Mortaine’s Blog

Finally, I finished re-making/replacing the wrist cuff bracelet I’ve been working on. I wanted to do a simple pattern and work it into a bracelet, so that is exactly what I did:

This is four strips of tatting– two bands of two rows each worked into each other, then the two bands are woven together at the middle.

The bracelet is closed using basic hook-and-eyes sewn to the ends:

It’s about 7 1/2″ long, end to end.

In Part 1 I discussed using Bill Pay to reduce your front-end work at going paperless. In Part 2, I will quickly cover scanning, shredding, online storage, and the all-important regular backup. But first a disclaimer: Electronic record keeping as a replacement for real paper is governed by many overlapping laws, rules and corporate policies, the most important one being IRS Revenue Procedure 97-22. It is my understanding that the IRS will accept printouts from electronic copies as long as they contain all the same information as the paper records are required to have such as date, amount, etc. However, many stores will require original receipts, so saving receipts is still necessary at least until you know you won’t be returning anything. I am not an accountant nor a lawyer. Please seek professional guidance on creating your own paperless system before destroying your real papers!
Ok, let’s get started. The first step in going paperless is scanning. Scanners are very inexpensive now and you do not need anything other than a flat-bed scanner. However, a document feeder is handy for scanning stacks of papers. Simply scan your papers in a format such as JPEG or PDF. I find 150DPI is adequate resolution while keeping file size small. Give the files meaningful names. I name files using the date, who it came from, a reference number, what it is, and a page number. For example: 2008-01-31-WellsFargo-1234-Statement-1.jpg. Then I put the file in a directory/folder named “Paperless” on my hard drive. I create directories for each year and subdirectories inside those for each major entity or category. Make your own directory structure that makes sense to you. In my opinion, this type of organization system is only scalable enough for individuals and small businesses. Larger businesses should look at commercial applications for indexing and securing the records in a multi-user environment. And it’s worth mentioning that the computer you are using should be reasonably secure physically and/or cryptographically from data theft. For the original document you may choose to continue to file it in your real-paper files (a good idea during the transition period) or you may choose to shred them. If you choose to shred them, you may want to delay shredding until after your periodic backups are done, just in case. Note that there are some documents that should never be shredded — use common sense — they don’t call them vital records for nothing. Finally, and most importantly, you must backup your records on a regular basis! A simple copy of your paperless directories to a CD-R or external hard drive on a weekly basis will do. Keep the backup media in a safe place away from your computer. A less regular off-site backup is recommended as well — perhaps a monthly CD-R that you put in your safe-deposit box. That’s all there is to it!