A Less-Paper Society: Tomorrow's World and Managing Business Expenses

By JackOctober 2, 2015
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– This article was last updated on 16 July 2021-

As we move inexorably along the path towards a less-paper society, we may wish to take a moment to contemplate just how significant this watershed moment in human progress – surely comparable to the invention of the printing press, the discovery of penicillin and the advent of modern refrigerating technology – really is.

With the aforementioned historical turning points, knowledge became freely available, previously life-threatening infections became treatable, and Guinness became Extra Cold – so what will become of our collective futures as we together turn less-paper?

Paper with the words less is more

In a technology-driven culture such as our own, there is surely a multitude of innovations, materials and concepts currently under development – think 3D printing, graphene, and biocomputers – that will have the capacity to change the very nature of our daily interactions and behaviour within little more than a generation or two. How going less-paper will compare to such feats of human ingenuity is anyone’s guess, but one suspects that, aside from a much-needed boon to the global environmental cause, the benefits will be wide and far-reaching.

There may be hopes that graphene, the world’s thinnest material, will change the future of electronics hardware, water filtration and biomicrorobotics. Or that 3D printing will help make Mars habitable. Or that slime-mould will one day design our roads. But a less-paper society means cloud technology and centralised repositories of information; knowledge, thought and debate – all accessible at speeds that, while inconceivable to previous generations, are already taken for granted by our very own Millenials. Take that printing press!

But in the meantime, of course, a less-paper society means all of Excel spreadsheets, receipts and the toing and froing of finance department and staff in the field being consigned to the great wastepaper basket in the sky.

So while managing your business expenses trouble-free and paper-free might not sound as sexy as 3D Touch-capable, slime-based, hand-held devices, you’ll at least be able to experience the immediate benefits of a cost-effective, time-saving solution such as ExpenseIn, and perhaps use the extra time to enjoy a nicely chilled Guinness while imagining the future.