View Full Version : Investigating going paperless
I’ve begun investigating going paperless with our customs clearance files which are currently in paper format. Last time I had seriously looked into this, you had to get approval from CBP and have certain security/backup procedures. I’ve gotten the OK to look into this. I’m sick of the paper files.
In my last elected office, I got our District to go paperless, which made it *so* much easier to promptly comply with Public Records Act information requests. Before we were spending a good portion of an FTE responding to such requests, now it is simple and cheap.
It also freed up an entire room in our offices devoted to stacks of boxes of papers.
That would be very cool, Tradd, to accomplish.
Good luck Tradd. I would think transferring it all would be extremely time consuming. Full time job for a while, but making thinkgs easier int he long run.
Good luck Tradd. I would think transferring it all would be extremely time consuming. Full time job for a while, but making thinkgs easier int he long run.
We don’t have to transfer anything. Anything existing would stay paper and only going forward after CBP approves would it be all electronic.
I’m also transferring the daily duty (import taxes) reports that I send to accounting to paperless. Found out I don’t have to write the import file numbers on them, which requires going into the system. There’s a report I can run to make sure there are no duty discrepancies.
I have a major ulterior motive for doing this. I want to eventually be able to work from home part time. A number of people have been with the company for ages. Indian half of owners says he wants me to stay to retirement. If I can work from home, it would be fabulous. Nothing I do really requires me to be in the office.
Very clever Tradd. good luck with it all.
My 2015 MacBook is on its last legs. Got a Lenovo laptop on sale and two 24” monitors from Amazon. Laptop only has one HDMI port but figured out to support two with a $50 adapter from Amazon. Wireless keyboard and mouse. Have three displays with laptop screen. Have to take laptop into work when IT guys are there for them to install VPN and remote desktop software.
I got a mid-level laptop. I remember another poster saying during Covid that she had to use her personal laptop to work at home and she had bought a cheap one, not realizing she’d have to use it for work. I believe it had just been bought as a spare. So I took that into consideration when looking at laptops.
It was fairly easy to get everything set up. Had to google for help on setting up monitor order and such but that wasn’t too difficult.
happystuff
5-29-23, 8:52am
I like Lenovo. Had a netbook which, while it still works, I don't use as much as it can no longer be updated but still comes in handy. I currently have both a laptop and tablet which I am very happy with. Good luck with the new equipment.
I like Lenovo. Had a netbook which, while it still works, I don't use as much as it can no longer be updated but still comes in handy. I currently have both a laptop and tablet which I am very happy with. Good luck with the new equipment.
A friend’s hubby is in IT and he provided advice when I was shopping. Monitors were $89 each. Laptop was just under $900. They’ve used Lenovo a lot and highly recommended them.
Very happy with my setup. Just trying to get used to Windows 11.
Even though the daily duty statements are still being printed out, I’m using the discrepancies report, which has hugely cut down the time spent doing the statement. That was a welcome change.
Tradd, Isn't it wonderful when a change makes a difference??
Tradd, Isn't it wonderful when a change makes a difference??
Sure is!
Finally got my laptop set up with the VPN and remote desktop software. I actually had to work from home for about 5 min last night and I was able to access the system fine.
What I didn’t count on was not being able to access the saved logins/passwords saved in my browser on work pc. There was something associated to what I did last night that required me to access a related website last night. I couldn’t even remember user ID to imitate password reset. So I’m going into the office this morning for a few. Office manager will let me in. This is for a customer of hers and she lives 2 minutes from the office. I was already scheduled to do something in that town (45 min from home) anyway so this worked out.
Glad to hear that it (mostly) worked out.
Being able to work remotely is so convenient. I've been remote fulltime since started with my current employer a little over 4 years ago. They don't have an office in California. When I started with them they were just making the switch from dummy terminals to laptops for everyone and because I was going to be one of the first remote workers I was one of the first to be assigned a laptop. When covid started and everyone had to work remote for the better part of a year we had only finished the transition about a month earlier and it actually worked out fine.* Now we've fully embraced remote work and significantly downsized our main (Chicago) officespace, saving us something like $1 million/year in rent. My five direct reports live scattered all over the country and work remote full time without any problems. It just means that I have more phone calls with them to discuss accounts instead of in person conversations if we were all in an office together. It also means it's easier to fill positions as we grow because we can consider anyone anywhere instead of just the people who live near one of our three offices (aside from Chicago the others are NYC and Hartford CT.)
*Funny aside. When we first went full remote because of covid Microsoft Teams didn't yet have the blur background feature that most people use today. (I still don't blur my background since I have a dedicated office space that is pretty nice). It was fun seeing everyone's home workspaces. Occasionally it was also funny, like when we had a new underwriting assistant start and his desk is in his bedroom. I noticed on the first of our team's weekly calls that the new UA didn't make his bed, so I texted this to our boss and waited for him to read the text, look at M on his screen and then try to stifle a grin. Or when another coworker, on a different team call, had her fiance walk past her, fresh out of the shower and wearing his bathrobe, and she muted herself but turned around and appeared to be shouting, probably "I'M ON A VIDEO CALL."
Jp, the “brainstorming” with my customs dept coworker can easily be done via messaging or over the phone. He sits at the other end of the office. He used to sit across the aisle from me, but didn’t like my fan goijg all the time (due to how my desk is set up, having fab at my feet meant it would be aimed at him). He’s similar to me - leave me alone and let me do my job. So we leave each other alone. There’s no reason what we do can’t be done from home, but you know how some executives want people in the office.
Personally I don’t understand the ‘I want to see everyone’ mentality. We have a productivity dashboard that tells all of us how much ‘work’ everyone is doing on a daily basis. I don’t need to see my staff to know if they are busy. The dashboard provides a much more accurate picture.
Personally I don’t understand the ‘I want to see everyone’ mentality. We have a productivity dashboard that tells all of us how much ‘work’ everyone is doing on a daily basis. I don’t need to see my staff to know if they are busy. The dashboard provides a much more accurate picture.
Neither do I. The metrics of my job are a bit different, but it’s driven by what I’ve got on my desk and arrival dates.
Neither do I. The metrics of my job are a bit different, but it’s driven by what I’ve got on my desk and arrival dates.
Our productivity dashboard, which was made in-house by our awesome operations team, is also our workflow manager. Insurance submissions come in and the dashboard gets updated to include them in underwriting status. Once the underwriter has reviewed the submission and issued a quote in our policy quoting/binding & invoicing/policy issuing system the dashboard status gets updated to quoted. If we get the order to bind the account and then bind it in our quote/bind&invoice/policy issue system the status changes to bound-waiting for issuance in the dashboard. And for our administrative processing team it also monitors whether there are outstanding items that are needed for the file and automatically sends the insurance broker a reminder about those missing items on a set schedule, and also tracks how quickly the policy gets issued after all the outstanding items come in, etc. I can see at a glance what my staff is doing by looking at the numbers for all of that.
I imagine that a customs brokerage could develop a similar system to track whatever the specific account (shipment?) details and metrics are that matter to you. Just seeing my team in an office would be meaningless for managing all the things that our dashboard manages. And trying to manually track all of this in a spreadsheet or whatever would be a fulltime clerical job all by itself.
Another task had been switched to being paperless. Besides the customs clearance files, there is one other daily thing, but it involves our India office so I have to talk to owner (back in town next week). India offices electronically files this thing before sailing required by US Customs. They then print the forms (with file number added to them) on our printer here. I then check off all the done ones against the list they email me daily. I want them to save all the forms to a folder on our shared public drive, and I’ll just check off the list from there.
Both the import and accounting departments are paperless. Customs is the holdout.
Our productivity dashboard, which was made in-house by our awesome operations team, is also our workflow manager. Insurance submissions come in and the dashboard gets updated to include them in underwriting status. Once the underwriter has reviewed the submission and issued a quote in our policy quoting/binding & invoicing/policy issuing system the dashboard status gets updated to quoted. If we get the order to bind the account and then bind it in our quote/bind&invoice/policy issue system the status changes to bound-waiting for issuance in the dashboard. And for our administrative processing team it also monitors whether there are outstanding items that are needed for the file and automatically sends the insurance broker a reminder about those missing items on a set schedule, and also tracks how quickly the policy gets issued after all the outstanding items come in, etc. I can see at a glance what my staff is doing by looking at the numbers for all of that.
I imagine that a customs brokerage could develop a similar system to track whatever the specific account (shipment?) details and metrics are that matter to you. Just seeing my team in an office would be meaningless for managing all the things that our dashboard manages. And trying to manually track all of this in a spreadsheet or whatever would be a fulltime clerical job all by itself.
We probably have a customs dept version of the daily import report.
Finally got approval from the owner to submit the letter to CBP notifying them we’re going paperless for our archives. Owner had been traveling for more than a month. His son had said he’d bring it all up to his dad and I found out yesterday he’d not even mentioned it. So yesterday was owner’s second day back and I talked to him.
For the other thing involving our India office, I have to write up a procedure. Have to see how this might work differently than I had originally thought. It’s a little slower now so that gives me time to get this stuff done.
I went paperless after working from home during the pandemic. Threw out most papers when I got back in the office but maintained a few files.
Now just was informed that our office is consolidating and all the folks on my floor are being consolidated into another floor. And we will not have assigned cubicles, it will be a "hoteling" setup. Desks will have a monitor and laptop docking station but you bring in your laptop and work from whatever space is available. So now getting rid of everything in and on my desk, office supplies and finding homes for the resident plants. So not just paperless, but "everything" less. People here not happy, considering the company has been taking a harder line on getting people into the office and people opting to leave the company instead, I foresee a bigger exodus in the future
I went paperless after working from home during the pandemic. Threw out most papers when I got back in the office but maintained a few files.
Now just was informed that our office is consolidating and all the folks on my floor are being consolidated into another floor. And we will not have assigned cubicles, it will be a "hoteling" setup. Desks will have a monitor and laptop docking station but you bring in your laptop and work from whatever space is available. So now getting rid of everything in and on my desk, office supplies and finding homes for the resident plants. So not just paperless, but "everything" less. People here not happy, considering the company has been taking a harder line on getting people into the office and people opting to leave the company instead, I foresee a bigger exodus in the future
If people are expected to be in the office, not having assigned desks is crazy. I have very few personal things at my desk. Pretty much only my framed brokers license, snacks, tea. I supply my own pens and notebooks as I don’t like the cheapo versions the office has.
When people are unhappy, the best and brightest leave. Never seems to be good for the remaining employees and business as a whole. When employees are treated as disposable, they will consider the company the same.
If people are expected to be in the office, not having assigned desks is crazy.
Yep. One of our other offices decided to consolidate locations and use this hoteling concept which was a pre-Covid decision. It became a problem post-Covid when the company decided there should be days that all employees should be in the office. There wasn't enough space for everyone to be there. Didn't help that the software used for scheduling time and space had some problems. Yet they are entertaining using the same system for our location. Crazy.
When people are unhappy, the best and brightest leave. Never seems to be good for the remaining employees and business as a whole. When employees are treated as disposable, they will consider the company the same.
I have seen this so many times in my working career. Prior to my current company, I worked for one of the premier employers in the area. Without going into the gory details, in a nutshell, this company downsized itself into near oblivion through spinoffs, layoffs, failed initiatives, and failed product launches / timing. Many people, including myself, decided to leave of their own accord. Attitude was that the company can't be more important to us than we are to them.
At current company, they are pushing people to come into the office claiming it's necessary for collaboration, face-to-face interaction doesn't make up for Teams meetings, it's good for the company etc. etc. But the real reason is that some of the company executives still insist on face time even though we managed just fine during the lengthy work from home mandate during Covid. My own boss thinks it's a bad idea to push it right now and the results are seeing more terminations in our ticket system (I work in IT) versus new hires to replace them.
I am grateful that I retired while my company was still in the early discussion stages of hoteling. To be fair, it was related to the company being pretty progressive about allowing people to work remotely. Pretty much everyone, except facilities maintenance type folks, could work from home at least part of the time.
The going paperless project is now officially dead. See my other thread about company making those of us with physical disabilities walk further to get into the office.
ApatheticNoMore
8-4-23, 8:14pm
There isn't enough space in the office at this point, therefore I work from home 4 days, most everyone works from home at least some days.
Teacher Terry
8-5-23, 7:10pm
Tradd, it will be interesting to see if the owners even notice that you are no longer working on the paperless system. I never understood why employers don’t do little things to make people happy especially when there’s no cost.
There isn't enough space in the office at this point, therefore I work from home 4 days, most everyone works from home at least some days.
I’ve hears this from other people too.
Tradd, it will be interesting to see if the owners even notice that you are no longer working on the paperless system. I never understood why employers don’t do little things to make people happy especially when there’s no cost.
I don’t think they will notice. You have to give CBP 30 days notice. Letter was just mailed last week. Email was not an option. With the way, the mail is often slow these days, I can always say I’ve not seen a response. And just because you asked to keep records electronically, it doesn’t mean you HAVE to do it.
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