Running a small business from your phone: How to handle paperwork on the go
As a small business owner, you’re probably familiar with this – your phone is like a friend and makes so much easier: it allows you to check email, respond to clients, issue documents, and communicate with your team from virtually anywhere. But what if a contract, bank form, insurance document, or official letter needs to be faxed?
You might be surprised to learn that you don’t even need a printer or fax machine to handle such a situation. All you need is a properly set up mobile document workflow.
- How do you prepare documents when working outside the office?
- How do you send faxes without access to office equipment?
- How do you organize your documents to ensure secure work from your phone?
Read more and learn about how to prepare documents and send faxes – all safely!
How do you prepare documents when working outside the office?
What’s the foundation of working with documents while traveling? Access to their digital versions. Therefore, it’s better to store everything -contracts, forms, confirmations, and invoices – in a well-organized cloud system, allowing you to open the file you need even on your smartphone. Scanning documents directly with your phone’s camera is also useful – fortunately, most modern devices can automatically detect the edges of the page and save them as PDFs.
And if a client or institution requires a fax machine, using a solution that works without a physical device is a good option. For example mFax is an online faxing app available for iPhone, Android, Windows, and browsers. It allows you to send PDF files, Word documents, or photos as faxes, and save received faxes in PDF format. It doesn’t require a separate fax machine or a separate phone line – and that’s an added value that shouldn’t be overlooked.
How do you send faxes without access to office equipment?
Now let’s get down to specifics. It’s a good idea to organize your mobile document workflow so that sending a fax doesn’t require a return trip to the office (because, of course, things can go wrong). How do you do this? Make sure the document is complete, legible, and contains all the required information. Only then can you proceed to the next step and select a digital version from your phone or upload a photo of the properly prepared document.
Also, carefully check the recipient’s number and the required file format. When it comes to business forms, pay close attention to the page order and the presence of a signature.
After sending, it’s worth saving the transmission confirmation along with a copy of the document – this will allow you to reconstruct the correspondence history, even if the matter was handled between meetings, during a business trip, or outside of standard business hours. This can be very helpful.
How do you organize your documents to ensure secure work from your phone?
Along with all this, make sure to maintain a simple naming system for files, folders, and backups. You’ll thank yourself for it! Also, be sure to secure your phone with a passcode or biometrics and use up-to-date software. It’s also a good idea to delete temporary copies of documents from your phone’s memory if they’re no longer needed.
This is how your phone can become a truly practical business service center – even if some paperwork still requires traditional faxing.
