What do you do with all of your paperwork?

Bignor Farmer · May 12, 2023

I’m the first to admit that I don’t keep the tidiest desk in the world but I am good at filing and keeping the important stuff in order. The problem is that my office is overflowing with historic paperwork! The shelves are full, the windowsills are full, the cupboards are full, the floor is covered in boxes full of files and the filing cabinets are a no go zone full historic tenancies and stuff!

There is certainly some that could be thrown away and we’re completely paperless for field records, livestock records and at least half of the invoices but there are still dozens and dozens of files;
Historic accounts
Timesheets, employment records
Files for tenancies
Files for the bank
sfp, bps, rle1s etc
old maps
livestock movements, herd books, flock records
Files for non Farm enterprises
property files
insurance files (the Nfu love to send paper)
health and safety reports
red tractor files
probate
historic soil sampling
soil, nurtientsoil, manure, ipm management plans
and plenty of junk!

I am genuinely considering building a new office, wrapping the current one with hazard tape and never going in there again!

robs1 · May 12, 2023

I chuck all the RPA junk out after ten years most accounts stuff after 8 years but keep all capital invoices for ever.
It can be useful to keep stuff that proves your use of any part of the farm as it might come in handy for planning, inheritance or other issues, plus it's interesting to look back at time in diaries etc.

ollie989898 · May 12, 2023

Pay someone to file it all or scan it all and put it on OneNote? No need to keep anything on paper now.

Bignor Farmer · May 12, 2023

robs1 said:
I chuck all the RPA junk out after ten years most accounts stuff after 8 years but keep all capital invoices for ever.
It can be useful to keep stuff that proves your use of any part of the farm as it might come in handy for planning, inheritance or other issues, plus it's interesting to look back at time in diaries etc.

This is the problem though. I’ve got over 100 years of stuff that is interesting to look at and occasionally useful. It takes a lot of space that I don’t have.

Bignor Farmer · May 12, 2023

ollie989898 said:
Pay someone to file it all or scan it all and put it on OneNote? No need to keep anything on paper now.

I think something like this is probably the answer for a lot of new/semi useful stuff that comes in. I think I’d struggle to throw away some of the very old stuff.

Highland Mule · May 12, 2023

Make sure things are in files, and not a big open cast system. Then work out what you do and don't need and deal with it on a case by case basis. Dump the timesheets after a year or two, keep the P60s/ payslips. Dump the NFU insurance schedules, keep the Certificates (definitely for employer liability, you need 40 years iirc). Work through on that basis. Keep anything older than 50 years, or anything your followers might want to look at in 50 years from now. Bear in mind you can fit an awful lot in a proper 4 drawer filing cabinet, and they're relatively cheap with a reasonably small footprint.

ollie989898 · May 12, 2023

Bignor Farmer said:
I think something like this is probably the answer for a lot of new/semi useful stuff that comes in. I think I’d struggle to throw away some of the very old stuff.

Scan it in and get it picked up and shredded by an outside company.

There is no need to keep physical copies of many things. Accounts and similar can be scanned and put into Xero, then shredded.

Stuff you need to keep on paper keep in 1 filing cabinet and keep it nicely organised but keep copies digitally, too.

Having all this stuff in digital format online and stored in a cloud means it is a lot safer from accidental loss.

Dockers · May 12, 2023

Bignor Farmer said:
This is the problem though. I’ve got over 100 years of stuff that is interesting to look at and occasionally useful. It takes a lot of space that I don’t have.

Look forward, not backwards !!!

Sid · May 12, 2023

ollie989898 said:
Pay someone to file it all or scan it all and put it on OneNote? No need to keep anything on paper now.

One of the largest consumers of energy globally.

The cloud!

spin cycle · May 12, 2023

can you just not do paperwork and claim to have gone 'paperless'?

asking for a friend

neilo · May 12, 2023

Sid said:
One of the largest consumers of energy globally.

The cloud!

What happens when Putin takes the Cloud down?

Sid · May 12, 2023

spin cycle said:
can you just not do paperwork and claim to have gone 'paperless'?

asking for a friend

You start with one room in the house.
Try it in the bathroom first and don't keep us posted

Sid · May 12, 2023

neilo said:
What happens when Putin takes the Cloud down?

We get f**king sunshine I hope!!

FonterraFarmer · May 12, 2023

Bignor Farmer said:
I’m the first to admit that I don’t keep the tidiest desk in the world but I am good at filing and keeping the important stuff in order. The problem is that my office is overflowing with historic paperwork! The shelves are full, the windowsills are full, the cupboards are full, the floor is covered in boxes full of files and the filing cabinets are a no go zone full historic tenancies and stuff!

There is certainly some that could be thrown away and we’re completely paperless for field records, livestock records and at least half of the invoices but there are still dozens and dozens of files;
Historic accounts
Timesheets, employment records
Files for tenancies
Files for the bank
sfp, bps, rle1s etc
old maps
livestock movements, herd books, flock records
Files for non Farm enterprises
property files
insurance files (the Nfu love to send paper)
health and safety reports
red tractor files
probate
historic soil sampling
soil, nurtientsoil, manure, ipm management plans
and plenty of junk!

I am genuinely considering building a new office, wrapping the current one with hazard tape and never going in there again!

Most of the above is trivial box ticking, simple solution is...

Swan Vesta's!!!

ollie989898 · May 12, 2023

Sid said:
One of the largest consumers of energy globally.

The cloud!

And I bet the bulk of it is from renewable sources, too.

David. · May 12, 2023

You are more optimistic and trusting than I am, if you are happy to have the only copy of everything stored on some third party server that you do not control.
Bet the Chinese, even now, have got teams working on being able to disable it and hold the world to ransom.

ollie989898 · May 12, 2023

David. said:
You are more optimistic and trusting than I am, if you are happy to have the only copy of everything stored on some third party server that you do not control.
Bet the Chinese, even now, have got teams working on being able to disable it and hold the world to ransom.

You gotta trust someone, how do you suppose the bank store your data?

Anyways, if you are that concerned, you can store stuff with Microsoft, Apple AND Google if you really want. My office could burn to a cinder tomorrow and I'd have lost nothing (apart from the books which would be an emotional loss for me but the insurance money would cover them). My files and essentials would be AOK.

yellow belly · May 12, 2023

neilo said:
What happens when Putin takes the Cloud down?

He’s to busy occupied in Ukraine
there are several backup systems
if you office got on fire you would loose all paper but if you have it on computer it is backed up somewhere

Derrick Hughes · May 12, 2023

Go a big shredder in corner , it's handy to start the fire after

neilo · May 12, 2023

yellow belly said:
He’s to busy occupied in Ukraine
there are several backup systems
if you office got on fire you would loose all paper but if you have it on computer it is backed up somewhere

Chinese maintained backup systems?

If a proper WW3 kicked off, as it inevitably will one day, the internet would be the first thing taken out. Which country took it down first would be anyone’s guess, but it would be a prime target to disrupt pretty much all systems.

I doubt I’ll be worried about my stored invoices in that scenario though, tbf.

What do you do with all of your paperwork?

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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