Time and time again we receive new on-site and off-site document storage customers and immediately come across a common problem – duplicate archive boxes.
Whatever the reason may be – the archives don’t all fit in one box, forgetting what the next box number is – duplicating carton numbers immediately corrupts the integrity of the archives. How? Lets say that a customer wants a record that is in carton number 32. However, there are three cartons labelled 32. Which one contains the document? It’s anyone’s guess.
While these problems are not insurmountable in jobs that only contain a few hundred cartons (which typically only have a few duplicates), larger jobs of thousands of cartons exponentially magnify the problem and usually requires hundreds of hours of labour to rectify.
However there are a few simple steps that will ensure that each carton is labelled uniquely. Firstly, keep a register of which carton has been assigned which box number. This way, whenever you go to add new archives you will know which cartons have been used. We can provide you with powerful online based software to assist with this as our systems only allow you to enter one number per box – so there will never be a duplicate.
Secondly – even though it feels o’ so right – don’t be tempted to duplicate carton numbers because the documents don’t fit in one box. Even though it may seem like the right thing to do, it will cause major problems down the track. Instead assign any new documents into the next available box.
Of course once you become a customer and these initial issues are sorted, our quality control systems ensure that you will never have a duplicate carton number again. But then again document storage is what we live and breathe.
If you would like to trial out our online software and see if it’s a good fit for you, contact our team today!
