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The Paperless Office: Going the Distance to Achieve Maximum Satisfaction

By Jay Dismukes

CPA firms considering going paperless should train for endurance over speed; the process, according to one expert, is a marathon not a sprint. The good news, however, is that the cross at the finish line is that much sweeter.

Accounting practices that are planning to transition to a paperless—truthfully, a less-paper—office should anticipate a rollout period of one to two years, carried out through controlled phases. Prior to the execution of these phases, though, Adam Kupperman, vice president of Cohn Consulting Group (a division of J.H. Cohn LLP), says, firms must first develop and adopt a set of implementation procedures to follow on a consistent basis.

“The longest part of the implementation was getting the procedures agreed upon,” says Kupperman, who is overseeing the paperless rollout for J.H. Cohn and the Videre Group, which merged in 2003.

Compliance with these procedures is critical to the successful functionality of the document management system, which Kupperman, who spoke at this year’s New York CPA, Business & Technology Show & Conference, said is the “cornerstone” of the paperless office.

The document management system is a “virtual file room” in which hard-copy documents (scanned in) and internally produced electronic documents and external electronic documents, such as Word and Excel e-mail attachments, are stored and retrieved.

As these documents enter the system, their accessibility, dissemination, security and length of retention are all tied, to varying degrees, to the manner in which they are indexed. The consistent usage of uniform client ID numbers and the appropriate categorization of document types are central to one of the chief benefits of the paperless office: quickly and easily accessing and working on documents from any location.

In addition to increased efficiency and productivity, Kupperman pointed out that the paperless office, over the long term, will also help mitigate operating costs. These include decreases in printing and copying expenses and less need for off-site and on-site storage space. And because the search process is expedited, clients benefit too, no longer having to wait for their CPAs to track down their files. Kupperman said that some firms have even begun to provide clients with limited remote access to their documents.

Enhanced risk management is another reason some firms consider shifting to a paperless environment, as electronic document storage and sound security controls help protect against loss, damage and theft. Conference attendees listening to Kupperman inquired about the security aspects, in particular, of the paperless office.

Kupperman explained that when his firm e-mails files to clients, the practitioners send noneditable PDF documents that cannot be doctored. Firms may want to e-mail clients links to their documents instead, given that e-mail messages can go through as many as 20 servers. Document encryption for firms with web-based systems is also a good idea, he said.

To ensure a smooth transition to the paperless office, Kupperman advises that a steering group be formed. This group, which should comprise employees from all departments, will play an important part in establishing the procedures in which documents are stored and retrieved. Compliance monitoring, extensive training on the document management system and routine solicitation of feedback are all critical to the firm-wide understanding and implementation of these procedures.

“If you don’t ask, they’re not going to tell you (what they think about the procedures),” Kupperman said.

Other considerations and issues raised in the discussion included investment in high-speed scanners for all administrative assistants and dual monitors to cross-check returns from one year to the next. Firms will also want to consider whether all paper files should be returned to clients or if certain items should be held on to as a precaution.

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