The Accident

On Tuesday, May 3, 2011 a pickup truck, traveling at speeds exceeding 70 mph hit and killed a pedestrian, continuing down the street for one block before crashing through the side of the building and into the office of Grooms & Harkins P.C. Fortunately, no one within the office space was hurt.

The accident rattled the quiet town of Casper, and devastated the office space. In addition to the obvious building and structural damage, desks seemingly exploded upon impact and the truck leaked fluids and damaged water pipes which created a muck and stench that permeated the space.

"Thankfully, I have never experienced a tornado, but I now have some small sense of what it must feel like to clean up after one," commented Deanna Pickering, CPA, PFS, at Grooms & Harkins, P.C.

The ability to efficiently recover

In 2007, Grooms & Harkins P.C. incorporated Doc.It paperless technology into their accounting firm. Because Grooms & Harkins P.C. is a paperless office, the majority of their clients' information was electronically secure and remained undisturbed. "We are so fortunate to be paperless, where the majority of our clients' information is maintained digitally rather than in paper form," continued Pickering.

"You cannot imagine how many clients came to our office immediately that day out of concern for us and the security of their private information. Thankfully, because we are paperless, we were able to reassure them that their information was not at risk," continued Pickering.

Grooms & Harkins P.C. shareholders agree, this event was tragic for the death of the pedestrian, but not a tragedy for their accounting firm. They were incredibly fortunate that so many employees were out that day, because sheet rock and desks can easily be replaced. Because of their investment in paperless technology, they could recover from this unimaginable disaster and get back to business quickly.