With National Tree day this weekend, we thought we’d look at options to green your business and in turn save the trees. And the best way to do this is digitization of your business by becoming a paperless tradie.
So can a paperless office be a reality in trades and construction? We certainly are an industry flooded by paper whether it be in the form of timesheets, house plans or receipts and invoices. It’s been a bottleneck in our industry for many years and until recently, we didn’t have access to devices portable enough to work out in the field.
“Finally, tradies have the chance to go green and in the process dramatically change how efficiently our businesses run”.
The answer is cloud software and mobile devices. The combination of these two things has undeniably turned our industry on its head and every day, we see an increase in progressive tradies adopting technology to run their business with amazing results.
So what does cloud software do? Cloud software allows us to turn all of our paper documents into digital versions and mobile devices such as phones, tablets and iPads allow us to access and share this information from any location.
BENEFITS OF BEING A PAPERLESS TRADIE:
More organised
Say goodbye to:
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Dragging folders from job site to job site
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Folders/paperwork being in the wrong office/truck
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Coffee stains, water damaged or blown away paperwork
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Lost receipts or diary
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Impossible to read handwriting
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Using your vehicle as a filing cabinet
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Manual calculation for quotes/invoices
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Multiple job cards for the one job
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Boxes of tax files or receipts
Boost productivity + efficiency
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Decrease office hours and increase billable hours
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Easily searchable documents
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All information for each job in one place
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Better job or project management
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Electronically signed contracts and documentation
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Stop the double entry of information
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Work from anywhere
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Digital timesheets – no need to return to the office!
Real-Time Collaboration
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Easily communicate with the team in the field
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See where staff are located and allocate new jobs to the closest available tradie
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Up to date building plans, no version control issues
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Track inventory and manage stock
Save money
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Digitize receipts and don’t miss any tax deductions
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Save on office materials like paper, printing and inks
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Access to real-time financial data at any time and from anywhere
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Improved quoting – Visibility of your profit or loss per job
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Take payments instantly onsite
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Or send online invoices with online payment options
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Chase outstanding invoices easily
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Automate service reminders for customers = repeat business
Increased security
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Files stored in the cloud on high-security servers in encrypted form
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No lost information if your computer dies or there is a flood or fire
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Use 2 step authentication to increase security
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You control what information employees have access to
Good for the environment
Lastly, being a paperless tradie is really good for the environment. Did you know that paper manufacturing is the third largest user of fossil fuels worldwide and contributes significantly to deforestation? Using less paper (or none!) helps reduce the number of trees cut down and minimises air pollution from the manufacturing process and transportation of paper.
Printing inks and toners are also extremely bad for the environment as they contain heavy metals, non-renewable oils and volatile organic compounds. So it’s undeniable that the less we use of all of these items the better off our environment will be.
How to become a Paperless Tradie
So how do you convert your paper-based processes over? Check out our guide on How to go Paperless.
It is an exciting time of advancement for the Trades and Services Industry. There is an app for just about every action in your business now, but the tricky part is finding the right solution to fit your needs.
If you are ready to become a paperless tradie contact the team at TradiePad and we will guide you through all the software options and find the best fit solution for your business needs. Our setup and training service will get you up and running and in no time and you will soon see the benefits of a running paperless business.
