7 Simple Steps for a Paperless Office

Last updated July 2026

Paperform, paired with its e-signature product Papersign, is the fastest way for a small business to go paperless without buying separate tools for every step. A paperless office replaces two things: paper intake (client details, applications, requests) with digital forms, and printed contracts (agreements, offer letters, waivers) with electronic signatures. Everything in between, storage, approvals, follow-up, can already run through tools most small businesses have in place. This guide covers the 7-step process and shows exactly what a paperless workflow looks like end to end.

TL;DR

Why Paper Sticks Around Longer Than It Should

Paper has been the default office supply for as long as offices have existed, so it's no surprise it's hard to shake. Invoices, note-taking, legal documents, onboarding checklists: paper shows up for nearly every business process, and it's easy to assume there's no real replacement.

That's no longer true. Digital forms can collect the same intake information a paper form would, minus the manual re-entry. E-signatures can carry the same legal weight as a wet signature on a printed contract. Cloud storage removes the need for a filing cabinet entirely.

The key is treating the move as incremental, not all-or-nothing. You don't need to throw out every printer and download every productivity app in one week. Pick the biggest source of paper in your business and replace that first.

Why Go Paperless?

There's a real case for digitising your office workflow, beyond just tidiness:

• Productivity boost. A cloud-based system means documents are searchable and accessible from anywhere, cutting down the time your team spends hunting for a specific file.
• Cost reduction. Paper, ink, and printer maintenance add up over a year. Digital tools have their own cost, but it's typically lower once you account for printing supplies and physical storage.
• Security. Digital files can be password-protected and access-controlled in ways a filing cabinet never could be. Paperform is SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant, which matters if you're handling client data or signed agreements.
• Flexibility. A paperless process works the same whether your team is in the office, at home, or split across both. Nobody needs to be near a specific filing cabinet to find a document.

Whether your team works from home, hybrid, or in-office, a paperless setup removes a surprising amount of friction from daily admin work.

Your 7-Step Guide to Going Paperless

You can't throw out your filing cabinet and printer overnight and expect nothing to break. Going paperless works best as a series of small, deliberate steps.

1. Analyse how you use paper

Start by figuring out where paper actually shows up in your business. If your biggest source of paper is client intake forms and contracts, but you spend your first month digitising internal meeting notes, you haven't solved the real problem. Track a typical week and note every time paper enters or leaves your office.

2. Brainstorm your digital alternatives

Once you know where paper shows up, map a digital alternative to each use. Physical newsletters become emails. Paper intake forms become online forms. Printed contracts and waivers become e-signed documents. There's a digital alternative for almost everything on your list; the next few steps cover the two that matter most for most small businesses.

3. Get your team on board

Any process change needs buy-in. Explain the benefit (less manual data entry, fewer lost documents, faster turnaround) and listen to pushback. Common objections are usually about unfamiliarity with new tools rather than genuine problems with the approach, so give your team space to ask questions and get comfortable before you fully switch over.

4. Move to the cloud

Cloud storage and online applications are the foundation everything else sits on. If you're reading this article online, you're likely already using cloud tools somewhere in your business. The sooner your documents live in a shared, searchable system instead of a local drive or a filing cabinet, the sooner the rest of this process gets easier.

5. Train your team on the new tools

Whichever tools you choose, make sure your team actually knows how to use them before you rely on them daily. That might mean a short internal walkthrough, a shared how-to doc, or just leaving your door open for questions during the first few weeks. The goal is confidence, not perfection, on day one.

6. Cut down on printing

A dedicated print area, rather than a desktop printer at every desk, naturally reduces unnecessary printing. Walking to a shared printer is often enough of a deterrent to make people think twice about whether they actually need a hard copy.

7. Replace your two biggest paper processes: intake and signatures

This is where most generic paperless guides tell you to buy a scanner and a cloud storage subscription and call it done. The more useful fix is replacing the two processes that generate the most paper in the first place: collecting information, and getting documents signed.

Here's what that looks like as one connected workflow instead of two separate tools:

1. Collect information with a Paperform. Build a form for whatever paper process generates the most volume in your business, a client intake form, a service agreement request, a new hire's personal details.
2. Auto-generate a document from the submission. Rather than someone manually copying details from a form response into a contract template, the submission data can populate a document automatically.
3. Send it for signing with Papersign. The generated document goes straight to Papersign for an e-signature, with no printing, scanning, or email attachment chain at any point.

That's a full paper-to-signed-document workflow with zero physical paper involved and no manual handoff between steps. A cloud storage tool or two still has a place for general file storage, but the centrepiece of a paperless office is this form-to-signature chain, not a longer list of apps.

What a Real Paperless Workflow Looks Like

Take a simple example: a client agreement for a services business. Instead of emailing a PDF back and forth, printing it, signing it, and scanning it back, the whole process runs as:

1. A new client fills out a Paperform intake form with their details and the service they're booking.
2. Their answers auto-populate a service agreement.
3. Papersign sends that agreement to the client for signature, and notifies your team the moment it's signed.

No paper touches the process at any stage, and there's no manual step where someone has to remember to send the next document. This same pattern applies just as well to onboarding paperwork; our guide to paperless onboarding walks through that specific use case, and our guide to electronic signatures making hiring more efficient covers the hiring side specifically.

If you're weighing e-signatures against a traditional wet signature for a specific document type, our comparison of wet signatures vs. e-signatures breaks down when each one is appropriate, and our e-signature FAQ guide answers the most common questions businesses ask before switching.

FAQ

What does a paperless office actually require?

At minimum, a paperless office needs digital forms to replace paper intake and e-signatures to replace printed contracts and agreements. Cloud storage for general files rounds it out, but the two processes that generate the most paper in most businesses, collecting information and getting documents signed, are the ones worth solving first.

Are e-signatures legally binding?

Yes, in most countries including the US, UK, Australia, and across the EU, provided both parties consent to sign electronically and the signing process meets the relevant local standard. Papersign is built to meet these requirements. If you're dealing with a specific high-stakes document type, like a property transfer, it's worth checking your local requirements for that document specifically.

How long does it take to go paperless?

There's no fixed timeline, but most small businesses can replace their single biggest paper process, usually client intake or contract signing, within a week using existing form and e-signature tools. Going fully paperless across every process in the business is a longer, incremental project, which is why step one is identifying where paper actually shows up rather than trying to fix everything at once.

Do I need a scanner if I'm going paperless?

You'll likely still need one for a transition period, to digitise any existing paper documents you already have on file. Once your new processes are running digitally from the start, most businesses find they use a scanner far less often, since new documents are born digital rather than needing to be converted.

Can Paperform and Papersign work together for one process?

Yes. A Paperform form can collect the details needed for a document, and that data can be used to generate a document that's then sent to Papersign for signature. That means a single client-facing process, from intake through signed agreement, without printing, scanning, or an email chain in between.

Start With Your Biggest Paper Process

Pick the single process that generates the most paper in your business, whether that's client intake or contract signing, and replace it first. Build a free form in Paperform and connect it to Papersign to send your first document for signature without printing a page. [CTA: Ready to cut the paperwork? | Start free with Paperform and Papersign. | Get started]