We recognise that a structured document management solution may be a new experience for users. To make it easier for your practice and your team to develop good filing habits, we have developed a resource from collective practice experience to help get you started.
To gain the most efficiencies when searching for documents, adopting practice wide standards ensures everyone saves documents in the same location with a common naming protocol. Documents that have consistent naming make it easy for anyone in your team to search and find a document within seconds.
Below, you can download a resource to help get you started.
What can you expect?
- The resource has a sample of document types common to accounting practices.
- For each document, there is a recommended naming rule, as well as a suggested cabinet and work type category based on our default options. We recommend you modify this document to suit your practice.
- A separate worksheet with common documents for Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom has been included.
Best practice tips
- Adopt consistent naming rules for your entire team to use. This will optimise efficiency when searching for documents.
- Where appropriate, add additional information in naming rules such as property names on rental property documents. This will make it even easier to quickly locate them in FYI.
- While cabinets are mandatory, categories are an optional feature for those practices who require further categorisation. Refer to Filing to Cabinets and Categories.
- Educate your team that correct filing and naming of documents is standard practice. FYI Champions play a key part in successful adoption and once established in your practice, the resource will become invaluable for future team members.
- Adding the client name to documents is helpful in certain circumstances such as attaching multiple tax returns for a group in one email. It reduces the chance of error and documents are easily identifiable for the recipient.