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In-house Shredders vs. Shredding Services

Are you opening an office or outgrowing your current shredding capacity? But you aren't sure if you should hire a mobile shredding service or simply upgrade your current shredder? The decision can be crucial if you are on a budget but also need to ensure that you are protecting sensitive information.

FACTA and HIPAA require that your customer and employee information be completely destroyed, and your business is currently shredding those documents in-house. If you move to a mobile shredding service, you will need to reserve an area of the office to store the documents until the service provider comes to retreive it, so you would not save any space by moving to a mobile shredding service. 

As far as cost is concerned, an in-house commercial shredder will have a one-time cost, plus smaller incidental costs for shredder bags and shredder oil. Office shredders that are used to shred 20-30 sheets at a time can vary in cost from a few hundred to about $2,000 depending on the security level of the shredding, and the horsepower of the shredder's motor. Larger commercial shredders (shredding 30-60 sheets at a time) range in price from $1,000 to about $5,000.  

For mobile shredding services, the cost can range from $25 to $100 or more per visit depending on the amount of shredding you need done each time. The business owner is responsible to keep the data secure until the shredding company arrives to pick it up. The data is then transferred to another facility to be shredded, adding a layer of access for potential security breach. 

If you decide to go with mobile shredding service, get quotes from several providers and be sure that they can meet your needs in terms of capacity and frequency. If you need help finding the right office shredder for your needs, be sure to check these important specs:

Shredding capacity: For one week, keep track of how much paper you shred at a time and how many times throughout the day. Then look for shredders that can handle the higher end of your daily needs to ensure that you always have enough capacity to handle your shredding needs. 

Security Level: Strip-cut shredders cut your paper into strips. Strip cuts are less secure than cross-cut shredders. Cross-cut shredders make confetti pieces out of your documents. Security levels start at 1 for the least secure and go up to 6 for the highest security. Level 6 is usually reserved for government documents and other top secret shredding needs. 

Multimedia Shredding: Decide if it's important that you be able to shred staples, paper clips, credit cards, and CDs. Some models of multimedia shredder will take this like a champ. Others, not so much.

5 Reasons to Buy a New Attendance Clock for Your Office

1. Your old stamp time clock is broken. If you are looking for an inexpensive, quick replacement for an older time clock, a basic model such as the Icon Time SP-250 Electronic Time and Date Stamp is a good option. This model is an upgrade on the older clocks with its tamper-proof features, and auto-adjusting clock with calendar.

2. You have an old stamp time clock. Older stamp-style time clocks have many failings including the fact that all payroll must be calculated manually. The Pyramid TimeTrax EZ Swipe Kit is a low cost upgrade the calculates overtime automatically based on customizable pay structures. All the data is digitally transferred to your accounting software (ie. Quickbooks) to be processed for payroll.

3. Employees are clocking each other in and out. Eliminate badges and co-worker clock-ins with the Acroprint TimeQPlus Biometric Time Clock & Attendance System. This time clock is available for under $500 and requires an employee's fingerprint to clock in and out. The highly accurate device transmits all data to your PC for easy integration to your accounting software.

4. Payroll, time off, and attendance totals are inaccurate. Calculating the totals is inefficient and often leads to errors. The Icon Time RTC-1000 Employee Time Clock automates everything ensuring that totals are correct and all employee time is accounted for.

5. Employees have been handwriting their times. Clock-in times are curiously always rounded to the nearest 30 minute increments. A simple stamp time clock is all you need to gain accurate information about when your employees come and go. It also eliminates troubles with messy handwriting. The Acroprint PD100 Electric Payroll Recorder is available for under $130.

What Is A Paper Jogger And How Do You Use One?

A paper jogger is a large office machine that applies vibration alone or vibration and air to a stack of papers. Paper jogging also reduces static to prepare stacks of paper for folding, binding or other finishing machines. Removing the static in a pile of paper makes it smoother and easier for another machine to feed the paper in. 

Most paper joggers consist of a tray or bed where you place the paper, a power switch, and a speed adjustment. To operate the jogger, you simply place the paper on the machine and turn it on. Increase the speed for larger piles and any that are particularly prone to static.

Paper joggers with multiple bins can be useful for stacking and sorting different types of documents that are being jogged at the same time for a mailing.