Twenty-five years ago, I suggested to my dear mentor in life and business that before too long, we will be paperless in the office. His response in his usual tactic full way, “we will have a paperless office, when we have a paperless toilet.”
For a quarter of a century, I have been trying to prove him wrong. I’m beginning to think that it may take another 25 years before achieve my prediction.
When I signed up for my bank account, I decided to be green and asked for paperless statements. (Actually, I asked for paperless statements because I couldn’t be bothered to file physical statements!) Last year, I changed my bank.
This year, my accountant asked me for some statements dating back to January for my tax return.
Herein lies the problem. Since I had closed my previous bank account, I suddenly realized that I had no access to my online banking capabilities. That may sound obvious now, but at the time, it wasn’t so obvious!
Now I was in a predicament. I needed the statements, but I had no way of getting them. So, my efforts to be green, could turn out red (given the taxes!) What to do? Well, in the end, I had to go to the bank, turn on my charm, and ask the manager to print out my old statements (thank you Ms. Bank Manager!)
So, I have since found a “Document-as-a-Service” product. It’s free (to a certain extent), and it logs onto my banks, and downloads the statements on a weekly basis, and saves it to an online (or offline) destination, thereby preserving and memorializing my expenses forever.
The moral of the story is this: paperless technology is here. Paperless practices leave a lot to be desired. Now, if you will excuse me, it’s time for my constitutional.