The why and how of filing
Even tough you may in a large organization where most of the company's records are maintained by special file clerks in a central filing departement, you must usually keep your executives personal files and supervise those in the departement for which he is reponsible. I a smaller office you may be responsible for all the filing.
What is filing ?
Filing is a process of systemtically classifying and arranging recordsso that they will be kept safely and will be obtatainable without delay. File records are sovaluable that they are sometimes referred to as the " memory " of business.
Much of the work of the office revolves around the letters, papers, cards, business forms, and other original materials that are in the files. Nearly every business transaction begins with correspondence of one type or another. Correspondence, for example, my be received through the mail in the form of an inqury, an order, or a bill; it my be interoffice correspondence; it my be penciled memorandum from an executive to his secretary. Many of these papers must be kept to serve as a record, and they must be quickly available when needed.
The papers that needed to be kept will vary with the types of bussines. In the typical office, incoming correspondence and carbon copies of out going letters constitute most of the papers filed. there are,however, many other important records to be filed, ranging in size from narrow, punched paper tapes and small cards to large blueprints and thick catalogs; and in importance , from informal memorandums to importan contracts. Some may not look very valuable to you, but they can be vital in tracing a transaction or in locating needed information.
The four basic filing systems are: alphabetic, numeric, subject, and geograpic. The system chosen depands on the type of business and nature of the papers to be filed. The alphabetic system will be described first and the other systems will follow later.
Alphabetic Filing
The basis for all these filing systems is the alphabetic arrangement of names, either of persons, organizations, places, things, or subjects. For instance the two names Morrison and newman are now in correct alphabetic order because the first letter of marisson comes before the first letter of newman. newman comes before norman because, while the beginning letters of these names are the same, the second letters are different and e comes before o in the alphabet. The name stephens comes before stevens, for although the first three letters, ste, are the same, the fourth letters are different, and p comes berfore v in the alphabet.
Indexing
Indexing is deciding the order in which parts of name are filed, each part of the name used in alphabetizing is khown as a unit. In the name Allen William Clark, the surname, or family name, Clark is the second unit , must be considered third.
Names , however, are not always so simple as that. In the name ST. Paul Printing Company, for example,saint, spelled out, is the first unit ; Paul is the second ; Printing, third ; and Company , fourt.
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