Many people now prefer a “paperless” property management filing system. There are many advantages and disadvantages to resorting to a paperless system as a real estate professional.
The advantages include easy access, saving space, and the ability to properly organize files quickly and efficiently.
The disadvantages include the fact that they are stored on machines, and sometimes those machines experience failures. Important data can be lost and our files may be subjected to being deleted by viruses, and others that use our computers.
If you plan to store your files on a computer that pertains to your property management business, you should protect those files. In this article, we will review various ways that you can ensure that your important information is properly protected.
Protecting Your Property Management Filing System
One of the main ways that you can ensure that your files are properly protected is to create a backup disk of every file that you want to keep.
This is a relatively simple and quick process.
It simply consists of burning your Property Management Filing System onto a Data CD. You can purchase these types of disks at any store that sells computer supplies and equipment. To save on money, we suggest purchasing the kind of disks that you can record on more than once. This way, once you are done with the files on a particular disk, you can simply delete that file and reuse the disk.
If you wish to protect very important files, you may also want to consider purchasing an external hard drive. This can cost anywhere between $40.00 and $300.00 – depending on the space that you require on the external hard drive.
This is a convenient way to store files and increase the overall storage capacity of your computer. The external hard drive usually has only two plugs. There is one plug that attaches to a USB Port on your computer, and one plug goes directly into the wall. You do not have to keep the power on the external hard drive. You can simply turn the power off when it is not in use, and turn it back on when it is needed.
External hard drives have an internal power supply, so, if the power supply on your actual tower goes out, you still have power to the external hard drive. Additionally, if your computer suffers any hard drive damage internally, you will still have all the files on the external hard drive.
Ways to Protect Your Computer
You should purchase and enable an antivirus program on your system. Many computer viruses have the capacity to delete important files on your computer. If you have a decent antivirus program installed on your computer and keep it up to date, it should catch any potentially dangerous computer viruses and delete them before they have the chance to do any damage to the important files on your system.
It is important to keep up with your Windows Updates if you are running a Windows Based Operating System. Windows Operating Systems are prone to much vulnerability, including hackers and dangerous Trojans and Viruses. Be sure to keep your version of Windows up to date so that your important files are kept intact and do not suffer from any possibly vulnerabilities.
You can also do a disk cleanup and a disk defrag on a regular basis. This will ensure that your files are clean, junk does not interfere with their retrieval and they are kept safe. You will be able to access all of your important files more efficiently if you perform these tasks on a regular basis.
Transferring Files
If you have important files that you want to keep that pertains to your properties and your tenants, you may even consider sending it to your email that is http based and not pop based. Http email is stored in an online server and not on the computer itself.
This will ensure that if anything happens to the actual computer, you will still have the important files in your email. This is not a top-rated preferred method to save important files, but it is an option for the property management professional.
If you are considering storing your property management filing system on your computer, and getting out of the rut of a paper system, take the proper precautions in protecting your files. This is especially true if you run a property management business, or keep work-related files on your computer.
Many people have lost important files and it has been reported that these losses average millions of dollars in damage each year.
For more tips and techniques for property management professionals, visit us today at: https://rentmedenver.com
720-839-7482
