useful is Quicken. I don't think it has been available for some years, but others are available incuding an open source offering. You log every transaction that goes through your accounts (business and personal). When the statements come in, you reconcile the transactions against the statement. Standing orders and direct debits and routine transactions are all automatically done. Benefits:

- you know your balances at any time, including a good guess into the future.
- you get to see the errors on your statements. Cheques tend to be entered wrongly these days for some reason. And I query about one cash withdrawal a year.
- when you get "WTF was that??? " entries on your statement, you have a corresponding explanation in the software ("oh, yeah, that, I remember now ")

When you then want to do VAT returns it makes life easier. It also helps with "WTF does my money go?" as everything is categorised. When you see questions on CUK such as "How much do you pay for gas and leccy?" you can look back and see whether you are being shafted too.

[OwlHoot]

... There. How did you like that on a Sunday morning? Just because ministrone & dog's heinous have been trolling me like loons, doesn't mean you have to join in. ...

Crikey, don't take it so much to heart!

OK I'll admit I'm a teeny bit jealous of people with enough room for a separate, office, filing cabinet and all, and maybe that came across.

But I still reckon that these days a scanner and shredder is far more useful and effective than a filing cabinet (although admittedly it takes a bit more time to process papers).

and no, I don't scan supermarket receipts and suchlike. I wish to God I *was* more anal - Might be able to figure out WTF half my money goes!

[worzelGummidge]

I use a 2nd hand 2-drawer filing cabinet. Bought in 1999 for about £20.
There are loads for sale in second hand furniture shops. They are a bit heavy but you do not tend to move them about very much.
My office is upstairs so we did have to get it up the stairs but they do move up and down carpeted stairs quite easily on their side. Especially going down stairs !

It's definitely the best way of keeping paper stuff.
For the company year end accounts etc I have one box filling box for each year and then just keep nine years worth.

For shredding I use a 2.5 foot high Fellows shredder. It was about £200 but does the job very well.

[Mr.Whippy]

As for identity theft issues, yes a burglar will pinch the valuable paperwork. They will also have away your computer. We will both be seriously inconvenienced.

In the event of a fire, we will also be in a similar position. A paper-filled, steel filing cabinet is probably going to survive about the same length of time as your PC. If either are destroyed, the consequences are the same. (Actually, I suspect my paperwork would stand the better chance of surviving.)

I scan all my stuff and to mitigate the risk of fire/theft/loss of laptop all my documents are sync'd with dropbox to multiple machines on the fly. Plus I can access them from any web enabled machine. As for security, each file is individually encrypted and also stored on a truecrypt encrypted volume, even my OS's are truecrypt encrypted also.

I can have all my documents downloaded to a new machine within minutes, so I think I've got the theft/fire/loss angles covered

[MrMark]

Can't quite see it myself if it is just a name and address on an envelope but I know a policeman with experience of fraud and that is exactly what he told me to do.

If I wanted the names and addresses of IT contractors, I'd post a job ad on jobserve, and wait for the cvs to fly in (often including Date of Birth). No need to rummage around dustbins on the off-chance..

[xoggoth]

I scan practically everything and shred the paper. (Not one thing that can identify me goes in the rubbish.)

Can't quite see it myself if it is just a name and address on an envelope but I know a policeman with experience of fraud and that is exactly what he told me to do.

[RichardCranium]

<rant deleted>

Sorry, zamzummim. I've probably just f**ked up your thread.

[RichardCranium]

Do you use a little penknife for sharpening your quill pens too?

No, but I do use a chisel to sharpen the pencils I use for DIY and craft work.

I scan practically everything and shred the paper. The handful of certificates and suchlike needed in hardcopy all fit in one inch-thick plastic case.

Suit yourself. I am a Luddite and do not trust computers.

Also, I find I can retrieve paperwork from the filing cabinet without having to search. Also, I do not have to put indexing marks against the documents, I just drop them in the right folder.

Also, when taking paperwork to the bank for bank accounts, to the DWP or council for benefits, to interviews for id and qualification checks and so on, I find the originals are easier to deal with than copies and it must be more convenient and 'green' than having to print out copies of the originals to take.

As for identity theft issues, yes a burglar will pinch the valuable paperwork. They will also have away your computer. We will both be seriously inconvenienced.

In the event of a fire, we will also be in a similar position. A paper-filled, steel filing cabinet is probably going to survive about the same length of time as your PC. If either are destroyed, the consequences are the same. (Actually, I suspect my paperwork would stand the better chance of surviving.)

I am not bothered about the floorspace. The Missus & I always have a room as a dedicated office. Having a filing cabinet is tidy and in the very unlikely chance of a visit from the taxman, just adds to the overall impression that I am legitimately claiming for the use of that room.

For the volume of paperwork involved, I believe a manual system is cheaper, faster, greener, more secure and more efficient than a computerised one.

PS: I have implemented EDRMS in the past so I do know what is involved, I just can't be arsed with all the faffing of scanning and indexing that goes with it.

[OwlHoot]

I bought a 2nd hand proper office steel 4-drawer filing cabinet in 1995 for about £10 or £20. It is about 3/4ths full.

One drawer: everything to do with LtdCo.

One drawer: personal stuff - everything financial, medical & legal.

One drawer: academic, hobbies, interests & memberships

One drawer: guarantees, non-claimable receipts that need to be kept for warranties, huge Jiffy bags each holding one year of company paperwork.

It is the tool designed for the job and it does it very well.

Do you use a little penknife for sharpening your quill pens too?

I scan practically everything and shred the paper. (Not one thing that can identify me goes in the rubbish.)

The handful of certificates and suchlike needed in hardcopy all fit in one inch-thick plastic case.

[Platypus]

WHS

Buy one at auction for very little money

[RichardCranium]

I bought a 2nd hand proper office steel 4-drawer filing cabinet in 1995 for about £10 or £20. It is about 3/4ths full.

One drawer: everything to do with LtdCo.

One drawer: personal stuff - everything financial, medical & legal.

One drawer: academic, hobbies, interests & memberships

One drawer: guarantees, non-claimable receipts that need to be kept for warranties, huge Jiffy bags each holding one year of company paperwork.

It is the tool designed for the job and it does it very well.

[zamzummim]

I seem to have collected a lot of paper over years, my old filing system is not working any longer (boxes containing 2 files per year, one for personal one for company related paper work) the study is exploding, even though I keep a lot scanned on the laptop, I have been through it all in the last few weekends and got rid of a lot, but what’s left is required e.g. there are stuff like receipts, policies, letters, signed contracts, insurances etc etc that I'd need to keep the original.

Should I get a couple of filing cabinets from IKEA or such? Also what's the best way to file paper, suppose one must separate personal and company related, any I ideas?