Why Digitize Paper Archives?
Most companies in Serbia still have significant amounts of paper documentation — in binders, folders, boxes, and even in basements and garages. This documentation takes up space, is hard to search, and is susceptible to damage.
Digitizing paper archives brings:
- Instant search — find any document in seconds instead of minutes or hours
- Space savings — free up physical space occupied by old archives
- Loss protection — paper burns, floods, deteriorates. Digital copies last
- Easier access — multiple employees can access the same document simultaneously
- Legal compliance — more and more regulations require electronic storage
Step 1: Assessment and Prioritization
Don't try to digitize everything at once. Start with:
- Active documentation — documents still used in daily operations
- Long-retention documentation — HR, founding, financial statements
- Current year documentation — to establish the system going forward
Old documentation nearing retention expiry may not be worth digitizing — just keep it until the period expires.
Step 2: Preparing Documentation for Scanning
Before scanning:
- Remove staples and paper clips
- Straighten bent pages
- Organize the order — chronologically or by categories
- Label folders — so you know what you're scanning
Step 3: Scanning
For quality digitization:
- Resolution: minimum 300 DPI for text documents, 600 DPI for documents with fine details
- Format: PDF/A for long-term storage (ISO standard for archival PDFs)
- Color: black and white for text documents, color for documents with stamps/signatures
- ADF scanner: an automatic document feeder dramatically speeds up the process
Step 4: OCR Processing
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is a crucial step. Without OCR, a scanned document is just an image — you can't search text within it.
With OCR, every scanned document becomes searchable by content. You can search for a specific word, date, invoice number, or any text.
Arhivix has built-in AI-powered OCR that automatically recognizes text in scanned documents — including both Cyrillic and Latin scripts.
Step 5: Naming and Classification
Every digitized document should have:
- Clear filename:
2025-06-15_invoice_incoming_supplier-XYZ.pdf - Classification mark according to your Category List
- Metadata: date, type, author, retention period
Step 6: Storage and Backup
Digitized documentation must be stored securely:
- Centralized storage — one DMS system, not scattered files across computers
- Backup to 2+ locations — local copy + cloud or off-site copy
- Access control — who can view, modify, delete
- Audit trail — record of every document access
Legal Validity of Digitized Documents
According to the Law on Electronic Documents ("Official Gazette RS", No. 94/2017), a digitized document can have the same legal force as the original if:
- Digitization was performed according to prescribed standards
- Integrity is ensured (document wasn't altered after scanning)
- A qualified electronic signature or timestamp exists
However, for most business documents, it's recommended to keep the paper original alongside the digital copy until regulations develop further.
What About Paper Originals After Scanning?
Scanning does not relieve you of the obligation to keep the paper original until the legal retention period expires, except in specific cases provided by law. Paper originals are kept in parallel with digital copies.
Conclusion
Digitizing paper archives is an investment that pays for itself many times over — through time savings, space savings, and easier legal compliance. The key is a systematic approach: prioritize, scan with quality, process with OCR, and organize in a DMS.
Arhivix lets you upload scanned documents, automatically process them with OCR, categorize them by Category List, and search by content with AI. Start today — for free.
