How and Why You Should Digitize Your Business Documents

Business documents are one of the basic pillars of any company. Because almost every business decision is based on the information present in the documents. Yet many businesses still use paper format to store information.

It is challenging to manage paper documents, as document-related issues account for up to 21% of productivity loss.

So, is there any way to significantly prevent this productivity loss?

Yes, of course, the answer is digitizing paper documents. It becomes more convenient to work with digital documents. Let’s look at it in detail: why you should digitize paper documents and how you can do it easily.

Why Should You Digitize Your Business Documents?

The advancement of technology has made document management easier. Let’s look at the difficulties with paper documents and the benefits of digital documents.

Paper Files are Difficult to Manage

It is complicated to store, organize, and search paper documents. They take up a lot of space and time to manage. And when you need a document urgently, you will have to go through piles of papers to find the required document.

Moreover, if you misplace a paper file or it gets damaged by water or fire, you will lose the information, and there will be no way to retrieve it. That is why relying only on paper is not practical for modern businesses.

Digital Documents Improve Accessibility

Digital files make it much easier to find and use information. Instead of searching through piles of papers, you can just type a keyword and get the document in seconds.

You can access and edit files anytime, anywhere. Also, it is very easy to share digital documents. You can send documents to team members, clients, or partners with just one click.

Digitization Enhances Compliance and Audits

Businesses often need to follow legal and industry rules for keeping records. This process is very slow and difficult to go through when relying on paper files. When an audit occurs, you might misplace crucial documents or arrange them incorrectly.

Digital documents make compliance easier. You can organize them by date, category, or project. You can also keep proper backups, so nothing gets lost. When auditors or regulators ask for information, you can provide it quickly by searching your digital database.

Cost and Time Savings

Managing paper files costs money and effort. You need storage space, cabinets, and sometimes even extra staff to handle filing. Printing and making copies also add to the cost.

Digital documents reduce these problems. You don’t need large storage rooms, and you don’t have to spend on printing all the time. With just a few clicks, you can find the file you want and share it right away. This saves both time and money for the business.

How to Convert Paper Files into Digital Documents?

There are multiple ways to convert paper files into digital documents. You can do it manually by typing information using the keyboard. But this method is difficult and error-prone. Here we will discuss two easy and efficient methods you can use to digitize your documents.

1. Digitizing Paper Using an Online Image to Text Converter

The image-to-text converter is an efficient tool that uses OCR technology to recognize and extract text from images and convert it into machine-readable text. There are plenty of online tools available. You can search online and choose a good one. Here, we will use this image-to-text converter for a demo to give you a better idea, as it provided better results during testing as compared to other tools. Let’s look at it in detail.

1. Take pictures of your paper documents.

2. Open the tool in your browser. You can use this tool on both your laptop and smartphone’s browser, as it works on any device.

  3. Click the “Upload” button and select the image you want to convert.

  4. Once your image is uploaded, click on the “Convert” button. The tool will extract the     text from your image and present it in a box.

 5. You can copy or download that text and save it in your desired file format.

2. Digitizing Files Using Google Drive

Google Drive can easily convert images of your paper files into digital documents. Let’s look at the steps to use it.

1. Take pictures of your paper files.
2. Open Google Drive and click on the “new” button.
3. Click on the “File Upload” button and select the images of your paper files.

4. Once the images are uploaded, right-click on the image, go to “Open with” in the             drop-down, and choose “Google Docs.”

5. A new Google Doc will open with your image and text below it. You can save the same     file as a Google Doc.

6. If you want to download the file, go to “File,” then “Download” in the drop-down, and click on the desired file format you want to save.

Final Words

When you convert a paper file into a digital document, it becomes easier for you to store, manage, and search these documents. It also becomes easier to access data from multiple locations and share documents across digital platforms.

But when using online methods to digitize documents, always use high-quality images. This helps the tools to extract text accurately from the images.