As a business owner, I am well aware of what needs to be done throughout the day. In fact, I plan my day the night before so I know what to expect tomorrow. They include a few meetings with clients, team members, and processing a few reports. In case you are curious, I run a digital marketing agency. So most of the reports consist of metrics regarding various social media platforms that our clients use to promote their business and get customers in the process.
Needless to say, there were times when doing reports would involve punching in a lot of numbers. My employees are already working on client projects. While overseeing the activity is part of the job description, I also do reports as a project manager so I can share the metrics with my clients. They want the hard numbers so they can make suggestions on how we can approach their digital marketing strategy.
All of my reports are put together in a nice PDF file that I can send to the client (and keep a copy for myself). I want to simply digitize, scan, and even protect my PDFs. I realize that it took a special kind of software to take care of all of that. That’s when I hit the Interwebs and did some searching around. I came across a program called Finereader by ABBYY. Let’s just say that it makes the whole PDF process a lot easier than ever before.
Finereader Features
Organize and Edit
PDF files might seem impossible to edit at first. But with the Finereader, you can be able to edit them if and when necessary. I remember one time I had to edit a few things in one PDF because the numbers appeared a little off from the analytics I read from a client’s FB ad dashboard. .Before I send the PDF reports to my clients, I double-check to see if the numbers are right.
Sometimes, I would punch in the numbers a bit too fast and they end up being the wrong statistics. The last thing I want to do is make a mistake that will cause some kind of confusion. If you are looking for software that will actually allow you to edit a PDF for any mistakes, you can do it with Finereader.
Have Signed Forms Without The Hard Copies
About 90 percent of my company’s clients are in different parts of the country (and the world). I cannot physically be there to hand them an agreement form that they need to sign. Plus, having them print out a hard copy, sign it, and mail it can also be an issue as well. I’m better off getting them to sign it and begin the project rather than wait.
You can create forms that will be compatible with digital signatures. That way, you can sign off and send it via email. One of the best examples of why paperless is a good thing sometimes. If you run a business where you will be communicating with your customers or clients remotely, this is a program that I know you can’t live without. Especially when there are NDAs or contracts involved.
Communicate And Collaborate
There were times when I would pass a document back and forth with team members sharing my thoughts on certain things. These include strategy documents, metric reports, and so on. I like to share my thoughts on our client projects.
I would highlight a certain number and say that it’s a good sign that what we’re doing for a client seems to be working. I would also point out a statistic that may seem concerning. It makes pinpointing certain issues with ease and being able to get other team members to chime in with their ideas on how to make things better for our clients.
I’m very surgical when it comes to studying these numbers. Plus, I can take the data from places online and easily place it in a PDF. Plus, it’s a lot better than punching in the numbers manually.
Pros
Cons
Final Verdict
Finereader is by far the best software I’ve ever invested in. If you’re a business owner or a project manager. You’d be crazy to pass up the opportunity to try this software. I know there will come a time when you’ll need PDFs that are easy to edit, organize, and be useful in times when hard copies might not be useful. This is a business owner’s best friend for all things digital processing. And it will save you a lot of man-hours and wasted time that could have otherwise been spent on other projects.
