Moving to paperless forms, part 1

By Eric D. McMillen, MCSE, CCA
Boomer Consulting, Inc., Manhattan, Kan.

As a consultant, I have the occasion to observe numerous firms each year. This gives me an opportunity to see some of the best practices in the accounting industry in action; it also lets me see some of the worst. One of these worst practices is the proliferation of paper forms for everything. I have even observed firms that require a form to fill out in order to create a new form. This is not only time consuming, but is also costly. In today’s climate, firms need to be moving from a paper-based forms environment to an electronic-based setting.

One of the first problems we encounter as we move towards an electronic-based forms (e-forms) environment is that there is no standard manner of implementing them. E-form formats are comprised of everything from word processing templates to custom built Lotus Notes or other database forms.

There are roughly four categories of e-forms:

Web forms, comprising everything from simple HTML forms to custom built Java forms. HTML forms are available to the largest number of clients since they can be run on almost any browser, but they also have the least functionality. Java forms are still limited in their features and functionality.
Custom-built e-forms: These are proprietary custom-built solutions. These can be expensive to develop and maintain if the firm does not have the requisite skills in house.
Commercial forms packages: While these packages are cheaper than custom-built solutions, they can lock a firm into one product or vendor. Some of these packages will also require the installation of special client-side software to use or view the forms.
PDF forms are based on the Adobe PDF file standard. The ubiquity of this format has propelled it to a de facto standard status. While this format does require a viewer, the viewer is free for download and is widely distributed with other software packages.

I recommend that firms use PDF based forms since they allow for the greatest flexibility and a phased implementation process. The PDF format allows for the e-form to be distributed by e-mail, web based (intranet, internet or extranet) or traditional file structure. The portability also means we can extend our form-based data collection to our clients, reducing data errors caused by multiple data entry.

Now that we have decided on the format for our forms, we need to decide how we can get them implemented.

I recommend a three-stage process:

The "print and fill stage" is the where we have taken our paper forms and scanned them to convert them to the most basic e-form. These e-forms are then distributed through our network, e-mail or, best of all, our intranet. The end user would then print out the needed form and fill it out by hand. As you can see, in stage one, all we are doing is simplifying the storage and retrieval of our forms.
The "fill and print stage" is the logical progression from stage one. In this stage we have taken our print and fill PDF forms and enabled them to be filled out on screen; possibly even adding logic to the form that allows it to automatically calculate fields and check for data entry errors. The great thing about this logic is it is transported with the form, so when we email it to a client it will work the same on the iBook as it does on your PC. Once the form is filled out, it is then printed and handled from there.
The final stage is where we not only fill out our forms on screen but we also handle all of our submittals and routing electronically as well. The efficiencies gained in this stage are significant; once we have captured our information electronically, we will be able to feed it directly into our existing software packages. As our forms and processes grow more advanced, we will be able to have our forms tailor themselves, depending upon entries to previous boxes, or route to particular specialist, depending upon answers entered into the form.

Many firms will be satisfied with reaching stage one; many more will be happy with stage two, but the firms that can move into stage three will have an advantage over everyone else. So now you are asking, "How do I get started with this?"

Here are four steps you should take right away to move into stage one.

Prioritize your forms as to importance and frequency of use.
Acquire a copy of Adobe Acrobat; you also will need a scanner if you don’t already have your forms in some type of electronic format (MS Word, Lotus 123).
Begin converting those forms to PDF format and exploring the different ways that you can use them.
Setup an electronic distribution of your forms. I recommend using your intranet, if you have one.

I will cover how to move on to stage two in a future issue. Until then — good luck.

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