Office Management Cost Savings

[Bjorn]

Would other members like to share ideas that may save a few dollars? Here is one we did recently.

Microsoft Word and Excel are excellent products. When you need to license 20 desks the cost can be substantial.

This year we have installed Open Office available at www.openoffice.org which is a clone of the Microsoft Office suite. It works for all but the most complicated Excel spreadsheets, but without cost. I hear Sony may have switched over firm wide.

I have installed Excel on the machines that need it for linking with Quickbooks.

What are some other best practices used in the field, besides having The Tax Book on every desk that is?

[taxmandan]

Office savings

The best thing we've done to save money is to go paperless. For two years we have scanned all client documents into the computer along with a .pdf copy of the returns. Saves a small forest of trees in paper and cut our toner cartridges from 5-6 annually to 1 and a half. Now only have one small file cabinet in the office, and we don' t have to store boxes of returns and documents for years.

[Black Bart]

Saving money

Bjorn--I don't have anything spectacular to mention other than something you're probably already doing, which is to buy office supplies from a large supply house like Quill--prices are usually half those of local stores.

taxmandan--I'm interested in the paperless angle (save paper/toner/storage). Seems sort of "futuristic" to make all return copies "disappear," but maybe the future is here. Problem is, I don't know how. I understand I need a scanner, but that's all. Can you answer these specific questions? Thanks.

Approximate scanner cost?
Best one (your opinion)?
How does it work? Plug a wire from it into back of computer like a mouse cord?
Can you scan something that's thicker than a piece of paper?
Do you "feed" something "through" a scanner, lay in on top of a piece of glass like a copy machine, wave a bar-code-type wand over it, or what?
Re your statement ("scanned all docs into computer with pdf. copy of returns"): How is that done? IRS pubs come up on the screen in pdf., but how do they get there?

[taxmandan]

Approximate scanner cost? Depends on the volume needed, a small office like mine we bought a Brother 5100C for ~$150 and it works fine. The Fujitsu 4120C is a bigger/faster scanner that everyone raves about, ~$800. The important thing is to have both flat panel and sheet feed capability. Takes the same amount of time as making copies.

Best one (your opinion)? Again, depends on how much volume you'll do, the Fujitsu comes highly recommended. My brother hasn't missed a beat but we only do about 500 returns so the low speed is OK.

How does it work? Plug a wire from it into back of computer like a mouse cord? Plugs in to a USB port just like a printer. My Brother is a fax/copier/scanner model and we use it for fax as well, rarely for copies because the inkjet cartridges are expensive.

Can you scan something that's thicker than a piece of paper? Yes, on the flat panel, just like a copier.

Do you "feed" something "through" a scanner, lay in on top of a piece of glass like a copy machine, wave a bar-code-type wand over it, or what? Just like copying, same process.

Re your statement ("scanned all docs into computer with pdf. copy of returns"): How is that done? IRS pubs come up on the screen in pdf., but how do they get there?

The scanner will come with software to scan, we use PaperPort 10 which will scan directly into the Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. This matches the tax returns from our tax software that we save in .pdf form.

If you want to make .pdf files of anything, you can go to http://www.pdf995.com/ and download a print driver that will convert any computer file into a .pdf file. That's right it's a printer driver. To convert a file, you select "print" on your menu and instead of choosing a printer, you select PDF and the file is 'printed' into .pdf format and you can save it anywhere (My Documents). A great program to have for alot of things, you can e-mail files in a format that everyone can read. And if you want to put up with the banner ads, the software can be used for free.

[veritas]

Electronic data storage.

We use Fujitsu scanners and I beleive they are leaders presently in this type of equipment. We also receive a full version of Adobe acrobat with each machine. This being said I would use the electronic filing cabinet that comes with your tax software. Lacerte has an excellent program called DMS. We have sold off several filing cabinets and will be selling some more soon.

Another huge area for savings is using electronic filing. We use it for everything we can.