Electronic Filing: Smart Handling Of Business Documents - Term Paper Example

Electronic Filing: Smart Handling Of Business Documents Executive summary Accounting being "the art of recording, classifying, and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of financial character, and interpreting the results thereof, electronic filing is unavoidable. Smart handling of all business documents provides a wide range of benefits. Electronic filing totally eliminates the need for paper, signatures and all the usual administration and time that in the past made filing on annual return a hassle. With electronic filing it is now possible to file annual returns, file forms for appointing and resignation officers without any paper and all within a day! Details of company name, registered office, directors, shareholders, secretaries and all other staff members can be entered and then electronically filed using secure methods of data transmission. The e-filing process is really easy and takes a very little time and all you have to do is fill up your tax return form online provided and the other required information about income, expenditure and savings. Filing tax returns online is the easiest and the simplest method and all one needs is to log on and follow the simple instructions. Electronic filing brings the benefits of an automated system which is fast, easy to use and delivers efficient and cost effective new ways. At the end of the day, with electronic filing we shall have: 1. Anywhere-Anytime Filing 2. No long queues 3. No Personnel Interface 4. Quick Processing 5. Accurate data in return Introduction An electronic filing system is a system of organizing files that utilizes hard drive space or network space. The system may either be computer software, an Internet-based program, or a simple file and folder system on the desktop of a computer. Electronic filing systems are used on multiple devices, ranging from our cell phones to our video game consoles to our digital video recorders. As with most things, it is important that the filing system should be fit for purpose. This is where consideration of the types of workspace is useful. A filing system which reflects the particular way in which you work may be appropriate for your individual workspace - after all if it is being used appropriately it is only you that should ever need to use it, so what suits you is all that is really important (Wilson 34). It certainly wouldn't be appropriate to set up a section of the group or corporate workspace along these lines for all the same reasons discussed with regards to the use of appropriate file names. Certainly when it comes to your group/firm workspace consultation and collaboration should be the name of the game. If you are responsible for setting up a filing system for your department or area it makes sense to first see what work has been done or is currently underway at the corporate level (Norwalk 21-25). Not only could this save you a great deal of work by not reinventing the wheel, it will also mean that whatever you implement at the group level is consistent with the rest of the institution. Most firm records management initiatives are using a different approach based on functions and following suit will help ensure that what to implement at a group level is consistent with the rest of the institution. The functional approach bases its structure around the underlying functions and activities which the firm carries out, rather than trying to reflect the organizational structure it chooses to carry them out at any particular time. Although the same department may be known as Human Resources, Personnel & Staff Development and Staff Welfare in as many years, the roles it carries out will largely remain constant: recruitment, appraisal, training, disciplinary procedures etc (Bhavani andThuraisingham 51-53).. By basing our structure on these underlying functions and the activities which are carried out to achieve them, we should have a far more stable filing system. It should also be easier to navigate by those who do not have a detailed knowledge of the area in question as it does not rely on obscure department-specific names or acronyms. Objective To exploit the electronic filing options to attain Powerful filing flexibility - the same document can be filed under several references such as Name, Document Number and Date - not possible with paper documents or computer files unless copies are made. This lays the foundation for a very effective retrieval tool. Indexing a document is an easier and simpler task than giving it a complex filename and having to save it to a particular named Explorer folder. Integrating the filing of other electronic files as well as paper documents enables you to achieve one consistent and logical filing structure for ALL your documents. To free staff from the drudgery of bulk paper filing and intuitive additional tools help streamline work processes even further. Issue identification For some time there has been worry for how long will the old manual filing processes continue thereby creating unproductive effort of having to capture data from hard copy. My research estimates that on average the accounting firm spends 72 per cent of its total time to do calculations and filing which is done manually (Bhavani & Thuraisingham 73). The efforts by the accounting firm to introduce electronic filing systems, is ambitious and laudable. However, public and staff awareness campaigns and feedback mechanisms will be needed to make it work. As a field for applying these interests, the impact of applying electronic filing may be an area of productive inquiry as this will result in secure information, automated workflow, better cash management, and exceptional customer service. This paper suggests a research problem on this topic (electronic filing) Background, analysis and research The system will involve the following parts: registration, returns, accounting, refunds, dispute resolution, audit, professional assessment and claims. The most common method of Electronic filing systems is hierarchical; a writer might store her letters in a series of nested folders such as: Documents > Correspondence > Family > 2011 > December. Faster hard drive search mechanisms makes hierarchical filing unnecessary in many cases, so many people have switched to alphabetical filing, in which everything is simply stored in a Correspondence folder, which would appear after "Archive" and before "Education." An alternative is where everything is stored by the date it was written, or last referred to. Considerations In most cases, you won't need to decide on which hard drive file system to use; there will be a default based on your operating system, which you only need to change if you expect the hard drive to be used on multiple operating systems (Wilson 67-71). However, you may want to consider using different conceptual filing systems, as many people spend a lot of time working with hierarchical systems, which could be saved if they relied on their computers to search their files as needed. Recommendation Results of the survey revealed there is every need to adopt electronic filing due to the enormous work log in the firm. Too, the staff members will be required to undergo training to accustom them with this new approach. A permanent administrator should be employed to continually give guidance. Process The electronic filing will involve. 1. Use of Online Filing program or a downloaded Software 2. Filling up Income and tax details. Based on tool tips and in-built validations ensure that the information filled is accurate. 3. Saving the form at any stage and completing the form as per your convenience. 4. Generating the xml file of your income tax (IT) return and saving it on your computer. 5. Opening the Income tax Department e-filing website and create user id and password to log in. 6. After logging in, click on 'Submit the IT return' button on the website. 7. Browse and select the xml file corresponding to your IT return that is saved on your computer. You must be connected to the Internet during this entire process. You can e-file your IT return with or without digital signature. 8. After successful upload of details and validations at the website, the Income Tax Department would generate an electronic receipt of the IT return. In case you have signed your return with a digital signature, the receipt of e-return may be kept for your records and this receipt need not be submitted to the IT Department. 9. In case you have filed without a digital signature the electronic receipt generated will be the ITR-V form. Please note that the ITR-V form can be generated only by the IT Department. 10. Taking a printout of the ITR-V form. Please sign on the ITR-V at the appropriate place to verify and acknowledge the electronic submission of your IT return Sensitive or reference items can be filed in shared team or personal folders. Sensitive items may include staff absence or leave records, closed meeting papers or strategy work-in-progress items (Albarran 50).  References items may be internal procedures, copies of external guidance like journal articles that are useful for your job but do not need to be filed in the SC filing scheme.  There will be designated filing space for these items on the shared departmental drive. Implementation Implementation can be discussed at different levels as outlined below 1. Security During the planning for an Electronic filing (EF) implementation, careful consideration should be given to what security mechanisms are built into any organization’s record creating platform. An (EF) will allow for the creation of security functions that will restrict user access to areas of a file plan, to documents and containers, or set up an area of a file plan that will only be accessed by certain groups of staff. Security caveats place restrictions at document and container level which are used to restrict areas of the file plan to specific users with the appropriate permissions (Melvin 17-19). Likewise, security levels ensure that records can only be accessed by users who have the same security level, or higher, than that allocated to the document itself, or the container where it is located. Security levels and caveats can be applied to the file plan, and managed, by those users who have system administrator profiles. 2. Storage Devices A device capable of storing data. Some examples include USB Pen, CD, and Floppy Disks. 3. Workflow Automation of business processes, in whole or in part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules. Roles and Responsibilities Roles When implementing an Electronic Filing within the Company, thought should be given to what roles and responsibilities members of staff have when operating the chosen system (Albarran 71). EF will have a wide range of functionality that could give users access to all of the systems applications. However, it is advisable that you should create several user profiles to meet your company’s business needs. When a user logs, the action is carried out according to a specific user profile which will permit them to carry out tasks within the system according to the permissions related to that profile. In my project plan, three profiles will be created. These are end user, power user and system administrator. An individual’s profile will be determined when their account is created, and amended as necessary by the System Administrator or relevant nominated individual. The user profiles that will be created during the Electronic Filing implementation can be summarized as follows: General Guidelines for implementing an Electronic Document Management System Office of the accounting firm. End User The majority of staff in the company will fall under this profile. An end user will be able to: 1. Open and read all documents and records to which they have access within the file plan; 2. Create, save and edit documents in agreed areas of the file plan; 3. Search for documents (and save these searches if required); 4. Finalize documents as a company record. 5. Request deletion of a document (nominated personnel will review all deletion requests to ensure that the request is appropriate or if it is necessary to retain it as a record). Power user It is essential that each business area within an organization has a Power User. The authority of who takes on this role, specified as the Power User in this instance, will be at the firm’s discretion (Adam 30). Power Users who have been identified within each business area will provide local user support in the early stages of the Electronic Filing rollout when members of staff are getting to grips with the system (Albarran 55). It is recommended that Power Users should receive additional training to supplement the standard end user training in advance of any implementation. This will give them time to get used to the functionality of the Electronic filing, so that when the rest of staff ‘go-live’ the Power Users will be in a position to provide assistance (Adam 45-48). In addition to the functions of the end user, a Power User will be able to: 1. Provide initial user support within the branch/office; 2. Provide guidance on the use of the system, how to file documents etc; 3. Create containers at a local level in specific areas of the file plan (initially this function will be carried out by Information Management Branch, but the plan is to roll out this function to branches once the system is embedded in each branch). 4. As in the paper environment where a branch manager took responsibility for managing the disposal process, so will the power user in the electronic environment. Conclusion Adoption of electronic filing will be the biggest benefit for clients through the increased turnaround time. The clients and the staff in general will love the way the company will be able to provide better service by excelling beyond their expectations. For example, if we have an unpaid invoice, we can immediately access the electronic file system to locate a copy of the signed proof of delivery and begin the collection process. With electronic filing in place, even if the paper invoice gets misplaced, we can still invoice the customer based on the originally produced invoice. This will increase the annual sales revenue! Improved access to information will enable the accounting firm to provide superior customer service and simplify internal document management practices, all while reducing costs. Also, it will help the business grow without adding staff and that is the ultimate objective of any company. Therefore it is imperative to adopt an electronic filing system as the advantages are far much more compared to disadvantages. Reference Alan B Albarran. Management of electronic media. Boston, MA : Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print Azad Adam. Implementing electronic document and record management systems. Routledge, 2005.Print Bhavani M Thuraisingham. Web data management and electronic commerce. Boca Raton CRC Press, 2000. Print Gary Ives. Electronic journal management systems: experiences from the field. Boca Raton : Auerbach Publications, 2008 Institute for Court Management, Williamsburg, VA: National Center for State Courts. Electronic filing: privacy & public access conference. Conference publication: 2000. Print Jayaram Kondabagil. Risk management in electronic banking: concepts and best practices. Singapore: Wiley, 2007.Print New Jersey, Division of Taxation. Electronic filing. Trenton: N.J the Division. 2011. Print Norwalk, Conn. Electronic filing, International Resource Development, 30 High St., Norwalk 06851: IRD, 1981. Print P A Wilson. Electronic filing: products and suppliers. Manchester, England: NCC Publications, 1986. Print Valerie C. Melvin. Information Management: the Challenges of Managing Electronic Records: Congressional Testimony. DIANE Publishing, 2010.Print Read More