Travel Agency - Filing System for Brochures

[Worldtraveller8888]

I have been handed the (terribly exciting) job of reorganising the back room at our agency which is currently overflowing with brochures.

The room is currently organised roughly in the following order:

• Continent
• then by Country/Region
• then by Supplier

Up until now, 'refreshing' of brochures (ie throwing out the old and replacing with the new as they arrive) has not been a strong point. Assuming we can improve on that aspect, does anyone have any better ways of filing brochures than in the above order?

Thanks!

WT

 

[thewinchester]

I have been handed the (terribly exciting) job of reorganising the back room at our agency which is currently overflowing with brochures.

The room is currently organised roughly in the following order:

• Continent
• then by Country/Region
• then by Supplier

Up until now, 'refreshing' of brochures (ie throwing out the old and replacing with the new as they arrive) has not been a strong point. Assuming we can improve on that aspect, does anyone have any better ways of filing brochures than in the above order?

Thanks!

WT

I'm not a TA, but have to deal with brochure stocks in a marketing capacity for our Govt agency.

For the specific problem you're approaching, it sounds like you're already using the most logical system for filing - specially from an access/retrieval/library perspective.

My only suggestion regarding disposal of out of date stocks is to possibly have an excel/similar spreadsheet which is reviewed once a month which contains amongst other things the expiry date for each brochure set.

Once a month (or as your needs dictate), someone can simply fire it up, do a sort based on expiry month year, then by your filing order to easily find those brochures that should be ditched. This would require that new brochures are entered as they are received, but as long as this doesn't fall down it should be a simple problem to overcome.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like an idea of how an excel/similar sheet can be constructed to achieve such a result.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I think you should file them in order of where the best mileage runs are. Seriously, is there any other way??

 

[Worldtraveller8888]

Thanks guys. At least I'm on the right track in terms of categorisation.

I like your idea winchester of the spreadsheet. I can drive the fundamentals of Excel, so will give it a go to create one of my own. Will be sure to get in touch if I fail!

I think you should file them in order of where the best mileage runs are. Seriously, is there any other way??

If I exclusively looked after people from AFF - that would be perfect!

 

[docjames]

The only other alternate I can see is alphabetical, but it'll be a pain when you want brochures for Angola and Zimbabwe at the same time.

 

[africa]

I'm not a TA, but have to deal with brochure stocks in a marketing capacity for our Govt agency.

For the specific problem you're approaching, it sounds like you're already using the most logical system for filing - specially from an access/retrieval/library perspective.

My only suggestion regarding disposal of out of date stocks is to possibly have an excel/similar spreadsheet which is reviewed once a month which contains amongst other things the expiry date for each brochure set.

Once a month (or as your needs dictate), someone can simply fire it up, do a sort based on expiry month year, then by your filing order to easily find those brochures that should be ditched. This would require that new brochures are entered as they are received, but as long as this doesn't fall down it should be a simple problem to overcome.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like an idea of how an excel/similar sheet can be constructed to achieve such a result.

Hi - I picked up your blog on google for brochure filing. My agency specialises in travel to Africa, and we're also having a brochure spring clean. Could you give us some guidelines on setting up an excel sheet to store content and expiry dates of brochures? Many thanks.

 

[straitman]

Hi - I picked up your blog on google for brochure filing. My agency specialises in travel to Africa, and we're also having a brochure spring clean. Could you give us some guidelines on setting up an excel sheet to store content and expiry dates of brochures? Many thanks.

africa,

Welcome to AFF.

I'm sure the boys will help you out.

 

[albatross710]

What is the cycle of expiry of brochures? Is it monthly, seasonal or annual?

Would you consider a colour coding sticker? This means that the person looking at the brochure filing system can see the relative status at the time they are accessing the brochures.

For the colours of thinking of something like a different colour for each quarter of the next two years (the colours then restart). At the end of each quarter all of the brochures tagged with that 'expiry quarter' get sent to the recyclers.

This would work similar to the way car rego stickers work. They do have an information system to back it up but at the time the copper is looking at the car it is also obvious.

Just a thought.

Alby

 

[thewinchester]

Hi - I picked up your blog on google for brochure filing. My agency specialises in travel to Africa, and we're also having a brochure spring clean. Could you give us some guidelines on setting up an excel sheet to store content and expiry dates of brochures? Many thanks.

Hi africa, and welcome to AFF.

Think of the spreadsheet as a database - what information would you need to record to know exactly which brochure has expired?

These pieces of information would become your column headings across the top of the spreadsheet. Some possible columns would include:

• Brochure supplier/tour/travel company
• Region
• Country
• Title (if relevant)
• Additional description & information
• Storage location (do you use a filing system or filing shelf - which file number, filing cabinet, or shelf identifier could be stored here)
• Date received
• Date valid until
• Date disposed of

The most important column would be the date valid until, being the date after which the brochure is no longer current.

As new brochures are received into the agency stockroom, the relevant staff member would enter information on the new brochures, including the date they are valid until.

Once a month, you would then use the sort feature, sorting in descending order on the column date valid until (and filtering out those rows where Date disposed of has a value). This would allow you to see exactly which brochure are no longer current, locate and dispose of those brochures accordingly.

You should also enter information into the Date disposed of column so you know that they have been disposed of (and can be filtered out of future end of month disposal activities).

Hope that puts you on the right path to dealing with old brochures, best of luck.