Whether you're accessing a contract or signing a job offer, PDF is your go-to document. When PDF (Portable Document Format) was released by Adobe Acrobat as an open standard in 2008, it continued to be one of the most used document formats until today. Because of its portability and security, businesses of all industries prefer to use PDFs for documentation purposes.
But aside from being the ideal document format, is there anything more you can do with a PDF? Apparently, PDF isn't boxed to being just PDF—it can also be converted to online forms. Thanks to online forms, digital stores and restaurants don't have to rely on paper and pen for orders and reservations. To add, hospitals and clinics also take advantage of online forms. With the help of HIPAA-compliant forms, the healthcare industry wouldn't have to worry about securing their patient's information.
This blog lists the surprising benefits of using online forms for your business—no matter which industry you're in.
- Error-free and secure transactions
- Save business cost
- Automate manual processes
- Strengthen team collaboration
- Save the environment
Error-free and secure transactions
Alexander Pope once said, "To err is human," Unfortunately, business documents and formal transactions should be error-free. To maintain the credibility of your forms, using online forms will decrease your chances of errors. With a few clicks and a bit of backspace, you don't have to worry about name typos and erasures in your forms. Correct information in forms also saves time and business costs—getting rid of the back and forth of sending paper documents due to an error.
Save business cost
Online forms obviously are sent online—meaning you wouldn't have to deal with couriers and mail guys to send your documents. Not only that, using digital documents has a lot of financial advantages, too—like saving money from printers, inks, bond papers, and even storage spaces. The great thing about keeping a digital silo for your online forms is that you don't have to drown in the pile of papers stuck in drawers to find a document. Instead, you can simply collect your online forms and store them in a cloud drive to search for them easily.
Another cherry on top? You wouldn't have to worry about floods destroying your documents—online forms are safe from theft and disasters that can affect your customer data.
Automate manual processes
If you're a business owner and have yet to decide on task automation, you better start doing so. Business automation is one of the keys to success—it saves time, encourages high productivity, and increases profits. Aside from automating your lead generation and other admin tasks, it's crucial to automate the manual filling out of forms.
For example, instead of printing out paper forms and handing them over to people, you can simply automate this by creating an online form that you can send with a shareable link to save time. Since most people hate filling out forms, it'll also be helpful to make it easier for your users to finish their forms, like sending pre-fill forms. This way, they won't have to type everything manually--encouraging a 100% completion rate.
Another useful feature for automation is an email template feature—where the forms you send to your users can be saved into templates. Timesaving and easy—just save a template and send them by email easily!
Strengthen team collaboration
In this time of remote work and high demand for digital collaboration, companies need to level up their collaborative game, or else their business will be affected. With online PDF software that provides collaborative features for the team, companies won't have to worry about the accomplishment of tasks of each member. Using a powerful workflow will enable organizations to track what needs to be done or monitor online forms in real-time.
In a nutshell, you need robust PDF software that provides a workflow feature for a tracked process of your online forms. A workflow lets teams collaborate easier, do work faster, and be more efficient.
Save the environment
Most businesses choose to go green and paperless—and it's a movement that doesn't only help financially, it also means being all-for-mother earth. Get rid of paper usage today and use online forms for a better and cleaner environment! You won't only save costs from buying paper bulks, but you wouldn't also have to buy other printing materials like inks and machines.
PDF tools that provide online form services usually cost a monthly plan, which is 10x much cheaper than paper documents. While it can be difficult to entirely stop using paper (some companies still don't go paperless until now), you can try to start taking the steps by using online forms.
Conclusion
If you want your business to grow, consider using online forms for an efficient process. Online forms are easy to use, save money, and can be sent anywhere, anytime, in seconds. They also allow error-free and secured transactions, automating another manual process in your business. You can save even more business costs by not printing the forms. Plus, you can strengthen team collaboration by getting everyone involved in a streamlined workflow process or strengthen your green efforts by saving the environment. With good PDF software, you can leverage the use of online forms to scale your business.
