As a funeral director, you know all too well how busy the day can get. With the number of day-to-day tasks and varying work schedule, it’s extremely important for you and your staff to stay organized. Not only around the funeral home but also digitally.

By implementing some of the strategies below, you can keep your important digital files organized and ensure they’re always easy to find.

Why Digital File Management is Important

The basic goal of digital file management is to make sure you can find important files fast and efficiently. When implementing a well-designed file management system for your funeral home, you’ll:

• Have much higher productivity
• Reduce the chance of losing important documents and reduce overall errors
• Make it easier to train new personnel
• Protect your vital records
• Have improved overall service to client families

Signs It’s Time to Clean Up Your Computer

If any of the following applies to your work computer, it’s time to start thinking about getting organized.

• Your desktop is littered with icons. Anything over 15 is probably too much.
• You have a documents folder with more than 300 files in it.
• You rely on the Window’s search function too much to find what you need.
• All your word documents are saved in one folder.
• You have multiple files (100+) sitting in your Downloads folder.

Does that sound like your computer? If so, let’s talk about how to work our way through the clutter.

Tips For Staying Organized

Keeping your digital files organized can seem like quite the chore in today’s increasingly digital world, but it doesn’t have to be. By starting an organization system today, it only becomes easier to keep things organized down the road. Here are some tips to get started.

Create A Single Root Folder

To get started, you’ll want a single “root” folder. In Windows, this is your default My Documents folder, but you can name it anything you want. If you work in a shared work environment, consider using a Shared Documents folder to make it easy for all employees to use and find.

Organize Files By Category With Subfolders

Inside your root folder, create subfolders that reflect different categories of your business. So for example, you’ll have your main My Funeral Home Documents Folder. Inside that folder you might have the following subfolders:

• MyFuneralHomeDocuments/finances
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /legal
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /marketing
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /memorial_products
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /future_strategy
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /GPL
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments /technology

And within these subfolders, you can organize your important documents and files, as well as add even more subfolders. For example, inside your MyFuneralHomeDocuments/finances folder you might find:

• MyFuneralHomeDocuments/finances2016
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments/finances2017
• MyFuneralHomeDocuments/finances2018

You can organize your files in any hierarchy you see fit. But as you can see, by adding a detailed folder structure, you can manually find and organize your files easier.

Sample Structure

To help you visualize things, we’ve put together a sample folder map. You can use it as a jumping point to start organizing your funeral home’s own digital files.