Enterprise Nation

Resident geek and friend o' Enterprise Nation, San Sharma, is getting rid of "all that junk" and going paperless in his home office and home business.

"Whatcha gonna do with all that junk?" asked rapper turned Obama campaigner will.i.am in his 2005 hit with the Black Eyed Peas, 'My Humps'. It's a question I often ask myself, perhaps with less panache. What am I going to do with all this junk, I wonder. Books, CDs, DVDs. And then there's the paperwork. If you're wondering the same thing - and, like me, trying to make the transition to a paperless home office - here are some tips to get you started.

Billing and invoicing

I've mentioned before on Enterprise Nation that I use online invoicing application Freshbooks to track my time, generate invoices and even accept payment via PayPal. My clients appreciate the speed and efficiency with which I can handle billing, whilst cutting down on (or cutting out, even) paper. Invoices are e-mailed as PDFs and clients can even log-in to a special area of the Freshbooks website to view details and leave comments.

• Freshbooks

Banking

All major banks now offer online banking - and if you're not already using it, why not? It offers more up-to-date information than your paper statement and an alternative that is better for the environment and, when coupled with accountancy software, like QuickBooks, better for your business.

• e-banking.co.uk - compare high street and online banking services

Reading

It's not out in the UK yet, but Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle, has been a huge success in the US. And, if you're a big reader, the 10.3 ounce device might take some weight of your home office bookshelf. You can buy books 'on the fly' (that is, wirelessly), from a selection of over 130,000 titles, read newspapers and magazines and even listen to music.

• Amazon's Kindle

Notetaking

The Internet is awash with GTD offerings from web 2.0 start-ups. Why is Evernote different? Well, it's a note-taking application with a good number of clients, all syncing the same data: that includes clients for Windows, Mac, the web, the mobile web and Windows Mobile. It allows you to take notes whether you're on the Internet, at your desk or out and about and synchronises those notes with its web server for archiving and searching wherever you are. Here's a real world example: yesterday when I was on my way to Sainsbury's I saw a flyer for an exhibition I'd quite like to see. I took a photo of it with my mobile phone, e-mailed it to my Evernote account (with tags in the subject line) and returned home to find the photo in my Evernote notebook on my desktop and on the web. (Cleverly, the software recognised the text on the flyer, so it was completely searchable!)

• Evernote

Filing

If you're a Mac user, you're in luck. There's an excellent piece of software called Yep that allows you to scan paperwork to PDF, keep it all in one place, retrieve and search through it, all through a beautiful interface worthy of your handsome desktop (think iPhoto but for PDFs). Windows users can scan documents and convert them to PDF with the excellent (and free) PDF converter, doPDF.

• Yep.
• doPDF

Both users, home businesses and, not least, the environment will benefit from a paperless home office.

Have you got any tips for a paperless home office? Share them in the comments below! – San Sharma

Photo credit: Flickr user WhatDaveSees'.

San Sharma is a creative thinker, blogger and designer, as well as a writer on popular culture, technology and business.

• www.sansharma.com