The Significance of Date Stamps in Record Keeping 

Despite being considered obsolete, some office essentials remain relevant and will always be in the future. One of these resources is the time or rubber stamps. For decades, they have been used to stamp time and other details on documents to show legitimacy or indicate the source, purpose, and verification by managers.  

From the looks, they look ordinary or some simple machine, but they have significant power and impact, making them a must-have for all organizations.  

They have several benefits for the organization or those involved with paper handling at the company. You can use them as a dominant organization, search, and validation strategy. For more benefits, here are some details.  

1. Document Authentication 

Whenever someone tampers with a document, i.e., changes certain details and figures, most forget to modify the timestamp details. Therefore, whenever you are filing any paperwork or essential documents used for legal or financial needs, time stamp them for authenticity. Once stamped, the time cannot be changed, inhibiting anyone from modifying the document.  

Other documents to timestamp are those commonly shared amongst a team or company managers. To ensure nobody forgets the document or shares the wrong details, time-stamp all the documents and share the details so that any documents shared with a different time stamp will be considered invalid.  

For extra authentication, you should buy unique rubber stamps with details unique to your office or business. For customized rubber and time stamps, you can visit www.kiasuprint.com to provide all the relevant details to be included on the rubber stamps. No one in the office can ever replicate these details; hence, once stamped, nobody can change or forge the document. For customization needs, you can select stamps of different sizes, colors, and inks and include a logo or contact details.  

2. Organizing Multiple Documents 

One of the keys to good document management is storing them chronologically. Whenever you open a digital file on a computer, you will realize that sometimes, they are stored based on time saved or last modified. The same can also apply to office organization and document storage.  

For financial details or other paperwork, time stamping enables you to organize your documents from the recently stamped to the earliest document. If you are searching for any, the time stamp details can help you get to the right batch faster.  

In complex cases where you have similar documents but made in multiple copies and at different times, a time stamp can help with distinction. An example is an invoice to the same client who orders for the same good at a different time. The only way to distinguish between these invoices, i.e., the last from the current one, is to use the timestamp details. If the documents have the same title and content, a time stamp can also be a way to distinguish between them.  

3. Faster Document Search 

Office secretaries sometimes have the hardest job, sifting through years of documents and records and looking for specific papers a manager needs. The process can be cumbersome, especially for a room or a box filled with papers. Since the documents were stored based on the time stamp, the stress was easily eliminated. For an effective search, you can easily use the timestamp as a search and strategy to retrieve even a paper stored years ago.  

Your work could be easier when you sort the papers based on years and months. For instance, all the boxes containing documents created in a certain area should be stored in certain columns and clearly labeled. Labeling is one of the art of proper document management and storage and can help store older documents, especially those not yet backed on the cloud or not stored on computers.  

For offices that deal with confidential information that cannot be stored on servers, paperwork management and time stamping should be key organizational processes.  

4. Impact on Productivity 

The role of the secretary in every organization is to ensure all the documents are accurately and orderly stored. When asked to produce any records, they should do it fast and effectively. Suppose all the documents were mixed in a box without a transparent organization strategy; there is a high chance of one spending over an hour going through the documents just in search of one. This time could be better spent on other activities rather than document searches.  

Time stamps can also save time by eliminating redundant processes like manually writing time on documents. With a stamp, you can capture more details simultaneously, sparing time for other activities. This will help when dealing with mass documents that would otherwise be tiresome to write the time on all of them. Therefore, secretaries and data organizers can focus on tasks other than organizing, searching, and recording all the documents.  

It can also help the company save on costs, i.e., wages for extra secretaries and a data management team to search and organize the documents. It is much easier for one person to do all the work within the shortest time. For smaller companies like delivery, warehouse, and retail, rubber stamps can be crucial for managing all documents like invoices, receipts, etc. 

Conclusion 

Having a rubber stamp is vital for every organization that handles any paperwork, including invoices, statements, letters, etc. The most significant benefit is to validate all the incoming, outgoing, processed, and verified documents for storage. However, it could have more roles like productivity management tools, document organization, and strategies to search for documents. These roles vary based on the organization and document time stamped.