Our goal here at OfficeDrop is to make lives easier by providing a simple solution for document scanning and document management. We’re always happy to hear that we’re meeting that goal, so you can imagine how excited we were when we stumbled across an article by nationally recognized financial advisor, Alan Haft, who listed us #1 on his list of “20 ideas to a better life.”
His article, featured on cpa2biz.com, and alanhaft.com, emphasized the benefits of using technology to increase productivity and general business efficiency. In particular, Alan noted the benefits of the “paperless office,” which is the very business environment we promote.
Alan Haft is a frequently published financial advisor, has been featured on Fox Business News, and is the author of You Can Never Be Too Rich and The 10 Most Common Mistakes People Make With Their Money.
We would like to thank Alan for his support and positive feedback about our secure, effective document management service at a “reasonable price.” We couldn’t have asked for a better recommendation than his concluding line, “Go paperless and I can assure you that you’ll never go back again.”
Sharing folders and individual documents is easy with OfficeDrop. To see an example of what a publicly shared folder looks like, click on the following link:
You will notice that the person viewing this folder can only see the documents stored in the folder. They get to see the same snippet view that you do as the owner of the OfficeDrop account. Importantly, labels, sub-folders (at the moment this example does not have a sub folder) and search all work. Try searching for for the word “change” - you’ll find the it in one of the documents stored in that folder.
This sort of a public link would be very useful if you wanted to make documents available off of your website or blog.
You can also create share links of single documents. Try clicking on the following:
Spring is just around the corner - a time of rebirth, renewal, rabbits, eggs (?), and of course, spring cleaning. We’re not sure why everyone decided spring was the time for cleaning - maybe to curb the excitement that stems from the culmination of winter - who knows?
If you find your office “celebrates” spring with an annual ritual of sifting through stacks of paper and ordering files in cabinets, we have a better, more permanent, way to handle your spring cleaning.
Bulk Scan your Paper with OfficeDrop (Discounted for Spring Cleaning)
Bulk scanning with OfficeDrop’s document scanning service is an easy way to get all your office documents organized online, and keep them that way. To help you celebrate spring cleaning, we are offering $20 off any bulk scanning order of $200 or more until the end of this month. If you’re going to be organizing your paper anyway, why not prep them for scanning and online storage where they can be filed, labeled and managed from any internet connection? All you have to do to prep your documents for online management is to attach documents of each category or label with a paper clip and label that stack. Then just pack them up in the pre-paid boxes we provide and mail them to our secure facility.
If you want, you can even send everything in no particular order in the box at all and organize it later from our convenient online portal. Once they’re all in the system, you can mail us your paper each month as if flows into your office. That way, come next spring, you’ll be able to enjoy the season knowing your documents are secure and organized with OfficeDrop.
How to get the Spring Cleaning Discount
Give us a ring when you place your order at 888-674-6493 and mention this spring cleaning discount. It’s that easy!
Remember, you must place and ship your order in March 2010 to receive this $20 discount, and your bulk scanning order needs to be over $200.
In a recent study done by Microsoft found that small and mid-sized businesses have shown greater financial success when using hosted IT services (hey, that’s us). The study surveyed 3,193 small to medium sized businesses in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, the U.K., and the U.S. A.
Essentially, the survey asked small business owners how important IT was to their business. Once the businesses were broken into 4 sections of varying use of IT services, this data was cross-referenced with the financial earnings of those companies. The result of this comparison revealed that businesses with higher IT focus were more likely to have had increases in average revenue over 12 months! Conversely, businesses that utilized IT services less were more likely to have static or declining revenue averages in the same 12 month period.
Within the IT focused businesses, more than 40 percent of the businesses that use hosted or cloud technology saw an increase of 30 percent or more in revenue. Compare this to participants not using hosted IT, 90 percent of whom saw a profit decrease.
This is a very interesting find, though it is consistent with small business trends in SaaS and cloud computing. Using hosted services are more cost effective and practical in a digital world, so it is no wonder that businesses using these services do well since employees have more time and money to focus on increasing revenue.
That’s our goal at OfficeDrop - to save you time and money, specifically, by eliminating unnecessary costs stemming from the storage, management, and loss of paper. Manage your documents online with OfficeDrop and you too can benefit from hosted IT services. Learn about how cloud content management can help your small business take advantage of enterprise content management, at a fraction of the price by using cloud computing.
OfficeDrop already has an integration with Evernote (see our first blog post about it here), but now organizing your paper and digital documents using the two services just got even easier! Come, visit us at the Notable Tech Event today in San Francisco to learn all about this. If you can’t make it, no worries. Just read on.
With this new feature, you can now link entire OfficeDrop folders to any of your Evernote notebooks. This means that paper scanned into your OfficeDrop account that you put into linked folders will automatically be available in the Evernote notebook that you’ve linked to it. As always, documents labels carry over, maintaining all of your organizational work.
You can link folders to notebooks, simply by using the “Link to Evernote” action in the context menu for a folder. Once linked, the folder has the evernote icon next to it to signify that the folder is linked to a notebook.
Folder linked to evernote
You can view all the linked folders and a log activity with Evernote for documents in those folders from the Addons page
List of linked notebooks and activity log
With OfficeDrop and Evernote, it is now even more easier to stay organized and never forget a thing!
We are very excited to announce that OfficeDrop has integrated with FreshBooks by creating our very own online document management FreshBooks add-on! FreshBooks has compiled a sizeable list of add-ons and we are honored to lend our services to make their online billing service even more helpful. This integration merges the accessibility of your OfficeDrop documents with the convenience of FreshBooks online invoicing. With the OfficeDrop add-on you are able to append a link to the notes section of any FreshBooks document which allows recipients to view and download any selected group of documents in your OfficeDrop account. All of your documents are just one click away from Freshbooks for you and your clients.
For example, with the OfficeDrop integration, a FreshBooks user could attach a projected project timeline and scope of work to a FreshBooks estimate she sends to a prospective client. Her client can easily click on the OfficeDrop link embedded in the Freshbooks estimate and view the timeline and the contract - and the client can full text search within the contract and download it as a PDF.
Freshbooks users will also be able to attach entire folders from OfficeDrop to Freshbooks items. With OfficeDrop’s search feature Freshbooks users and clients will be able to search all the documents to find the specific item. OfficeDrop’s snippit views make it easy to find specific information in files or preview things like purchased photographs or artwork.
Some other great things possible with this integration include the ability to attach:
Scanned paper or emailed receipts to invoices
Project timelines to an estimate
Contracts to an estimate
Photos or artwork to invoices or clients
Word documents to time entries
Or even entire folders of documents and files to all sorts of Freshbooks stuff!
See how it works for yourself in the following tutorial videos we produced covering the integration:
Linking OfficeDrop documents to a FreshBooks invoice:
By linking OfficeDrop folders and documents to an invoice, clients can easily access, download and search any relevant documents.
First you will need an existing FreshBooks invoice or other document that you would like to link with OfficeDrop. Once this is done, log into your OfficeDrop account and locate the folder you would like linked to the FreshBooks form.
To do so, click the small triangle to the left of the folder to bring up the folder actions menu. From there, move down to the options listed under “Link to FreshBooks.” Select the document type that applies (Invoice in the video use case) and you will be shown a list of the designated FreshBooks documents you have created. Then select the document(s) you would like to link the folder to and decide whether this will be a private (recipient will need your username and password to view) or public link (anyone with the link can view). We recommend public link if you are sharing the document or folder with a client. Finally, you can either click “Append to Existing Notes” to add to notes already on the FreshBooks document, or “Replace Existing Notes” to replace them. The link to the shared files will appear in the notes section of the Freshbooks item; this is why you have to choose how to put it into the notes. The system will alert you of the link and the only step left is to return to FreshBooks and send the document to your client, complete with a secure link to the designated OfficeDrop documents.
Setting Up Integration
Step 1: Enabling FreshBooks API
FreshBooks API must first be enabled to start linking OfficeDrop documents.
To do this, log into your FreshBooks account and click “My Account.” From there, click the tab labeled “FreshBooks API.” The last step is to check the “Enable API” button, and you’re ready for the second step.
Step 2: Authorizing OfficeDrop for FreshBooks Integration
The second step in is to authorize your OfficeDrop account to interact with FreshBooks.
First, log into your OfficeDrop account and from the home screen select “tools.” On the resulting screen, there will be a menu on the left with a link to “Add-ons.” Click the Add-ons link, and from there move below the Evernote add-on to the space reserved for FreshBooks. Here you will have to enter your unique FreshBooks URL. You can find information on where to find this URL here. Click “Authorize OfficeDrop” and you will be asked to enter your FreshBooks username and password. Once finished, just click “Allow Access” and you will be able to start linking OfficeDrop documents to FreshBooks invoices, expenses and more.
We hope you utilize our new add-on and enjoy the ease and convenience of FreshBooks online billing with OfficeDrop document management.
We are excited to announce that Pixily has changed its name to OfficeDrop! We hope that this new name will be easier to remember and help customers more quickly understand our services.
What won’t change
For our customers the name change means little more than easier spelling and some snazzy new logos. We are in no way changing management – and our employees, procedures and security protocols will remain completely unaltered. This includes our hand-picked scanning team and friendly customer service reps.
You should not experience any change in service. If you visit Pixily.com you will be redirected to officedrop.com. All of our features should continue to work as they have in the past. The best way to email documents into your Pixily account is now [username]@myofficedrop.com, but your [username]@pixilymail.com will continue to accept emailed documents as well.
You may wish to authorize “officedrop.com” in your email system’s spam filter. Please contact customer service if you encounter any issues with our service. You can reach us by phone at 888-674-6493, over email at support@officedrop.com of via the “chat with us” feature on our website.
Why the change?
We decided to change the company name both to increase recall (OfficeDrop is a lot easier to spell), and to create a label that more explicitly reflects the service we provide. We love name Pixily and everything it stands for, but we found that customers – even active users – had real issues spelling and remembering the word “Pixily.” We’ll continue to wear our Pixily t-shirts with pride, but are excited about our new name!
Why OfficeDrop?
We picked the name OfficeDrop after a long search for a new name. We feel that it succinctly describes what we do: making it easy to organize the paper and digital files of small businesses and home offices. Actually, a better way to say it is that we believe OfficeDrop describes what OUR CUSTOMERS have told us that we do for them.
In a blog post tomorrow we’ll go over the process we used to find a new name – it involved the entire company brainstorming, lots of customer and advisor feedback and a healthy dose of soul searching.
Thank You
We owe a really big thank you to all of our customers who helped us during this process. So many of you spoke with us and took our naming survey. We really appreciated your responses and were impressed with the thought that many of your put into the survey! We also heard those of you who said that you really liked the name Pixily. We do too, but we hope that we’ll be able to convince you that OfficeDrop is just as great of an organization!
We hope you approve of the new name, and we look forward to serving you as OfficeDrop.
We have just published a new help video on how to use folders in OfficeDrop’s document management system. We think you’ll find that folders, plus our label and search features, provide a great way to keep your information and paper organized and quickly accessible!
Using Folders
The following list of steps will explain how to use folders:
From your OfficeDrop home page, you’ll notice a folder list on the left side of the interface.
Clicking a folder in the list will allow you to view all of the documents in that folder. If there is a plus sign next to a folder, you can click this to reveal subset folders within the main folder.
Creating a new folder
To create a new folder, click the button labeled ‘Actions,’ located at the top of the folder list. From the drop down menu, select ‘Create’ which is noted with a plus sign.
From there you will be asked to designate the hierarchical location of the folder known as the parent, and name the new folder. Choosing the parent will allow you to determine if your new folder should be a subset of an existing folder. If you wish the folder to stand separate, select ‘Root’ as the parent.
Once you’ve named your folder, click ‘Create’ and, your new folder now appears in the folder list.
For now, your new folder will be empty.
To move documents to your folder, you can either move a single document from its individual document controls, or you can check multiple documents from the list and move all selected documents.
Moving Documents
To move a single document, find the individual document controls in the gray area underneath that document, and click ‘Move to.’
You will then select an existing folder and click ‘Move to the selected folder’ to transfer the document. The document will disappear from view and move to the selected folder.
You’ll notice you can also create a new folder from this menu.
A document can only occupy one folder at a time, so if you move a document that is already in a folder, it will be relocated to the new folder you choose, not copied.
To move multiple documents, you can check each documents check box, located at the bottom left corner of the document snippet.
From here you will click the ‘Move to’ button at the top of the document list, which will control all selected documents. Follow the same protocol as moving a single document and all checked documents will be affected.
Moved documents will disappear from view, and move to the designated folder.
It is also possible to move documents from their full document views. After you’ve opened a document, find the document controls on the right side and use the ‘Move to’ button as described previously.
You may know of About.com, a database/website of helpful articles on almost everything. About.com runs an extensive section for entrepreneurs, which is a great resource for tools, tips and stories about everything involved with entrepreneurship. Included are articles about becoming an entrepreneur, drawing customers, marketing, as well as discussions, and examples of new and upcoming businesses.
In a recent discussion, small businesses contributed to the story “How Entrepreneurs Are Using Technology to Reduce Cost & Increase Profits.” Six company reps, including one from OfficeDrop, contributed to the discussion, resulting in a valuable list of ways web and other technology can be employed to benefit your small business. Below we outline the best tips we found in the discussion along with some quotes from contributors.
Gaining customers through Internet and Social Media:
“E-mail newsletters, blog, Twitter, & Facebook have all allowed us to maximize our exposure and reach new audiences.”
Using Google Apps:
“Google Contacts allows you to share your contact list with fellow employees.”
Operating in the cloud:
“Moving your existing network to a cloud-based model is easy to do, and the cost is usually recovered within the first year.”
Using Smartphones:
“Smartphones allow us to connect with each other and valuable customer data.”
In our contribution, which you can read here, we outline the technology we use to increase productivity and maintain low costs.
One of the technologies we use is our own service, employing a OfficeDrop online account to manage bills and other important documents that need to be organized and easily accessed later. In addition, we use other cloud-based SaaS providers for things like contractor billing, email marketing, and document sharing. See our post about SaaS marketing tools for small business for more details.
We hope that the About.com’s page for entrepreneurs can be helpful to you, and that your business can benefit from some of the technology discussed.
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OfficeDrop’s Document Management and Document Scanning Service Blog
OfficeDrop, formerly Pixily, helps small businesses and home offices go paperless and manage their paper and digital documents online. OfficeDrop provides document scanning services and an award-winning online document management system. In this blog, we’ll discuss cool ways customers are using our service to tame their paper problem and get organized. We hope to share tips and tricks we are learning as we scan, image and digitize documents for our clients. We’ll also highlight new features in our document management system, let you know what the press is saying about us and keep you up to speed with the goings-on at OfficeDrop!
