I'm DROWNING in paper!!!

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blackiris

blackiris

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
Joined
Aug 31, 2007
Posts
10,624
Loc
Sandwich, IL
Now that I have a POS system I seem to have more paperwork than ever. I realized with Lifesaver you can limit your reports and such......which I do.



My question is what does everyone else do with their work orders??? (After it's picked up?) Going from handwritten orders to a workorder, reciept for down payment , reciept when picked up etc....... It's crazy!! Paper, paper, paper!!:shrug:



Before I was keeping everything, alphabitizing (sp?) work orders, storing them away........everything is on the computer and backed up so do I really need them? Keep them for a year and recycle them? I just hate having all this paper around, it seems like a big waste of time and space! Thanks for your help!:icon11:
 
how many copies did you have of the manual system?

I currently have 2 POS copies of work order printed. One it attached to the frame as delivered.... the other back ups the invoice that is filed as backup for the daily sales report. the signed WO - authorizing the work is the copy I save.
 
My POS prints out two work orders. One stays with the artwork at all times. The other is used for ordering materials, and then goes onto a clipboard of all my pending orders. When the project is complete, I throw that sheet out. I have the customer sign the other work order when they pick up their project, so I have a record of it being picked up. Then I put that signed sheet in a folder, and every week or two I take out the folder and write thank you notes to all the customers. Then the signed work order goes into a file for completed & picked up projects.

Two sheets of paper for each item, that's all.
 
Great topic as we are going from a 3 part NCR form to POS this year. I'll be taking notes!
 
I should add....

when the art and frame is "in process"

one copy is attached to the art and the other copy is on a clipboard. A WIP schedule control sheet is on top of the clip board with the work order being pulled from the stack as it is assembled. After the order is completed a highlighter marks out the entry on the control sheet. At the end of the day(s) these completed orders are posted to the POs and a new control sheet is printed.
 
Ok I understand the WIP sheet. This is the one I have my customers sign when picked up. This is the one I want to keep.

That being said.............
How long do you keep your filed orders? Right now I have all of mine in ABC order and filed. When we did it manually it helped to have them all filed like that to go back and look at previous orders (JFeig we only had one copy).

But now they are all on the computer.... I hate to put so much faith in the computer that it wouldn't CRASH but its all backed up on a plug in hard drive thingy .........so would you just keep them 2, 3 years? :p
 
At the end of each year, you could take all the year-specific paperwork (paid invoices, completed workorders, etc.), and put them into a storage box labeled for that year. That way, you make room in your files for the next year's flood of paper.
 
I toss the work order after it leaves the shop. it is backed up on several stoage devices and I just don't have room to keep that kind of paper work around. I keep the end of day reports and file them by the month and then into a box at the end of the year.
 
Instead of just throwing away the copies of the used work orders, how about using the blank sides in your fax machine? I've been doing this successfully with most of my unneeded 8-1/2 x 11 documents lately. That way it's not as wasteful when you come in in the morning to find all those junk fax messages from fly-by-night health plans, mortgage companies, and Frame-It and Company.
:cool: Rick
 
I do what PaulSF does with the one retained file copy. It is attached to the daily sales report and filed with my financial records (7 years plus the current year) as backup.

As for an alpha record file........ no need to maintain... after the was POS was installed many years ago.
 
In our shop, we only print 1 copy of the workorder. It has a removable "multi use copy" on the bottom, should we need a copy to attach to something else (such as a special order chop that came in). (rarely do we use those) The workorder goes into a slot for the due date, and follows the piece through the production process.

We also print an "art copy slip", that identifies and stays with the piece.

We put hand written notes on the workorder when the job is done(contact results, etc), fold it lengthwise, and put it in a special box that lives near the counter. In a power failure or PC failure situation, that's our "backup". It has the customer info, contact info, amount due, etc. (Some shops tape it to the finished pieces) After they pick up the piece, we retain it for about a month.

Any time an order is generated or cash is taken in, the customer gets a payment receipt (narrow format thermal receipt printer). Signed credit card slips go in the cash drawer. At the end of the day, the closing report (which itemizes everything) gets stapled to the credit card slips for that day. Those get put in a monthly folder, and eventually a yearly box.

There is very little paperwork, actually. The computer has all the records, and gets backed up each day to a different external device. (a rotation of one for each day of the week)

There is no single "correct" way. Everyone has their own style, and the various programs are configurable enough to handle different quantitys of each item- as the framer desires.

Mike
 
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Based on a previous discussion, I now make it a practice to have the customer sign the work order when picking up a piece, to show that it is now in the customer's hands. I haven't had any problems, and don't anticipate any, but it sounded like a good business practice. And it doesn't generate any more paper.
 
Customer files...

I have a file per customer. Many of my customers like to frame things with a variety of glass depending on where it is going to be hung - the file helps to look up the piece and know the type of glass. I also use the files to look up previous pieces of art to see how it was framed - mats,frame, etc. If there is any specific information per customer, it is also kept in the file. Much of the information kept in the customer file is not info that can be stored in the POS. My customers actually like that they have a "file" and I can provide information very quickly. I use this as part of my customer service model.

works for me, but I do agree on the plethora of paper that can be generated by a POS if you don't set constraints!

Elaine
 
>I have a file per customer.

The POS could probably replace the paper file system, unless i'm missing something. (complete order history, including glass types, account totals, special discounts, customer pop-up notes where you can type reminders, it knows last time in and last time the customer was mailed a promotion or newsletter, even photos of their previous jobs if have it linked with visualization)

However, like you said this might be part of the customer experience in your shop and I appreciate that everyone has different levels of use for technology.

The only paper files we keep are for vendors, tax, ads, banking, and POS closing reports(with signed cc slips stapled). All of that info is also entered in our accounting software, but we keep a copy for tax/audit reasons.

Mike
 
The round file

Elaine said:
I have a file per customer... Much of the information kept in the customer file is not info that can be stored in the POS. My customers actually like that they have a "file" and I can provide information very quickly. I use this as part of my customer service model.
Click to expand...

Wow Elaine, "a file for every customer" ? I find this whole discussion on paperwork exhausting. Seems like the whole philosopy behind a POS system is to reduce your work load (and eliminate the paper work load ).

We use FrameReady and are able, with the click of the mouse, to gain access to over 8,000 past customers, determine their entire framing and purchase history, which frames they used, the mats the chose, the artwork the tend to buy, heck, if I wanted, I could note what color shirt they wore on past visits. And you're right, customers love it that we keep all this info on hand.

And as for backup, Frameready backs itself up everynight (or whenever you set it to). So we would never lose more than a days worth of data....and that data is on a hard copy of the work order that is working it's way through the frame shop.

We generate only one copy of the work order which we use throughout the scheduling, ordering, framing process. After the project is complete and a thankyou card is sent to the customer the paper copy goes into the round file. Need to retreive a hard copy...just pull up the order in computer and print off as many as you need...5, 10, 20 copies just for old times sake.

Now I am free to do what I enjoy most, frame, design, talk to customers, run my gallery...I see absolutely no need to retain any paper whatsoever or to spend time manually filing it for future reference.

Thanks FrameReady, Microsoft, Dell........
 
Now I am free to do what I enjoy most, frame, design, talk to customers, run my gallery...I see absolutely no need to retain any paper whatsoever or to spend time manually filing it for future reference.

Thanks FrameReady
Click to expand...


AMEN! I do not keep any paper copies of invoices or work orders after the transaction is completed. All the paperwork is shredded before going to the dumpster.

A year or so ago I purged old work orders from my pre-FrameReady days. It was a mess and took up way too much space at my house.
 
Mike Labbe @ GTP said:
In our shop, we only print 1 copy of the workorder. It has a removable "mult
There is very little paperwork, actually. The computer has all the records, and gets backed up each day to a different external device. (a rotation of one for each day of the week)

Mike
Click to expand...

I know several people do this. Why a different one each day? Why not just one that you rewrite each day or a small hard drive that you throw in your briefcase at the end of the day? At home and in the office I use Mac's Time Machine--incredible program--but I know that doesn't give me an offsite copy.
 
Rick Granick said:
Instead of just throwing away the copies of the used work orders, how about using the blank sides in your fax machine? I've been doing this successfully with most of my unneeded 8-1/2 x 11 documents lately. That way it's not as wasteful when you come in in the morning to find all those junk fax messages from fly-by-night health plans, mortgage companies, and Frame-It and Company.
:cool: Rick
Click to expand...

We've been doing this for years. Junk comes into the fax, gets turned around, and put right back in to print on the reverse side. Same for paper from the printers. Nothing goes into recycling until both sides are printed.
 
RE: Backing up to a different media device daily

Kirstie said:
I know several people do this. Why a different one each day? Why not just one that you rewrite each day or a small hard drive that you throw in your briefcase at the end of the day? At home and in the office I use Mac's Time Machine--incredible program--but I know that doesn't give me an offsite copy.
Click to expand...

One device isn't sufficient, IMO. For example: If your database was damaged, and you did a closing/backup before realizing it, you could easily overwrite your ONLY backup with the bad data - and would have nothing. :(

We are open 6 days per week, so we have 6 different Flash Drives to do the job. (Labelled Monday-Sat) They're only $10 each, so it's not a very big investment.

Technically, we could do it on one chip because Lifesaver compresses the backups and names them by the day of the week. monday.zip tuesday.zip etc It's still a great idea to use different chips, because you'll be less likely to mistakenly leave the device attached to the computer. In the event or a power surge(or virus!), it might wipe out the contents of the computer AND any backup devices plugged into the pc. This way, you're forced to change things up daily - and may even put them in a fire safe or take them home.

In addition to the daily thing, we do an full online backup every Saturday. (I upload the entire program directory to the HOME pc, via the internet) We also do the documents folder and the accounting folder.

Once per month, we burn the folders to a CD, just as a third level of protection. Those go in a fire safe.

Not only do we have to be aware of power surges, but also burglaries, floods, and sabotage by disgruntled folks.

Call me paranoid, but I don't want to lose ANY data :)

Of course, everyone has their own way to do things. That's just my own opinion and way, since you asked :)

Mike
 
Mike, Do you do this with your CMC computer as well? A lot of designs on there! As Lisa is putting the finishing touches on the POS set up , we are almost ready to roll and begin our trial period. Deciding on what paper will go where and adding a laser printer downstairs will be done soon.
 
yea for redundancy!!!

So many people back up thier data and then put it right in the building. :shrug: Like Mike said if there is a fire or flood (had one last Tuesday at my place) or anything BAAAD like that, data all gone!!!! Always store whatever you don't want to redo off premise!!!!!!

Tom
 
Kirstie said:
Mike, Do you do this with your CMC computer as well? A lot of designs on there! As Lisa is putting the finishing touches on the POS set up , we are almost ready to roll and begin our trial period. Deciding on what paper will go where and adding a laser printer downstairs will be done soon.
Click to expand...

We do, but not often. We copy the saved projects folder to the server's "my documents" folder (over the network), then it gets backed up with the Saturday office/internet backup. (probably every other month or so)

There really isn't much on the CMC that I care about. (that I couldn't re-install from the cd)

But yes, that's a GREAT idea if you save a lot of projects on the CMC that you will be using again. That would work well with flash drives, too.
 
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