File Organization – Year end and new year

Have you ever looked at your files and wondered how to organize them for your business and or for your accountant?

Are there ancient files (those 7 years or older) that are taking up space and may never be used again?

Here are a few recommendations for how to better organize all the files on your computer…

You can place your videos in a Videos folder and Photos into Pictures/Photos folder. You can place all your other files in a Documents folder.

Often, the files within your Documents folder can be broken down into a yearly folder or for long projects, client folders could have multiple years under them. This makes archiving data easier and makes it easier to search. It will also cut down on having duplicate files.

Here are examples for how you can organize your files. Anything older than 7 years (7 years is for IRS audits) can be moved to an external drive or deleted depending on your preference.

In Example 1 below, you will first create yearly folders on Google Drive (or your local hard drive or external drive).

EXAMPLE 1

Then create client folders within the appropriate yearly folder. In the example below, you will see the client folders have been created under the 2023 yearly folder.

Then create yearly folders within the appropriate client folder. In the example below, you will see the yearly folders have been created under the client folder.