Hey!

I would like to bring back the topic of going paperless in Switzerland. I know this topic was brought to this forum in two previous post (1 & 2), but it's been more than 6 years since the last one and I would like know how people operate regarding to this topic. Specially taking into account that insurance companies now usually expect you to scan/photo to be sent to them. We also almost just arrive to Switzerland and we don't really know what papers we could need in the future. I'm thinking perhaps to the purpose to file taxes and so…

Should we keep for example the doctor invoices? Can we file those invoices for tax purposes?

What about the insurance policy? Should I keep it on paper? I mean the home insurance, because the health insurance one I already have it on PDF (only).

We know that all the government official papers should be keep on hard copy too, but what else?

I don't. I have paper for everything, even stuff that's "paperless" I will print off.

Paperless will never be completely replaced, as the saying goes: "Paper is patient!"

I scan and shred almost everything.

The only stuff I keep on paper (as well as being scanned) is the most recent copy of each policy, and only then so I can keep it in a folder in case of needing to access during a power outage or computer problem.

Of course it's all backed up with a cloud backup provider.

I once saw:
"The paperless office will come with the paperless toilet"

I’ve still got this excellent desktop scanner for sale. Make me an offer, including postage.

Can someone recommend a tool that can backup cloud provider to a local hard disk? Just in case of any issues.
Thanks in advance

I use Backblaze to do an incremental backups of my entire HD. I can even access old and deleted files for a month, in case I’m hit with malware. (I can extend this to 1 year for $24 a year)

This isn’t exactly what you asked for but it does the same thing. To backup your cloud look to the cloud provider.

Can you clarify this - you want to backup your cloud to a local disk, or your local disk to the cloud?

For the former, it completely depends on your cloud provider, but most offer a simple export option which will do it. Typically they charge a small fortune for this in data egress fees...

For the latter, which I suspect is what you mean, there are any number of providers. I use Carbonite which works fine and is relatively average in terms of cost.

ps. I also use Syncthing to backup between various machines, which then ends up on the one backed up via Carbonite so I only need one license and am only cloud-backuping (?) shared data once.

The contracts (health insurance, apartment, work etc.) are definite yes. So is the apartment appliance/condition checklist if you are renting. Most others, I scan and shred, however filing is a tough job.

Would love to have an automated filing mechanism with OCR capabilities - allowing docs to be searchable.

I am considering testing peax.ch which sounds like god send, however, still need to convince better half (& myself) of the privacy implications. (disclaimer: not an endorsement)

Keep your last will on paper

Which pretty much covers most of your documents, since most of your stuff is required to support your tax return etc.

It takes very little effort to toss documents in a box and stuff them away for ten years...

That's just reminded me that mine gifts everything to my sister and brother (made before I married and had children). Should probably get that changed...