Go Paperless with the Latest Mobile Technology

November 13, 2013 by Ed Becker

New mobile technologies are allowing the small business owner to build a completely paperless office. Ditching cabinets full of old paperwork will streamline record keeping and enable employees to be more productive. Below are a few affordable smartphone apps that can help cutout paper from your workspace.

Scan into the Cloud with SimpleScan

SimpleScan is a platform that allows users to capture a document by snapping a picture and uploading it to a cloud storage service. QuickBooks users can use this app to upload receipts directly to their company file. This completely eliminates the need to collect a pile of receipts for expense accounting. Whether you need to store a sensitive contract or a gas receipt, SimpleScan lets you handle the entire process without a trip to the copy machine. The scanned file will be saved securely in a digital format that can be accessed when needed in the future. Pricing is “totally free” for the first 30 uploads, then jumps to $5 per month for a premium membership.

Manage Payments with Lemon Wallet

Are you tired of lugging around a wallet or purse filled with credit cards, IDs, and old receipts? LemonWallet takes virtually every piece of information in your wallet and creates a secure copy in your smartphone. Not only does this provide a valuable backup of your credit cards, but it also saves you the hassle of reentering payment information on orders placed from your phone. But the most powerful feature is the credit card spending analysis, which consolidates all card balances and recent transactions into a single location. In the event your phone is lost or stolen, LemonWallet can be remotely disabled to prevent unauthorized purchases.

Lemon Wallet also offers an expense capturing service that can scan and upload receipts from your phone. Unlike SimpleScan, it is does not have the ability to upload information directly to QuickBooks. However, the app is under very active development and may offer this capability in the future.

Create Legal Documents with Shake

Shake allows the average business owner to create intelligible legal documents in a matter of seconds. Rather than hire a lawyer for $200+ per hour, try using a collection of free contract templates provided by Shake. A diverse variety of contractual situations are covered, such as non-disclosure agreements, financial lending, bills of sale, and freelance work contracts. After you’ve selected the appropriate template, you can customize it to fit your specific needs. Finally, all parties can sign the contract directly from the app, so you will never need to print a paper copy.

Get your Faxes Delivered with iFax

Fax machines have long been the archenemy of white-collar office workers. iFax is an elegant solution that allows you to send and receive landline faxes directly from your smartphone. In addition to faxing, built-in features allow you to sign documents, create custom coversheets, and perform basic image editing. The app is free to download and free to use when receiving inbound faxes, but expect to pay $0.99 per 5 pages of outbound faxes. If you only need to send an occasional fax, this presents a significant cost savings over purchasing a clunky fax machine. Not to mention, it is also cheaper (and more convenient) than running to your local FedEx-Kinkos.

The Future

New technologies are making paper obsolete by offering a solution that is cheaper, more flexible, and environmentally sustainable. A completely paperless office is not only achievable with current technology, but is the norm for forward-looking startup firms. Creating a paperless office requires minimal financial investment and can eliminate the need for antiquated paper processing tools, such as fax machines, copiers, scanners, and shredders.