If you didn’t have the means to buy your own scanner and scan documents at home, you had to try and locate the nearest FedEx Office or print shop, drive there, and use your credit card to pay for each and every document you scanned.

Talk about the Stone Age!

So how do you scan a document in the 21st century? Like so many things in the digital age, the answer is whenever and wherever you want.

Scanners are now more lightweight and compact than ever. You can purchase a travel scanner to scan your documents on the go, scan documents in the comfort of your home or office, or even scan documents using your smartphone.

When using a scanner like the Fujitsu Scansnap, all you have to do is place your document (or stack of documents) into the scanner’s feed tray. The scanner will do the rest, scanning a page every 7.5 seconds.

What’s more, modern scanners create digitized documents at 600 DPI, ensuring the scanned copy will be crystal clear and easy to read.

Another great feature of modern-day document scanning is the ability to digitize your data. When you scan a document, the scanning software will capture the data from whatever hard copy document you’ve scanned. It will then present that data in a variety of searchable forms, making it easy to create reports using Microsoft Excel or export data to a PDF. You can then incorporate this data into expense reports or other tax documents, and easily share it with colleagues, co-workers, and your tax professional.

When you’re on the go, the easiest way to scan a document is to simply snap a photo of it with your smartphone. Shoeboxed is a company that offers receipt scanning software for your iPhone or Android via their smartphone app. Whenever you need to scan a receipt or document, simply open their app on your phone and snap a picture of it. The information from the document will be automatically scanned and synced within your secure online account. You can then recycle the hard copy and prevent paper clutter from collecting in your home, office or car.

Shoeboxed is also great if you have massive stacks of paper that need to be scanned. Instead of snapping a photo of each individual piece of paper, simply place the stack within one (or several) of their Magic Envelopes. Drop the envelope in the mail, and sit back and relax as the Shoeboxed team does the scanning for you. In this way, the answer to the question “How do you scan a document?” becomes “You don’t – you let someone else do it!”

Whether you’re scanning from home or snapping photos on the go, it’s never been easier to scan a document, go paperless, get organized and stay that way.

Just a few years ago, you would have to physically go into a FedEx Office store to scan documents, or invest in an expensive scanner and receipt scanning software just to turn piles of paper clutter into digital data.

While you can still use public workspaces like FedEx Office to scan documents, doing so requires you to journey to and from their store location each and every time you need something scanned. That’s a lot of work and a lot of wasted time!

Luckily, things have changed a lot in the past few years.

Now, it’s easier than ever to scan documents from the comfort of your own home or office. Scanners are more compact, more lightweight, and more powerful than ever. As more and more small business owners go paperless, scanners are becoming one of the most – if not the most – important office supplies to have on hand.

A mobile scanner like the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 weighs only about 12 ounces and scans everything from business cards to bank statements.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Mobile Scanner

When wondering “Where can I scan documents?”, the answer with ScanSnap is “anywhere you want!” Convert paper documents to PDF, Word, Excel, or JPG, connect directly to your laptop or mobile device, and organize full color scans by category or keyword.

Another great answer to the question “Where can I scan documents?” is “Nowhere!” That’s because there are receipt scanning services that will scan all of your documents for you, eliminating the need to buy a scanner at all.

With a service like the one available from Shoeboxed, you can dump all of your paper documents into a big envelope, drop the envelope in the mail, and watch as your account is magically populated with digital data. All of your documents will be scanned, digitized, categorized, and stored in a single secure account. This is a great option if you’re a busy small business owner and don’t have the time to spend hours scanning.

Shoeboxed also has an app for iOS and Android that functions in a similar way to the ScanSnap scanner. Instead of bringing a portable scanner along with you on business trips, you can use your smartphone as a scanner.

Open the Shoeboxed app on your phone and simply snap a picture of the receipt or document that needs to be scanned. The app will then automatically beam the document to your Shoeboxed account and sync the new data within your account.

There is no longer any need to leave your home, go back to the office, or try and find an open FedEx Office simply because you need to scan a few business cards. With the ScanSnap starting at just $199, and Shoeboxed accounts starting at under $10/month, it’s easy to start scanning documents (or not!) when it’s most convenient for you.