For many years, I resisted the rest of the world and the changing times and continued to print out all of my back-up documentation. After all, anyone over the age of 20 was trained to set up those folders with the back-up paperwork and every year we would clean out that file, create a current-year file, and store the old files in a dark, dingy storage room somewhere. And depending on the competence of your predecessor, whether or not you ever found what you needed again depended on their ability to mark boxes in a clear and concise manner.
When I decided to go paperless in my own practice, I wrestled with the pros and cons:
Pros: All of my old files are here in my office, I have marked the boxes, I generally can read my own handwriting, and I can access them anytime.
Cons: As my company grows and gets older, the files take up a lot of space, they are always exposed to the risk of fire, flood, etc., files could get mis-marked or put back into the wrong box.
As I reviewed the pros and cons, I decided to start with each new company as they came on board.