Two Step's Private Company Equity Management Blog

Recently a Corporate Focus customer posted an interesting comment on our LinkedIn Discussion Group. In her opinion, there should be a special "Twelve Step" program for people looking to break their years-long addiction to paper documents and go electronic with their minute books. This poster shared that she herself wants to "go paperless," but is finding it difficult to make the switch.

Although I don't actually have 12 steps to offer you, these 10 steps will help anyone looking to take their corporate records and minute book documents online. If you can think of any steps I've missed, I welcome you to add them to the comments.

1. Take a deep breath and admit that you are powerless over your paper documents and, as a result, your work has become somewhat unmanageable.
2. Write down exactly why you want to go paperless.
   • To help you get started, here are some reasons I've heard from our customers:
     • They want easy access to their documents from home and at work.
     • They want to provide access to their clients.
     • They want attorneys to have easy access to critical documents.
3. Determine which minute book-related documents you want to scan.
   • I recommend scanning a company's articles of incorporation/organization, the ongoing minutes for the company, and stock certificates and option agreements.
   • Depending on your situation you might want to scan more or fewer items than this.
4. Buy a high-quality scanner.
   • If you don't have a simple way to scan documents as you receive them, you will find it too easy to skip the scanning process.
   • I recommend the ScanSnap S1300, which is small and easy to use. We use it here at Two Step and are very impressed by it.
   • Ignore this step if you have someone who will do the scanning for you (and if you do, consider yourself lucky!).
5. Find yourself a consolidated online system that allows you to easily store and view your scanned documents.
   • There are many systems available that may fit your needs.
   • If you need to scan minute books and other entity and ownership records, check out this short slide show featuring Corporate Focus sample screens.
6. Start with a reasonable goal.
   • After you've found the right system, begin by scanning only new documents that come across your desk, or initially select only certain key clients.
   • The trick is to not let the work overwhelm you; that will prevent you from scanning documents consistently.
7. Expand to more documents.
   • Once you've achieved your initial goal, such as scanning all new corporate documents, start going back and scanning historical minute book documents.
   • Schedule at least one hour every week to scan your historical documents. Put it on your calendar as a recurring event so that you don't forget. In no time, all of your minute book documents will be online.
8. Show off and share your work.
   • If you are taking the time to make your minute book documents paperless, be sure to show your boss and let her know where she can access the documents.
   • When others are able to open a document electronically in seconds for the first time (compared to hours of searching for physical documents), the time you spent scanning in all of the documents will have paid off.
9. Review, review, review.
   • Every 3 months, review your scanning process. During this review, check to see if there are any additional document types you want to scan.
   • You might also want to see if your system has any upgrades that make the process even easier for you.
10. Help others.
    • Going paperless takes a lot of work and commitment. As soon as you've achieved success, why not share your experiences by posting your thoughts to our discussion group or writing your own blog post? I'm certain others will appreciate your help.

If you have not yet started moving toward paperless corporate records and minute book documents, the time is now. Our Corporate Focus customers have done it for thousands of entities and, without a doubt, they are all glad they did. Want to hear some real feedback from lawyers who have already gone paperless--and are reaping the benefits every time a client calls? Just read one of our user stories.