How We Use Google Apps: Docs

After Gmail, Docs gets the heaviest workout here at Solertium. We love it because anyone can collaborate on a document - it’s operating system-independent and doesn’t require the purchase or download of a suite of office tools like MS Office or OpenOffice. Google Docs includes text documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms, all of which can be shared with anyone with an email address.

Most frequently, we use Docs for:

• Writing up requirements for a new custom software development project: Solertium staff & our clients can hammer out all the details, and then the client has all the language needed for their contracts. Keeps us organized in that we’re not sharing around multiple docs with track changes turned on - everyone’s working from the same copy
• Spreadsheets for tracking individual contract line items: Solertium staff & our clients share the same view of costs, status of work (authorized, in progress, delivered, accepted, etc.), invoice status, notes, etc. There’s also chat functionality, so we can chat & clarify any line items on the fly with our customers
• Collecting form data: Data from web forms can be automatically dumped into a Google Docs spreadsheet. For customers who used to just receive the information via email, this is a handy repository for their data.
• Internal documentation for the company: In addition to basic forms like expense reimbursement, we also use spreadsheets to track potential and upcoming projects and work out budgets for new lines of business. We can share docs like these with our board, so they always have up-to-date information on the health of the company.

Docs comes with a huge template gallery, filled with handy tools for business owners. You can find project management schedulers, invoice templates, calculators, expense reports, card/letterhead/newsletter templates, themes for presentations, “contact us” website forms - the list is almost never ending. There’s even a template for a venture capitalist pitch!

In addition to keeping everyone literally on the same page, Docs has the added benefit of helping to keep our printing needs to a minimum. Maybe once a quarter an office supply rep will swing by to try to sell us stuff. It’s always a short conversation, because I have a great metric: it takes us more than a year to go through a single box of paper. Google Apps is a big part of making us a close-to-paperless office.

You can learn the basics of Google Apps: Docs by watching the introductory video below. And, as always, if you need any assistance with setting up your Google Apps Premier Accounts, please contact us.