Scanning and emailing documents
After helping out a client email some bank statements to a bookkeeper and an interesting chat with a document scanning company at the Be An Amazing Business Builder Show on Tuesday I thought I would share my views on scanning documents. I come from a “less paper” background and have carried this over into my own business. Apart from a few documents I am required to keep by my Association such as signed enagagement letters, all of my paperwork is electronic, whether accounting records in Excel, documents saved as pdfs or scanned documents.
With the increases in disc capacity file size is not such an issue as it used to be however if you are going to send a file it will be quicker to send and less likely to be bounced by the receiver if it is not too big. Files can be made smaller by:
- Reduce the number of dpi (dots per inch), this reduced the resolution but this is not always necessary, I have given some guidance below.
- Scan in black and white or grayscale, the fewer criteria that need to be covered the smaller the file, if you do not need a colour copy do not save in colour.
- Save as a pdf, these generally seem to be smaller files than jpegs (ie picture files) although I am uncertain if this is a scientific fact, and they are less easily altered.
For a basic document that can be read but does not need to be reproduced 150dpi in black and white will suffice, I save almost all my “filing” in this format. For a better quality copy of a text document 200dpi is better, and I only resort to 300dpi for photo ID where a recognisable photo is required.
I hope this will help you in deciding what size to scan a document but if you are unsure about this or would like advice in other areas feel free to call. Alastair Wood, AW Accounting – Accountants who “speak your language”
