Scanners

[Unregistered]

I Am Looking For A Way Of Reducing Paper.
I Am Unfamiliar With The Way Scanners Work. Do
They Scan W-2 And Other Papers And Save Them
To A Disc, Or To Your Hard Drive.

How Do They Work And What Are The Benefits?

[Chief]

Scanners

I guess they work the way the software is designed that comes with the hardware. I have an Epson CX 3200 multi function printer and also a Samsung Laser monochrome printer for most of my tax related printing. The Epson unit is both a color and a monochrome printer, open top for copying from books and magazines. It is also a scanner. The scanner has a number of functions: to copy, email, file, etc. You may scan a document from the printer function, from the computer, place a document on the top window and scan it.

I am in no way an expert in this area but the scanner is fairly easy to learn how to use. Your next problem is too read evaluations of scanner and choose the one you feel will meet your needs. There are quite a few on the market.

Good luck.

[Nancy]

I've been using a scanner for three years

I've been using a scanner for three years and really like the reduced paper. The first scanner I used was a flatbed scanner with no document feeder...it was very inexpensive (less than $100), but it was a big hassle. My current scanner has a document feeder that is very similar to a document feeder on a copy machine. I highly recommend a scanner with a document feeder.

The scanner scans a document into an image file. You can store the image file where you want...on your hard drive, on a disk and so forth. My tax software has a separate product (for an extra charge, of course) that makes organizing the images very easy. I generally scan the client documents that I would have kept a copy of before I had the scanner (W-2s, 1099s, etc). The images for each client are kept in a file under the same client ID that is used in my tax software. I also keep an electronic image of the tax return rather than a paper copy.

The scan software that comes with the scanner allows you to determine the format that you want to scan. For example, you can scan an image into pdf format and then open and then view the image using Adobe reader. The hard part was training myself to review last year's return as an image file on my computer rather than being able to look at a printed copy of the return.

[Bjorn]

Scanner ~ Another point of view

Think very hard about scanning a bunch of stuff you will never look at again. My office uses software which makes a PDF of the tax return. We toss the 8453s and w2s in a bankers box. They are not scanned since 99% of them are never viewed again. Other offices will scan everything. Weigh the costs.

[Snaggletooth]

W-2 storage

Another thing to add to Bjorn's advice about disposing of source documents:

Can you even COUNT the times in the off-season a client calls you and asks for you to fax his W-2 (or copy) to some bank because they are applying for a mortgage? How about they are going through a divorce and a lawyer supoenas W-2s, 1099s, 1040s, etc.?
Of course, the clients have already been furnished a copy of everything, but they don't keep up with them.

As often as not, my requests for this stuff go back 3 years.

[JG EA]

Disadvantages of paper

A hoarder of paper suffers. A hoarder can't let go of anything. Anything written stays written, stays somewhere, recorded, filed, stored, alphabetized.
After being in business for a long time the hoarder has no more room. Bigger and better locked storage is needed. It has to be kept, it in case something comes up and proof is needed.It could happen - then what.
There's a deep need to accumulation, stockpile yet more and more client files.

Yes, client's do need the copies of the their tax returns, W-2's for a previous year. Perhaps they even need to prove something to the state or to the IRS and yes, there will be a copy for the hoarder, instantly retrievable So, you scanners, I bet you can't say that!!

So you scan and put into Acrobat Reader. Well, a year or two goes by and then what??? Is it still going to be there? No. The program will have changed, the backup won't work, or something. Well, a Hoarder doesn't not have this problem. True, a Hoarder has other problems, (but they are unsolvable).

[Maddy Gaoiran]

Enrolled Agent

A hoarder am I... how sad is that? I want to do scanning of atleast the backup documents for clients files.. I feel 'Baby steps' into changing into a Less Paper office is better than just taking a FULL LEAP off the Cliff and go hogwild to a full PAPERLESS office. I have to take ONE step at a Time! I can get more accomplished if I just Start somewhere. So that's my suggestion... start small and GROW steadily into what ever stage of Less Paper you are comfortable with doing! Less isn't always more..... I will make a Strong Suggestion to ALL colleagues in every state... NOW is the time to do BACKUP offsite for all your programs. And possibly do a COMPLETE HARDDRIVE backup and put that Harddrive in a SAFE somewhere else, like a Bank Vault. Just because you may not be in a Hurricane state... doesn't mean a Different kind of Disaster couldn't wipe out your computer at your office! So BE PREPARED instead of caught UNAWARE of how to protect your office clients information!
Maddy G., North Bend, OR

[Liz Zitzow]

Hoarding and Scanning

A True Hoarder (appropriately capitalized in honour of our original poster) scans AND keeps the paper. That's double the hoarding power!

Seriously, by having scanned offsite cyberspace storage, you have a computer backup of everything in case, I don't know, your business was in the path of Hurricane Katrina or you live within 1,000 miles of the Yellowstone caldera or something. Nothing beats having redundancy in your backups. And you have the paper backup in case of computer failure. Win-win.

Now, keeping the paper is a problem. Big boxes, big basement helps. Read some textbooks on client achivial systems (under library science at your nearest large acedemic library) and learn more efficient archival and retrival techniques for old client documentation.