Our office computer finally bit the dust this morning after threatening to do so for weeks. Luckily, I had backed up our client management files to my phone yesterday so everything is still accessible ... just not conveniently accessible. Throughout this slightly frustrating day I have become more and more aware that maybe the old pencil and paper way of life ain't so bad after all. Just how dependent are we on our machines?
Online scheduling is great. Clients seem to love it. They can schedule anytime of the day or night. Our therapists love it. They can change their schedule at a moments notice. It's fantastic ... until one of your therapists get's locked out of her account some how and can't access the technology she's come to rely on and all hell breaks loose. Yea that happened earlier this week.
Our offline client management system is great for printing invoices, generating reports, and compiling pay sheets. But it is only accessible on one computer, backed up to my phone (but changes made in my phone don't automagically appear on the computer so it has it's limitations). Now that it is down for the count, today was pretty crazy.
So maybe the paper and pencil ain't so bad. No loading times. No viruses. Everything is right there in front of you. I am currently registering every. single. gift card ever purchased. ever. onto a paper log to back up the information on my phone because Murphy's Law says that's next to go.
What do you think? Paper the way to go? Or does the convenience of the computer outweigh the risk of losing data at the drop of a hat?
I will never go totally paperless. That really came home to me during the last computer crash...and yes, things were backed up, but it's still an inconvenience. I actually subscribe to a service that automatically backs up everything on my computer daily, but that's not helping me when it's down and the client is standing there. Technology is a blessing and a curse, too, at times!
ReplyDeleteAmen, sister! Glad to hear I am in good company.
ReplyDeleteI do have paper backup for most things such as client files and soaps, but I also have electronic backup for others. I have a couple of USB drives that I save the same information on so that if the computer goes haywire, and one of the usb drives is lost or something, I still have another backing everything up.
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