Going Paperless and the Hyperlink Connection

Today AccountingWeb published a feature "Is a paperless office right for you?"

The article suggests that going paperless might not be right for all entities due to costs and resources, but it still may be beneficial to go "semi-paperless". The Hyperlink connection in Excel is essential to going semi-paperless.

The Hyperlink is found under the insert tab.

Follow the call-outs in the following diagram to link a cell in an open spreadsheet to another file.

The hyperlink will appear with the following cell style:
X:\monthly close 09\05\15100 QLS 09 05.pdf

I have essentially taken the entire accounts receivable process paperless. Most of our deposits go into a lockbox. I can access the lockbox via the internet, and download PDF files that contain a copy of the check and the remittance advice which provides the invoice detail for the payment. Then I download the summary into an Excel file and add a column to link the PDF detail.

Now I have the detail to enter the cash payment into the AR system, and access is just a click away in case a question from the customer comes up at a later date.

There is nothing to get hyper about when going paperless in Excel.