That Elusive Paperless Office

Did I read/hear somewhere the prediction that with the advent of the computer age, offices were going to become paperless? How wrong could that prediction have been?

Take my office of example. I handle the petty cash (I wonder why it’s called ‘Petty Cash’ when the budget is in the thousands? Nothing petty about that) and out of curiosity (or was it boredom) I decided to count just how many bits of paper are generated by 1, yes ONE claim.

1. Claim arrives (on an expenses form: 1 bit of paper)


2. Claim is recorded in workbook (1 bit of paper)


3. Claim is written recorded on Petty cash sheet (1 bit of paper)


4. Write cheque for claim (1 bit of paper)


5. Write voucher for claim (1 bit of paper)


6. Write out remittance form to go out with cheque (1 bit of paper)


7. Photocopy 1,4,5,6 twice!! (2 bits of paper: I can fit two things on an A4 page)


8. Photocopy two new claim forms (2 bits of paper)


9. Stuff envelope with 4, 6 and 8 (1 bit of paper: envelope is a bit of paper technically, right?) and return to claimant.


10. Record that cheque has been posted out in Post Record Book (1 bit of paper)

Total Number of bits of paper: 12. TWELVE!!

Paperless office indeed!