computer file system

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mh183

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I want to get all my files out of the file cabinets and have a virtual file cabinet on my computer, any one have a good program.
 
If you don't have a scanner, you'll have to buy one and scan each file or piece of paper, give it a name and save in various folders you create on your computer.
 
Hopefully the OS-10 wont hinder you too much.

Black and white scan to Adobe PDF 200dpi resolution seems to be a nice balance between size and readability.

Also a sheet feed scanner is gold for the kind of job you are talking of undertaking.

Put some time into this and plan your naming, filing and dating schema before you get to far into it. Think about how they will look on the screen, how easy or hard it will be to find it later, and how much typing do you want to do when you name them.

2007_09-17 sorts chronologically much better than 09-17 2007
 
I'd consider getting rid of the paper system. Why scan docs then try to decypher them. I'd talk to my CPA and set up something a little better. Laptop, little printer. Some kinda software that is easy to use and that your CPA likes.
 
If you go with OSX (Mac), you don't need to back anything up. Just get yourself a couple of firewire external discs and put them together in a RAID pair. (The OS does this for you). The discs will be mirrored. Everything you write gets written to both, everything you read gets read from both. Total redundancy. When one disc eats the dust, simply throw it away and place a new one in the pair. You'll never lose any data and there will never be a chance of losing something "since the last backup." :cool:
 
In all fairness to WinTel machines, they can do this too. I don't know if Windows XP or Vista can do it natively, but, if not, there are other solutions. For a desktop with a PCI slot, you can buy a RAID controller card and connect it to two internal drives. You can buy external units that have the controller built in (and multiple drives) but these tend to be expensive.

As far as scanning, just realize that, unless you have Optical Character Recognition software, the scan will simply be a picture. You won't be able to edit documents.
 
mh183 said:
accounts receivable, payable, receipts or copy's of proposals to customers
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This isn't in the computer already? (Do you do proposals with a typewriter?) Before you even start scanning, get all the accounting into something like quickbooks (not sure if it's mac friendly). Otherwise, I've been down the paperless office road before, it doesn't work. If you have a good paper filing system, which includes purging old stuff periodically, leaving things on paper can be a good way to go.

OTOH, if you do want to scan everything-
a good scanner, not a cheapo
really think out how you want to organize things (by date, by job, etc)
decide how to deal with things that belong in multiple places
if you're using a desktop system, a good UPS is in order
a -good- archival backup system (and use it religiously)
a place to store your backups off site

eric stromberg said:
...you don't need to back anything up. Just get yourself a couple of firewire external discs and put them together in a RAID pair. [...] You'll never lose any data and there will never be a chance of losing something "since the last backup."
Click to expand...

Sorry, you always need to make backups. Mirror or RAID sets are only good if you loose a single disk. They're useless if you delete a file and need it next month or if disaster happens (fire, flood, theft, etc). That said, mirror sets are a good idea if you're working on a non-mobile machine, it's a bit harder to do external disks on a laptop :D.

z!
 
Kinda on this subject. Several years ago I got frustrated looking through almost 30 years of paper files for info on a job I had done many years before. The problem was that I had the address but the home had changed hands a few times and I couldn't remember the origial job name which is how they were filed. And this wasn't the first time it had happened. There were literally thousands of files.

We bought a couple of scanners and the Acrobat program (you gotta pay for this one) and my wife and sister worked part time for three months scanning, making notes etc. Now all of these files fit on a couple of DVDs.

With the searching software I can look up a job by name, address, type of work etc. It's very cool. We keep a set of DVDs at each computer and also a set in a safe deposit box at the bank.

Then came the hard part. Did I have the confidence to actually take the paper to the local dump forever? Well after a couple of aborted attempts I did the deed. Whew!

If I had to do it again I wouldn't wait 30 years and I would probably hire a scanning service to do the grunt work. They work relatively cheap and have very good quility high speed equipment and software packages that are very good.

Sorry for the long post but I'm bored this morning.
 
I have thought about this multiple times over the years but have not come to a good solution. If I were to do it, I wouldn't want to just scan a bunch of different pdf files and save them all in the same folder named after a job or something similar. I would want it all filed in a database that you could pull up separate items, invoices, service tickets, installation notes, etc. I have never found a way to do it that is professional and isn't just hobbled together.

I would guess it is probably more of a custom software type of thing that needs to be designed depending on what you have already and the type of files you generate.

Anything professional out there?
 
eric stromberg said:
If you go with OSX (Mac), you don't need to back anything up. Just get yourself a couple of firewire external discs and put them together in a RAID pair. (The OS does this for you)...
Click to expand...

I have one synchronized firewire disc that does that for my Mac, but I still burn a backup DVD once a month with all the important data and store it somewhere outside my office. It's one thing to synchronize data with a remote disc, quite another to have 2 discs both missing the same file. ;)
 
Sorry, you always need to make backups. Mirror or RAID sets are only good if you loose a single disk. They're useless if you delete a file and need it next month or if disaster happens (fire, flood, theft, etc). That said, mirror sets are a good idea if you're working on a non-mobile machine, it's a bit harder to do external disks on a laptop :D.

z![/QUOTE]
External disks on my Apple laptop is as easy as plugging one into the firewire port, or the usb port. As far as backups go check this new OSx solution starting in October of 2007. http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/timemachine.html
 
macmikeman said:
Sorry, you always need to make backups. Mirror or RAID sets are only good if you loose a single disk. They're useless if you delete a file and need it next month or if disaster happens (fire, flood, theft, etc). That said, mirror sets are a good idea if you're working on a non-mobile machine, it's a bit harder to do external disks on a laptop :D.

z!
Click to expand...
[/quote]


This is a fact, and is actually very easy to do.
I am kind of paranoid, so I over do it.
1. I have made discs of all of my computer info...lots of discs.
2. I have an external harddrive for the backup.
3. I have a 2nd external harddrive that I back up to in addition to above, and then I store that and the discs in a fire/water safe on the floor.
4. I also have other discs of some of the info, mostly pictures and PPT files that I have made over the years. These are stored elsewhere.

Just think if I lost all of the pictures I have saved over the years...how would I ever make it up???
 
lol that really sounds like alot of work.. I would first find the software that fits all your needs and use it to make sure it is compatable with all your needs. then I would take it to a professional office company and let them scan them in an orderly ashion into your program then you can get a high quality job the first time through. You must make sure they a reputable due to the nature of the paper..
 
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