File/Organize Client Files

[Black Bart]

New technology isn't better just because it's new technology. My office hasn't gone to paperless yet either, and the thought bothers me a bit. However, anyone I've known who went to paperless has sung the praises and nearly insisted that I do the same. I'm starting to wonder if this is the same kind of deal as using a computer program to prepare tax returns or using a word processor to write.

Don't worry about it too much. Old habits die hard. If Sova took a survey of every office in the country, he'd find that the majority (outside of large corporations who jump on money-saving ideas jiffy-quick) are still using paper file cabinets. Just walk in any small business and you'll see rows and rows of them. And, it's for the same reason he hasn't changed his file names -- it's perceived (if they've even heard of DMS) as too much trouble -- for now. But you and I and everybody else will come around sooner or later when it becomes familiar and accepted as easier and especially more cost-efficient than the old way.

A few years ago check imaging arrived and replaced the actual paper checks that had previously been returned with bank statements. Now, debit cards are on their way to doing away with checks (and that handy "float period") altogether. When significant numbers of people go to a new method, the decline of the old is accelerated, charged "non-standard" fees, and eventually discontinued altogether.

[Bees Knees]

Maybe some are making paperless too difficult. I wonder why you need a special program just to store and organize data. Good organization using Windows folders to store data is all I need. No different than sticking a literal file folder in a filing cabinet. What’s the big deal about that?

Fear of losing data is also moot. You have just as much chance losing your paper files to theft or casualty as having a computer melt down. Simply set up a system of backup computers, onsite and offsite, in case of a computer crash.

As to speed, like I said before, I can scan docs just as fast as making paper copies. And nobody can argue printing and assembling paper returns is faster than converting them to PDF.

[Black Bart]

I'm workin' on it, but

(1) why...a special program...to store and organize data ... using Windows folders...is all I need. What’s the big deal...?

(2) You have just as much chance losing your paper files to theft or casualty as having a computer melt down

(3) nobody can argue printing and assembling paper returns is faster than converting them to PDF.

it sure seems like a big deal to me.

(1) You're saying that we don't need any of those electronic "file cabinet" solution programs or whatever; right? Well okay, since I know nothing about either method, let's try yours. Say I'm inside my ATX program and I've just printed a tax return to give to the client (and maybe or maybe not one for IRS). What now? How do I go about gettin' that information over to one of those folders you're talkin' about? Do I stay inside the program? Or come out of it? If I do, then what?

(2) I think the chances of a computer going down or being struck by lightning are much greater than theft or casualty. I've been in the same place for 15 years and had one break-in (took cash only--no damage), no casualties, but have had numerous computers to quit for one reason or another and also been struck by lightning several times. You?

(3) I can argue that printing and assembling tax returns is faster than converting them to PDF. Jack -- who may also have written "Exponential Calculus Made Simple" -- 'splained it to me the other day, but I still don't understand all I know about convertin' (it seems harder than proselytizin' a Jehovah's Witness) stuff to PDQ (strike that--I mean PDF). What's your method?

[Bees Knees]

1) Do you know what happens to a file when you save it? Do you know where it is saved?

If you don’t know the answer to these questions, then you need to be educated on how data files are saved. The problem with computer users these days is that software programs have taken the need to understand computer mechanics out of the picture. Computer programs automatically set up folders where data is stored. The user simply clicks on the start button for the program, and up pops all the data that was created by that program.

If you were around back in the early DOS days or early MAC days, you learned that data is stored in various sub folders on your hard drive or floppy disc. When Windows came out, they copied the MAC way of creating folders and folders within folders to store data.

You can still do this manually, if you are the type that likes to organize your data rather than let some software program control the process.

For example, I let all of my software programs load themselves using their default settings and default locations on the C drive. But the data they create, I like to redirect into my own system of folders.

From my C drive, I create a new folder simply called Brad’s Backup documents. On some of my computers, there is a second hard drive just for data storage. The software might be loaded on the C drive, and all data files I store on the D drive. Either way, I want ALL of my data files from ALL of my different programs stored in a separate folder, not the folder created by the program.

Once I have created a separate folder dedicated to data storage only, it is then a simple matter of creating separate folders for separate things. The data files from my tax program are stored in separate folders by year. Finding a file is simple since I have named each file starting with the client’s last name. So a simple search first by tax year, and then by client last name allows me to find it fast.

Client instruction letters created in Microsoft Word are stored in a separate folder, again first by tax year, and then by last name.

The same process can be done for client billings that I have created in Microsoft Excel. And the same process can be done for backup data such as copies of the W-2s, etc. that I created in my scanner program. I like using JPEG file format that can be easily read by a number of programs, rather than the default file format that only my scanner software can read. That way, years later, on a different computer, I will still be able to read these files even if my scanner and software have long since been discarded.

As to creating these data files and storing them in my own customer file folder arrangement, all Windows programs allow you to do this simply by going to the file menu (upper left corner of your screen), select “save as,” then in the upper part of the window, use the “save in” drop down bar to navigate to the proper folder you have created on your C or D drive to save the folder in. Once you have mastered that procedure, you can create and save data files in any location on your computer. No different than choosing a specific drawer in your filing cabinet to store file folders and documents.

2) The 9/11 terrorist attacks should teach all of us a lesson as to the importance of offsite backup storage. Not one single business that disintegrated in the World Trade Centers lost data. Every computer in those buildings was destroyed, but not the data. Why? Because every business used an offsite storage service that automatically downloaded data from their computers over the Internet to Computers in other locations around the country.

It is a simple routine where every night, say 3:00AM, your computer is set to send all of its data files over the Internet to a computer located, say in Colorado. If for any reason your computer crashes, or your building burns down, or kids break in to trash your computers, your data is not lost because some computer half way across the country has your data on its hard drive.

These services are becoming more and more popular, as high speed Internet becomes available throughout the country. I have several computers in my location that have all of their data backed up automatically and stored offsite every night, without me ever having to think about it.

3) ProSeries has a command in the file menu that says “Convert to PDF.” When you choose that command, it is no different than saving a regular data file you created from the program. By doing that, you have saved the same file twice, once in the format only your Software program can read, which means you always have to have that software in the future to retrieve that data, and second in PDF format with can be read by a number of computer programs. PDF is standard these days in the tax biz. Long after your computer is dead and gone, along with the tax software you used in that particular year, you will still be able to read the data in PDF format on a different computer using a different program.

Maybe Geekgirl can help with any other technical questions you might have, but that is my take on the matter.

[Black Bart]

Thanks Bees.

Bart-Old Jack, I, too, like the paper files. Just the way I started out back in the dark ages, when tax returns were done by pencil & paper.
However, I am in a quandary. I have 1 more year left on my office lease. Will then
move everything to the house and do work there. There is not enough space, there,
for my file cabinets, hanging files, desk, etc. So, do either one of you, or any one else,
have any suggestions? Remember, I started doing tax work back in 1958.
Still have clients that started with me in the early & middle 1960s.

Okay, Bird. Got that?