Organising Business Files and Folders

Organising business files and folders can be tricky, especially in a large office with multiple departments and high volumes of staff.  Documents can be saved across a variety of locations including lever arch folders, filing cabinets, network folders, SharePoint, OneDrive and email inboxes. 

This can turn simple searches into lengthy and time-consuming tasks.

Ever find yourself asking ‘where did I save that file?’ Have you looked in the folder where it should be and it's not?  Had to ask a colleague to find something in their inbox? Or searched on desks, in filing cabinets and in-trays with no luck? If you've wasted a lot of time searching for documents, we can help.

Like designated sections in a supermarket, organising business files and folders in a structured way reduces frustration, increases productivity and improves efficiency.

Make any new system or process you implement easy to use so everyone can find the business files they’re looking for.  If it's too complicated or too lengthy to set up, adoption will be low and work will become chaotic again.

Here are some tips or how to better organise business files and folders.

Store Business Files In A Shared Location

Employees across the organisation can’t access business files saved on individual laptops or documents printed off and left on a desk.  It sounds obvious, but over the years we've heard this problem a lot.  With poorly organaised folders there's a risk of duplication and a serious lack of document control. 

Business files should be saved on a server, network drive or a in a document management system.  This way, all employees have access to the same information.  Servers, network drives and documents saved in a dedicated document management system are backed up, unlike individual desktops.  This means that should the worst happen, like a laptop is damaged or stolen, information is still secure and accessible.

Group by Category

Work out what categories make sense for your business and use them as top-level business folder names:

• By department – HR, Finance, Operations, Sales, Quality, Compliance. 
• By clients – create separate folders for each client with structured sub-folders that all following the same naming convention
• By product or service – have a folder for each product or service you sell.  Everything relating to that product would be housed in sub-folders with in it, such as road map, marketing information, images, technical notes etc.

Group by Date

Many business activities are reoccurring so organising by year or month means everyone knows which is the latest folder to store to, or can more easily find information from previous years.  When a folder is no longer needed it can be archived to save space.

Use Sub-Folders

After organising business files and folders into categories, use additional layers to help you narrow the content down further.  Do this by using subheadings but only use as many as you need, try and keep it as simple as possible to avoid confusion.

Use Final, Draft and Archive Folder Names

Using subfolders for the different stages of a project or tender work when working collaboratively, can help to make it clear where tasks are up to.  if you not digital system in place to manage

• Final - for any documents that are completed and approved
• Draft - save documents that are a work in progress in here.  All revisions made should be numbered to track which is the latest version.
• Archive - use the archive folder to store old materials for reference, like notes, research, scrapped ideas, etc.  It may all still be useful to refer back to, but the information won't get in the way if it's stored separately.

Create Folder Templates

Once you’ve designed your folder structure, create empty folders as a template so you can keep it consistent and make all new starters aware that this is how business files and folders need to be organised.

For example, if you organise your business files based on client name, you’ll probably want to use the same file structure over and over again for each client.

Don’t Float Folders

It can be easy to create a folder with a '1' or '_' in front so that floats to the top of your folder list. Try not to, it defeats the purpose of the organisation you're trying to implement.

Speak To Document Management Experts

The manual processes outlined above can work well initially, and may work well enough for organisation's processing low volumes of documents and emails.  But, as the organistion grows this can become problematic.

Many of our clients initially came to us because of document chaos and a lack of document control.  Simply finding documents was problematic, coupled with audit nightmares and security issues.  Even when structured network folder rules were put in place, cracks started to show.

We heard that inherently, employees slipped back into old ways of working, saving business files in a way that worked for them, rather than the organisation as a whole. 

By implementing a dedicated document management system, it becomes the only place to digitally and securely store documents.  Documents can enter the system via a scan or directly from an inbox making it easier for employees. 

With strict naming conventions, business files can only be saved in a certain way, and following business rules.  For example, a quote can only be saved as 'quote' not quotation, price, or another variation.   When storing, employees will select how to save the document via drop-down select lists that are set, and fixed upon implementation of the software.

No duplicates can enter the system and searching for business files is simple with results are brought back in seconds.  The system works well for version control, tracking all edits, when they were made and by who, which is important for audits.

Organising business files and folders can be time consuming, especially if you've been working in a disorganised way for some time.  If you're still struggling to get a handle on the overwhelming number of business files your business is creating, get in touch to discuss how our document management software will help.