Are you still printing out invoices and other documents?
STOP!
There's no legal requirement for you to do this you know ...
I know how lovely it is to have a nice neatly labelled folder with dividers in it, and all your paperwork hole-punched (using the hole-punch guide of course) and in date order filed away in the relevant section. Possibly colour coded. But with technology being the marvellous thing that it is, there's no actual need to do this.
A lot of finance IT systems will allow you to store documents in the transaction or elsewhere in the system - I use Xero and it does this very well, you can even email the document straight to your system! Nice.
You often get a little price break from banks and suppliers if you go paperless, and this also allows you to email your bookkeeper/accountant all your stuff as opposed to putting them in the post (and risking them getting lost).
the HMRC guidance for VAT companies is as follows: "You can keep VAT records on paper, electronically or as part of a software program (eg book-keeping software). Records must be accurate, complete and readable." and they are less strict about the rules for those of us who are not VAT registered. I've even just done a VAT audit for a client totally over the phone and by email with HMRC - which is much better than a visit from them (no offence to the VAT people)
As long as you know where your documents are and they're then that's it's all good.
Obviously, if you're a sucker for a paper filing system, then go ahead!
As ever, if you have a query about this, or anything else financey, please get in touch. SAY HELLO