Hey breeders
I am having trouble keeping my files in order.. contracts, receipts, pedigrees, registration slips, and even show entry forms.
How do you guys manage it all?!
I have folders that have all of that in it for each individual cat.. but no where to put the folders and like 90% of the time it gets jumbled up and I cant find what I need when I need it.
Help me please. I need help with getting myself organized.
Thanks
Wish I could help, but I have no clue. I'm the most unorganized person....
I would recommend a filing cabinet. Invest in a nice one, it will probably make your organization MUCH easier. Then sort it all by date. You can have one huge one for things older than a certain date (last over 1 yr old, or 5 yrs, up to you) and then a more current one for the things you will be more likely to go through more often. I envision the filing cabinets filled with folders, with a section for pedigrees, and a section for the receipts. Labels is what will all make it possible, and some sort of order (chronological or alphabetical).
Good luck!
I am not a breeder but I do have LOTS (and I mean LOTS) of emails from breeders and cat councils and show runners etc. I also have many, many documents like challenges, award slips, my boys papers, flea and worming records, show catalouges etc. I keep them in nice big fat folders with velcro that clips them together. I actually won my first one at a cat show which had lots of information on kittens inside, it was what breeders can get to give to new kitten owners in their kitten packs from one of the food companies. I have found it extremelly helpful. I also have on my email account around 10 different folders where I save emails according to genre, such as a folder for each breeder, a folder for cat show emails etc. I find that extremelly helpful too in keeping track of all email records.
With the amount you must have though, I would also recommend a filing cabinet. I don't know if you can get them where you are but my Mum has a container much like this
one, that when you take the lid off it is a filing cabinet without really being one (if that makes sense). You can keep it hidden under your bed to save space and its just as helpful. I also found a picture of
this when searching containers and I think it would also be helpful in keeping cat records, and it looks great! You could even use it as a seat or foot stool.
I have a drawer in a filing cabinet which has different coloured inserts with tabs on for labeling. Unfortunately the drawer is still empty and all of my pedigrees and homing agreements, receipts etc are in the bedroom, in the lounge, some in folders, some loose in drawers, anywhere really except where they should be and can I find them? You guessed!!! If anyone would like to come and visit me and sort out my filing for me they would be most welcome. Disorganised? Me? Now what gave you that idea!!
I have a filing cabin with inserts by the name of each Breeder.
There are folders that go in each file depending upon each litter and all information on that litter is there. This includes contracts, registration papers, deposits received, notes,etc. Each is cross-referenced on my computer by name of client. As long as I remain a small cattery this should work out.
I use folders, the big lever arch ones
there is a floder that is for litters so it has deviders for each cat, when that girl finishes breeding the info is transfered over to another folder, just to add when each litter is gone I then put all the weight records and the individual kittens stuff into a protector so they dont get mixed up, when the litters are born the top of the weight sheet says "Daisy 1st litter" for example so when it goes in the sleave it is easy to find
My cats pedigrees are in another folder and that has their vacc cards and dna testing etc in there as well
each cat that shows has one of those display folders which their challenges etc goes in
I also have a "forms" folder, it has stuff like the details for kitten packs, the forms for kitten regos etc
You can get the boxes that hold the folders so they are all together,
this works fantastic when I do it properly, sometimes I have some catching up but because there is a system it is easy to get fixed up