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Document management for agencies

Written by Ana Canteli on 4th April 2018

The agencies and professional offices of advisory services are one of the traditional sectors of the economy, which can benefit the most from electronic document management.

OpenKM is an Enterprise Content Management System that offers a document management solution for agencies. Thanks to document management software, it is no longer necessary to require the physical presence of clients or their representatives to initiate or carry out any economic, fiscal, accounting, labor or Human Resources service or management.

In what ways can a document management system be useful?

By taking the legal, fiscal and accounting issues of their clients, document management systems offer a platform, which allows daily document management in digital formats. Providing both administrative agencies and clients the tool they need to facilitate and receive all the documentation and services that are subject to exchange.

All these elements are usually subject to laws, regulations, ordinances, and even the analysis of sentences related to matters, in which the professional firm offers services. That, therefore, require monitoring and control of updates, changes or derogations.

Labor management

The establishment of an employment relationship is usually represented by a contract, which details the rights, responsibilities, and duties of each of the parties.

From this point of view, the consultancies can exercise the responsibilities in the matter of Human Resources of their clients; between them:

• Social security benefits.
• Drafting of contracts, extensions, and letters of recommendation.
• Preparation of payroll.
• Preparation of personal budgets.
• Creation of settlements.
• Application for pensions.
• Management of grants and training courses.

All these cases are situations to which we can provide coverage, thanks to the document management system. Document management allows us to: proceduralize these scenarios, automate processes, create workflows, and classify the documentation and information that is created and managed throughout the year, depending on the interests of the agency and the needs of its customers.

Fiscal management

Both natural persons (employees or self-employed workers) and legal entities (companies) must meet their tax obligations. For this, it is necessary to prepare the accounts of the company, or the balance of income and deductible expenses, of the declaration of the income of the individuals.

In this aspect, consultancies offer these services seeking the most significant fiscal savings - while complying with tax obligations - including advising its clients on the best decisions, when it comes to maximizing savings depending on the situation of the company; or the personal circumstances of the client and adapting them to the latest regulations in force.

In this scenario, consultancies can identify events that occur regularly, and that can be improved, both for the business and for the client:

• Quarterly VAT declaration
• Income tax statement
• Corporation tax declaration
• Treatment and management of special taxes, charges, surcharges, penalties, etc.

Among these services, the professional firm surely will find opportunities for improvement to increase customer satisfaction, simplify the exchange of information and documentation, and reduce the time of each administrative process. The communication functionalities of the document management software can be used to keep informed of the client's situation or to obtain, with the necessary notice, all the documentation and essential information to carry out the tax advisory work.

In the face of changes in legislation, the tax advisor can create a communication channel with its clients; showing their knowledge, reliability, and expertise in matters relating to the offered services. Something that will result in the positive perception of the agency by their customers, which will lead to the development of the prestige of the organization and therefore, in possibilities to increase the client portfolio.

Accounting management

Regardless of the size of the company, all organizations must have a professional who leads the General Accounting Plan for the preparation of accounting, both internal and external. In this field, consultancies can offer services for resolving queries regarding the application of standards and accounting principles; to take the client's accounting department.

Among the usual activities developed by an accounting advisor, the following stand out:

• Accounting management, complying with the most updated version of the General Accounting Plan.
• Realization and keeping records books of bills issued or received, expenses and investment goods.
• Quarterly management reports on the status of accounts.
• Holding meetings with general partners.
• Presentation and deposit of the annual accounts in the mercantile registry.
• Legalization of accounting books in the commercial register.

The consultancy can benefit from the advantages that the document and electronic records management system can include to contribute to the performance of these responsibilities. Through the document management system, you can send documents for approval, incorporating the digital signature service where appropriate. You can create ad-hoc communication channels for different groups of users to whom the accounting service is being offered, within the same organization. The same software can also be used to digitize the company's history; administer deadlines, set access rights and final disposition of the documents in a detailed manner and with a global scope.

The  OpenKM document management solution for agencies offers consulting services the possibility of creating and consolidating the internal document repository, as well as the client’s, based on the advantages of the software.

It allows the agencies to create a Legal Knowledge Base that can be used by the advisory staff to offer services, or that can even be accessible in consultation mode for clients. The consultant can highlight specific updates, which he believes can have a significant impact on most of the clients and distribute them as a newsletter, among those subscribers of the service.

In addition, the document management software for agencies allows establishing a global privacy policy, facilitates the management of expiration dates, filing and final disposal of documentation; depending on the periods in which legally the documents must be available to the client, for completion. After the mandatory period, we can make it accessible in read-only mode (a legal notice will appear informing that the document has reached its final version and can not be altered). In compliance with the privacy policy, you can restrict access to the document and with it the privileges that could be applied (reading, editing, downloading, deletion and more).

Security: the cornerstone of the profession

Security is a priority for any professional or consultant who boasts while handling sensitive information of their customers on a daily basis. Their reliability and prestige depend in part on it. For this reason, security in electronic document management is a fundamental element when selecting the enterprise content management that will be used to automate processes, apply workflows, digitize documents or assume the management of accounting departments, among other activities.

The OpenKM electronic documents and records management system offers security management in 3 main layers. The use of login and password linked to each user. The assignment of roles and profiles according to the needs and requirements of each employee. And security management at a granular level, which allows to enable or disable the application of privileges - reading, editing, downloading, deletion ... - at the level of a document, register, folder or email.

Recognizing patterns in documents: zonal OCR

Think about the number of documents that constantly fulfill a series of characteristics: reference number, personal data, bar codes, fields with key data, etc.
The Optical Character Recognition makes possible the application of the paperless concept since it is used to record in electronic format, the most relevant data of forms, documents, and files; so that efficiency is increased exponentially when managing the information they contain.

Automate the good job: workflows

Now think about the number of times you repeat procedures with documents that, in turn, follow certain patterns.
The workflow helps us to automate the way of working in the company so that the deadlines and procedures are streamlined. The creation, collaboration, versioning, evaluation, review, and approval are channeled univocally; which increases the efficiency in the management of documentary processes.

OpenKM Cloud: the document management system for software as a service

OpenKM provides you with document management software for cloud modeling. Your agency will have more speed, efficiency, and administrative organization, being more productive and improving by far over less advanced systems.

This product offers many advantages, including:

• There is no investment in hardware or computer technical personnel.
• It offers excellent scalability: the management software adapts to your present and strategic needs.
• Cross-platform access.
• Rapid implementation.
• It allows you to create your own Cloud: it offers the possibility of creating a more personalized plan for agencies that need something more specific. With the OpenKM Cloud computing solution, you can customize your own document management plan in the cloud.

Both the Cloud version and the Professional version (the OpenKM document manager installed on the server) offer facilities to integrate the document management system with any third application. The Open Source technology of OpenKM does not present any technological limitations when it comes to completing the suite of programs of the company. Thanks to the SDK's in Java, PHP and .NET, the organization can create the connectors it needs now, as well as in the future. Hence, the acquisition of the document manager becomes a strategic decision with benefits that will not become obsolete in the long-term.