For an office manager: sort your PDF, scan and old-file jobs into do it yourself, buy, or leave

List the jobs by what the file is

Do not start with "the archive". Start with what each pile is. A folder of PDFs exported from software is a different problem from a box of scans, which is different from a drive of old Word and Excel files, which is different from a folder whose names nobody can decode. Write a line for each: what it is, roughly how many, who needs what from it and what happens if nothing is done.

• Text-based PDFs you need data from: extraction.
• Filled-in fillable forms: reading the form fields.
• Scans nobody can search: adding searchable text.
• Old .doc and .xls files: conversion.
• Confusing names and folders: renaming with a record.

Do it yourself when the software already does it

For a handful of files, the built-in routes are often enough. Excel's Get Data from PDF can import tables from a text-based PDF, as Microsoft documents. Word and Excel can convert an old file you open: File, Info, Convert changes it in place without a copy, while Save As keeps the original, so use Save As and keep a backup. Check the result against the original for layout changes, which Microsoft tells you to do.

The cost of doing it yourself is time and no record. Nothing shows afterwards which files were done or whether anything changed.

Consider buying when volume, repetition or evidence matters

Outside help starts to make sense when the number is large enough that the time is a problem, when the same job recurs every month, or when you need to show that everything was handled. The fixed-scope jobs each end in a reconciliation: counts that match, originals unchanged, an exceptions list. Prices start at £195 for making up to 500 scanned pages searchable, £245 for renaming and organising up to 5,000 files with a manifest and £295 for converting up to 300 old files. They are untested proposals, and payment follows agreed checks and your sign-off. A whole archive with scans, old files and names to fix is a project from £2,450.

Leave it alone when

Some piles should not be touched yet. If nobody uses them, tidying them is effort without a result. If you are unsure whether you may copy or share them, find out first. If a question is whether documents must be kept or may be destroyed, that is a records and legal question for someone qualified, and we do not advise on it. Documents holding personal, payment or health information are not suitable for these fixed jobs.

Start with a low-trust enquiry

Send counts, types, a rough size and what you want to be able to do afterwards, plus an invented or redacted sample if you have one. Never send the documents in the first message. If we agree a scope, we agree a secure route, who may see the files, how long we keep them and how we delete them in writing before any file moves. We work on copies and never on your only original, and we do not contact anyone on your behalf.

• This page is an offer of new services, not evidence of past delivery or of demand.
• No accuracy is promised for scanned text.