There’s no single best way to organize company files. It all depends on your particular organizational style, but there are several things you can do to make your files easier to find. These include creating a top-level folder, using tags, time periods, and content.
Creating a top-level folder
Creating a top-level folder is an important part of a digital file organization system. You can add more folders as you need them and sub-folders as needed. You should also consider sorting your files using elements, like dates, to make it easier to find what you need.
When you’re adding files, remember to name them properly. Overlapping folders make it hard to remember what files go where. If you have more than 20 files in a single folder, consider adding sub-folders to better organize the files. You can also consider cutting back if you have fewer than 10 files in each folder.
After you’ve organized all of your files, you might find that you have certain folders that you use a lot. If so, you can create templates for these folders. For example, you could create folders for your financial documents, client files, project work, and more. This would save you time when creating new folders and sub-folders.
You can also assign a numerical sorting element to existing folders. This will help keep your important folders at the top of the list.
Using tags
Using tags to organize company files can help your business be more organized. You can use tags to organize your files by category or keyword. Tags can help you find a particular file quickly. For example, you can tag your invoices with “Electricity,” “2018,” “Home,” “Utilities,” or “Bill.” This will make it easy to find them when you need them.
You can also use tags to filter your files by type. Using tags will reduce the number of files that appear in the Search results. Tags can be assigned to a file, and you can update them from the registry or inventory. When searching for a specific file, you can type its tag name and value in the search box.
Tags can be applied to files, folders, and elements. You can add tags by double-clicking on a file or folder, right-clicking to add tags, or dragging a file to a tag. It takes a little mental reprogramming to use tagging, but it saves time on file structure.
When applying tags to your company files, you must apply Editor permission level. Once you have this permission level, you can add tags to folders. Once you have added a tag, you can filter any search using it. Click on a tag and you can see all the matching items.
Using time periods
When you’re organizing company files, it’s important to create a system that everyone on your team understands. One way to achieve this is by using time periods to organize your files. These periods can be used to separate the different types of documents that are part of your project. For example, if you work in a design firm, you can organize files by project to keep track of the different stages of the design process.
Using content
One of the first things you should do when using Google Drive to organize company files is to consider how your team will use the content. This way, you can make sure everyone has access to the same files without causing unnecessary discrepancies. For example, you could place the same document in several folders without creating duplicates. Duplicates are just clones of the original file, and they do not update when changes are made.
Using urgency
One of the easiest ways to organize company files is to prioritize them according to importance. This will help eliminate indecision. Start by sorting them into categories of high, medium, and low priority. Afterward, you can further break them down into levels of importance and urgency. You can use the color-coded keys to keep track of which documents belong in which folder.
Using project type
In most cases, it’s easy to find files related to a specific project by using a naming scheme. This can make searching for files easier, but it can also be confusing if you work in an organization with multiple departments. To ensure that all team members understand the file naming scheme, choose a method that is intuitive and works for everyone.
In many large organizations, there are several distinct departments that work independently. For example, marketing files should be kept separate from accounting files. This hierarchy can make it difficult to collaborate between departments, which is where a clear file naming scheme comes in handy. You can group files by category, or by project name.
