Good documentation is the lifeblood of any thriving business including smaller firms. If you run an SME, using legal templates and following other key practices can make the paperwork more manageable. In this post, we’ll outline these practices and how they help your company.
How Small Business Owners Can Manage Their Legal Paperworks?
Documents That SMEs Require
Small businesses often need many of the same documents as any large-scale corporation. The right forms will make business simpler, though you must manage them correctly.
Here are some examples of the documents you might use:
- Articles of incorporation
- Business plan
- Employment contracts
- Freelance agreements
- Health and safety policy
- Invoices
- Commercial lease
- Event risk assessment
- Confidentiality agreement
To a point, the necessary documents vary by company. For example, you may not need a lease if your company is remote-only. Event risk assessments are also naturally only necessary if you arrange a company event.
You might also opt for a freelance agreement over an employment contract. Freelancers may be more cost-effective for your business, especially in its early days. For example, you’ll have more control over payment terms.
More document types could add extra administrative clutter. Look at the documents you already use and see if you can reduce them. This alone can really help streamline your paperwork.
Digitising Your Documents
Storing everything physically isn’t always practical. You may find it better to become a paperless business, which has several environmental benefits. Your business will generate less waste, for example, and spend less on office supplies.
In addition, digitised documents are easier to search through. These often use optical character recognition (OCR) to ensure every word translates to the new format. You can then search for a document using its actual words rather than trawling through filing cabinets.
There are many apps that let you digitise documents. You can simply point your phone at a form and let it work its magic.
How Online Templates Can Help?
Instead of digitising existing documents, you can ensure future ones stay digital. You might use online templates for this purpose. Drafting documents from scratch takes a long time. If you pay someone to help here, you could rack up a high price over time.
With this in mind, here are five reasons to use online business document templates:
- Legally binding: These forms come with everything they need to stand up to scrutiny. A template gives you peace of mind that the document works.
- Fully comprehensive: Similarly, you won’t have to worry about missing anything. An online legal template already has every field that could help you.
- More efficient: Within just a few minutes, you could have a low-cost document that suits your needs. Every form you get this way saves time and money.
- Customisable: You can tailor each online template to match your situation. You can, for example, write a business plan that reflects your specific goals.
- Signature-ready: You won’t need a physical copy of these documents. If the form needs a signature, you and the other party can sign it electronically.
Once you finish customising your document, simply download it. You can still edit the form as much as you want before sending it out.
Storing Business Documents
Whether you have an office or not, you need to store your business forms well. Some may even have confidential information. In these cases, you must always follow GDPR and data protection laws. Here’s how to store your documents both physically and digitally.
Physical Forms
If possible, keep your paperwork in secure filing cabinets. They should be somewhere that only the necessary people can access. Arrange these documents alphabetically or colour-coordinate them. If you have a lot of documents, consider keeping them at an off-site facility.
Digital Forms
Keeping documents on your computer may leave them vulnerable to data loss. Cloud storage is an especially reliable and secure solution. You’ll always have a backup available. Cloud storage aims for “11 nines” of security – meaning over 99.99% uptime.
Are Electronic Signatures Valid?
Many of the documents you create will require a signature. You can easily get the other party to sign virtually. But would this hold up in court? Under the Electronic Communications Act of 2000, absolutely.
Business contracts of any kind need signatures. Both sides will then need to keep a copy of the completed (i.e., countersigned) document. The ECA gives every party the peace of mind they’ll need to know online signatures are enough.
Depending on the document, your signature might need a witness or two. You can facilitate this with a simple video call. Share your screen and let your witness see you add your signature. They will then have to sign it themselves.
Final Thoughts
Keeping your paperwork streamlined means using online templates and storing them well. If you must have physical documents, keep them in secure storage.
Your due diligence here will help you access these documents when you need them.
