Documentation & Filing

1. DOCUMENTATION
AND
FILING

2. This presentation is divided
into two parts to get a better
understanding of the topic.

3. Part 1:
Documentation

4. Definition:
 Documentation consists of documents which
provide proof or evidence of something, or
are a record of something. (Collins,n.d.)
Documentation

5. Documentation
Importance:
Reduces Risk, Liability and Stress.
Provides all the information about the
specific situation
Helps in the legal matters
 Documentation help ensure consent
and expectations.
 It helps to tell the narrative for
decisions made, and how yourself or
the client responded to different
situations.
 It is important to record information
that can help support the proper plan
and the reasoning.

6. Documentation
Communication:
 Ensures the flow of communication
and activities
 To assure the continuity among the
departments
 To get the clear picture of the situation
Quality Assurance:
 To provide quality
 To ensure adequate in the process
 To train and to improve (where need
to)
 To make necessary changes
Purpose:

7. Legal Support:
 Provides protection for clients
 Provides protection for staff.
 Provides evidence for legal
proceedings.
Research:
 To determine the effectiveness of
upcoming moves
 To find the problem
 To improve the knowledge
 Identify new approaches
Documentation
Purpose:

8. Planning and Decision Making:
 To solve problems by planning in
the most appropriate ways.
 To forecast upcoming actions.
 Identifying needs and prevent
unnecessary moves.
Educational Tool:
 Helps to learn past mistakes.
 Helps to learn about particular
conditions.
 To keep records.
Documentation
Purpose:

9. • Establish and Confirm
the document
requirement.
• Determine document
orientation, style and
format.
• Select application
software.
Design the
Document
• Configure document
templet
• Create a document and
mark as “ Draft”
• Save the draft document
Create
Document • Review document and
seek the feedback.
• Incorporate the feedback
and finalize the document
• Save finalized document.
Finalize The
Document
Documentation
Basic Principles:

10. Documentation
Other Important
Principles:
 Correct Spelling
 Proper time and date
 Legal Evidence
 Accuracy
 Confidentiality
 Signature
 Completeness
 Consciences
 Omissions
 Appropriateness
 Style and Font
 Common Vocabulary

11. Documentation
Methods:
Each method has its advantages and
disadvantages, and the choice of which
method to use depends on the nature of the
information being documented and the
intended audience (Varpe, 2023)

12. Documentation
Methods:
Written documentation: This includes written notes, reports,
manuals, and other written materials that are used to record
information Electronic documentation.
Electronic documentation: This involves using electronic
systems to store and manage information, such as databases,
spreadsheets, and content management systems.
Documentation

13. Audio and video documentation: This method involves
recording information using audio or video technology. This
includes recordings of meetings, interviews, and lectures.
Photographic documentation: This involves taking
photographs to record and document information. This
method is often used in scientific research or for documenting
physical objects.
Documentation
Methods:

14. Documentation
Methods:
Diagrammatic documentation: This includes creating
diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual aids to represent
complex information.
Collaborative documentation: This involves using tools such as
wikis or shared documents to allow multiple people to
contribute to the documentation of a project or process.
Online documentation: This involves creating and maintaining
documentation that is available online. This can include
websites, online manuals, and other digital resource.

15. Documentation
Types:

16. Part 2:
Filing

17. Filing
Definition
Filing means keeping documents in a safe
place and being able to find them easily
and quickly. Documents that are cared for
will not easily tear, get lost or dirty. A filing
system is the central record-keeping system
for an organization. It helps you to be
organized, systematic, efficient and
transparent.

18. Features
 Simple and quick to use
 Tidy
 Conveniently Located
 Properly Flagged or
Labeled
 Doesn't occupy too much
space whether on floor or
on any electronic system
 Properly written according
to future needs
 Properly labelled so that
you can find them easily.
 Keep them in a separate
room if available to
prevent them mixing with
the other documents.
 One person should be
designated to label them.
 Properly secured like if it
is in hard copy then it
should be kept in a
cardboard box or in a file
to prevent damage
See next slide to get the clear
Filing

19. Correct Incorrect

20. Filing
 To make records available whenever they are
needed for the reference or evidence.
 To keep all the documents to gather so that the
history will be at one place.
 To provide a permanent and a safe place for the
records of business information.
 To satisfy legal requirement like bank statements
and tax returns
 To keep up-to-date information and readily
available.
Purpose

21. Filing
Methods
There are three main filing methods:
1. Centralized Filing
2. Manual Filing
3. Electronic Filing

22. The centralized filing records are
controlled by a common index plan.
For which, a separate department is created
i.e. known as filing department. All the files
of the organization are preserved by this
department. The functional departments of
an organization are relieved from the
headache of maintaining records.
Filing
Centralized Filing

23. Filing
Manual Filing
A manual system is a bookkeeping system where
records are maintained by hand, without using a
computer system. Instead, transactions are written
in journals, from which the information is
manually rolled up into a set of financial
statements. These systems suffer from a high error
rate, and are much slower than computerized
systems. Manual systems are most commonly
found in small enterprises that have few
transactions.

24. Filing
Electronic Filing
Electronic file management, or electronic
document management, is the practice of
importing, storing and managing documents
and images as computer files. It includes
the scanning and capturing of data from
paper-based documents, digitizing files and
allowing for the disposal of hard copies.

25. Filing
Why should organizations have a good filing system?
A filing system is the central record-
keeping system for an organization. It
helps you to be organized, systematic,
efficient and transparent. It also helps all
people who should be able to access
information to do so easily.

26. Filing
Importance of Filing
What do we file?
• We file documents that are sent to us by other
people or organizations. We also file records of all
our organizational activities. These can be letters,
memos, reports, financial records, policy
documents, etc.
When do we file?
• This depends on how busy your office is. In very
busy organizations filing is done at least every day
and usually first thing in the morning. In a small or
less busy office you could file once or twice a
week.

27. Filing
Equipment's Used for Filing
 Filing Cabinet - It is used to keep flat files and suspension
or hanging files

Steel Cabinet - It is used to keep big files that need to be
locked up

Date Stamp - It is used to date stamp documents that are
received on daily
 basis so that they are filed in chronological order.

Register - It is used to record files taken out and files
returned

Filing shelves - It is used to file box files

Box file - Large documents that cannot fit in a filing cabinet
are stored in this file.

28. Filing
Classification of Filing
There are 5 methods of Classification:
 Filing by Subject/Category
 Filing in Alphabetical order
 Filing by Numbers/Numerical order
 Filing by Places/Geographical order
 Filing by Dates/Chronological order
These ways of filing is called classification and means organizing things that
are alike, together. You can, however, combine some of these methods. For
example, files that are kept together according to what they are about we say
are subject filing but, inside each file the documents could be filed according to
date order.

29. When we file by categories, we try to file in a logical way; we put files
together because they belong together; we don't put them together just
because they start with the same letter.
eg. PPWAWU, SARHWU, NUM and NUMSA all belong to the category
Unions.
For example, we could put all our files into categories. Correspondence
could be one category that takes up a whole drawer of our filing cabinet.
Inside that drawer we could have sub-categories. Sub categories could
be things like:
Fundraising correspondence
Correspondence with other organizations
Correspondence with members
Correspondence with members of the public
Correspondence with Board
…and so on.
Filing
Why it is important to make categories?
Filing
Why it is important to make categories?

30. Filing
How to form categories?
1. Sort all your documents out into piles that you think
belong together.
2. Give each pile a category name.
3. Make a list of categories.
4. Look at your list critically: Ask yourself: Can we combine
any categories?. Should we break up a category into two
categories? What sub-categories do we need? Do we need to
have alphabetical files within a category?

31. Filing
Filing Key
After choosing your
categories, you must create
a filing index so others can
understand your system
and find the information
they need. Filing keys are
indexes.
If you're not sure, don't
create new files. Write the
new file's category and
filing key immediately.
Distribute the new
categories immediately.
New Files

32. Filing
How to issue any file ?
We must ensure that people don't lose or neglect to return files or papers
from the filing system. We need a list of borrowed files to track them.
To do this we can use:
 A file-out book - a file-out book is simply a book in which we write
 Who borrowed the file or document
 Name of the file or document
 When they borrowed it
 When they returned it
Example:
Name Document Date Taken
Out
Date Return
XYZ Reports File
10-02-2001 12-02-2001
ABC Finance File
23-01-2001

33. Filing
Effective File Management
1. Avoid saving unnecessary documents. ...
2. Follow a consistent method for naming your files and
folders. ...
3. Store related documents together, whatever their
type. ...
4. Separate ongoing work from completed work. ...
5. Avoid overfilling folders. ...
6. Organize documents by date. ...
7. Make digital copies of paper documents.

34. Filing
Benefits of a Good Filing System
It's important but boring. File management is
essential yet sometimes forgotten. Good
filing systems preserve and retrieve relevant
information. Simple folder naming and file
architecture might have advantages. Digital
and physical documents are affected
(Hadley,2021).
More benefits:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-benefits-good-filing-system-
dan-hadley/

35. I. Make a checklist of all the necessary categories
that can be added to a file of a finance
department.
II. Define in bullets which type of filing is suitable
for a startup company.
III. Which type of document should be made for
team who is visiting a site for training? And
what particulars it should contain?
Activity Plan

36. Collins. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/docume
ntation
Hadley, D. (2021). Retrieved from www.linkedin.com:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/8-benefits-good-filing-system-
dan-hadley/
Varpe, M. (2023, feb). Retrieved from www.quora.com:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-different-methods-
of-documentation
2022, 10 2022). Retrieved from accountingtools.com:
https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/manual-
system
Reference

37. Thank You
!!!