The previous incarnation of my business was in Berkshire, where there were plenty of potential clients with money. I teleworked from home, but my clients did most of the routine data entry, and I did the clever bits. So original invoices, receipts, card vouchers, cheque stubs etc. rarely left their office. All I needed was copy bank statements and a few other copy documents, that were faxed or posted to me. I had some clients who I did everything for, but their documents were normally collected or delivered in person. It was quite rare that original documents were put in the post or sent by courier. This still worked well when I moved to Somerset, and just worked for my existing main clients.
I now live in a fairly rural part of West Wales, where there are less businesses and less money. I'm also English and a non Welsh speaker, in a Welsh speaking area. I didn't come here with the intention of going back to my old work, but plans change! So I've got a more limited local market. I also want to work for a particular group of people who are scattered across the UK. I don't intend to go back to the highly automated systems I had in the past, and the largish clients I worked for, so will probably be doing everything from basic book-keeping upwards for very small clients. So I'll need their invoices, receipts etc. here.
Are there other people here who do work for remote clients, and how do they handle this? I know the post and couriers are pretty reliable, but what happens on the odd occasion documents get lost or damaged?
Have you thought about scanning documents.. Clients can do it straight from their smart phones- download an app called camscanner, and the client can scan its invoices/receipts/bank statements etc and email them over to you or shared drop box?... literally everything. I always ask clients to keep the hard copies.
Stuart
-- Edited by StuartAnder on Monday 17th of March 2014 01:50:51 PM
I'd thought of that Stuart, and it would suit me, but wondered how clients get on with it. I can imagine getting badly scanned and unreadable documents where they don't check before sending. As I said, clients used to fax bank statements etc., but not card vouchers, till receipts and other small stuff.
Oh *&$*. CamScanner looks pretty impressive. Maybe I need to give up my aversion to newfangled gadgets like smart phones and tablets! Have you actually used it Stuart, and for this purpose?
-- Edited by EPF_Solutions on Monday 17th of March 2014 02:13:57 PM
Yes I do use it, I haven't had an issues with un readable documents. It has auto focus on it and if you get some one of those really dull hard to read receipts you can make the writing darker so you can read it.. Have a play with it. I think its brilliant :) the client can just scan the document and send it over straight from their phones, what client would like it :)
Have you tried other software as well, or is this the best?
I've got a bad feeling about this, as I've never felt the need to replace my nearly seven year old phone with one of these smart ones, but I may have to consider it!
Haha- Go on John... 7 years! may that's a long time..
I haven't used any other APP's for scanning (other than Epson iprint- which is linked to my printer) I'm sure there as others out there on the app markets..
Iphones are good- but very same-y every time a new one comes out.
I have a Samsung Note 3- which im quite enjoying at the moment- it even comes with a screen Pen (my favourite part lol )
I've just had a play with CamScanner on an iPad, and it's quite impressive. I scanned a couple of receipts, cropped them, and e-mailed them to myself. I think clients could cope with it, and it would be useful for me when I need copies of documents when I'm visiting clients. It was my very first play on one of these newfangled touch screen thingies too, as I've been trying to avoid them! I spent years telling clients off for touching screens! It's interesting that if clients scan and send documents as they get them, I could actually provide a faster service for clients I never meet, than ones I meet and swap paperwork with!
So now I suppose I need to choose a new phone, and decide which contract to upgrade to. Life was so simple before computers were invented!!!!!!!
Haha- Go on John... 7 years! may that's a long time..
I haven't used any other APP's for scanning (other than Epson iprint- which is linked to my printer) I'm sure there as others out there on the app markets..
Iphones are good- but very same-y every time a new one comes out.
I have a Samsung Note 3- which im quite enjoying at the moment- it even comes with a screen Pen (my favourite part lol )
I would big up the epson print,,,,I use this,, along with my samsung s3 and it is like magic, to scan and email stuff at ease :)!!!!!
I've got a Brother and two HP printers, none of which is exactly new. I'm not buying new printers as well! I do have an Epson scanner, but Noah probably used it for scanning the animal's papers as they boarded the ark!!!!!!
