electronic record keeping/filing for a small company question

[Anonymous]

Does anyone work in an office that keeps electronic records? I work from home, and when I finish a file for my office (across the country), I print a 100 page report, along with another 50-100 working papers/notes, into a manilla file folder, then place, let's say 15-20 of these folders into a banker's box. I have about 15 of these boxes (going back almost 10 years) that are soooo heavy. We're debating whether to try to ship them back to the office, or to go ahead and start an electronic filing system. (We've been contemplating this for a couple of years, but me needing to get rid of these boxes has jump started the process.) Since I'm the one with the files, I'm the one put in charge of researching this. So I thought I'd start here, to see if anyone else does this, and if so, if I could pick your brain on how it works?

There are a couple of issues (well more than a couple, I'm sure!):

1) Right now, I have hundreds of lbs of paper that need to be saved into files. Preferably something like a searchable PDF, one file per one of my folders. Is there any easy way/someone/a business that will take those 100s of pages and put them into electronic files, then shred my paper files? Will these files be searchable - so if I need to find a statement for Joe Smith in December 2000, I could just type a search and find pages in the e-file that match my criteria?

2) A couple of years ago, I started printing my work to word docs or cutepdf files (don't think they are searchable though). So theoretically for the past 2 years, all my reports are actually saved on my computer, and my working papers/notes are in the hard copy file. So even if I scan my working papers into a pdf, I'll still have maybe 10-12 e-files for one project. I think it might be better to consolidate one project into one file, so would I just combine it all into one PDF, or is there a software system that would be better to use?

I'm just thinking of ideas and really have no clue. I know doc and law offices have started going to e-filing, though, and other small companies I've heard talk about it, but not sure what systems/procedures they're using. Any thoughts or suggestions here? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Dropbox? Jungle disk?

[Anonymous]

I work for a small company (25 employees) and we went paperless last year. It took over a year to get the project going, but now we absolutely LOVE it.

[Anonymous]

^pp, what system, if any, do you use?