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2.1.1 Cost savings Pak Lau Professional Corporation can lower costs significantly by using the paperless engagements. Files are stored in several file cabinets located in different places of the office. Although the files are placed in alphabetical order, the employees need to physically search for the file cabinet that contains the file, and browse through the files in order to find the correct one. The employees have to go through this process every time they need to file new documents, or to obtain a document for reference. This process can be quite cumbersome and time consuming, and lack of credibility and professionalism would result. For example, if the worker need to obtain several documents and file a few documents at the same time, it is very easy to mix up the files and documents of different clients. Furthermore, if a client calls to obtain information, sometimes the employees cannot respond promptly due to the time it takes to locate the client's file. These events can easily happen, especially during tax season when the office is very busy. James Blaylock, Certified Public Accountant (CPA), managing member of eFileCabinet with other groups, agrees in Document Management, "It's the worst feeling in the world [when you're unable] to find a file when a client calls … CPAs want to have the right answer 'immediately,' ... As regulations continue to change and accountability is more important than ever, CPAs are discovering that more and more paperwork is required to get the job done. As a result, it is getting more difficult to manage the process." Consequently, the office has to suffer the cost of the time consumed by employees to get their job done, and the cost due to inadequate credibility and professionalism.
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2.1.2 Improvement on employees' efficiency In contrast to the traditional engagement, most files and documents can be stored electronically in a paperless engagement, allowing quicker access of information comparing to navigating through physical files. The employees can easily locate one or more documents with a few click of the mouse. Therefore, employees can be more efficient because less time is used to search for files and documents. A little experiment is done by three employees of Pak Lau Professional Corporation to demonstrate the increase in efficiency of using paperless engagements. Referring to figure 1 on page 11, it takes an employee seven seconds to locate a specific document in a physical file, and four seconds to locate an electronic document stored in a computer on average. The time required for locating a physical file is almost double the time required locating an electronic file. Also, the employees can open several existing documents at the same time. With a click of the mouse, they can easily close the files, and the files are saved in their corresponding folder. As a result, they can get more work done quickly, and the chance of getting the documents mix up is reduced.
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2.1.3 Increase in office space In addition, physical files and documents will take up a substantial amount of office space. The working papers that are produced during a traditional engagement may include: photocopies of clients' documents, general ledgers for bookkeeping, draft financial statements, etc. Every new fiscal year, new documents are added to the file to update the existing information. More paper is used when the employees are preparing schedules or summaries for drafting financial statements; therefore, more files and office space are needed to store these working papers and documents. Eventually, employees need to spend time clean out some of the old files; hence, working time is reduced, and the office is less efficient. By storing files and documents electronically, the office space and the employees' working time can be put to a better use.
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