4473 Cloud provides the opportunity to digitally store your 4473’s in one simple and safe location. But that only touches on a small portion of what 4473 Cloud does. Below, we’ll be discussing the 12 reasons to ditch the paper, and make the switch to 4473 Cloud.
1. Cash is King, and Stays in Your Wallet
The average FFL dealer spends approximately $0.25 per printed 4473 form. While that number may seem nominal, it tends to add up quickly, especially as your business grows. FFL Dealers on the lowest volume pricing tier can save up to 67% of their printing costs by switching to 4473 Cloud. The cost of paper, ink, filing cabinets, filing folders, and price per square foot that filing cabinets take up can ultimately affect your bottom line, and your wallet.
With 4473 Cloud, you no longer have to worry about these costs. By outsourcing data storage to 4473 Cloud, you can save on capital and maintenance costs, money which you can invest back into your business and expand your FFL.
2. Save Time to Invest Elsewhere
Relying on a printer, and its needs can get laborious. Depending on the printing working and having the necessary supplies on hand can take up precious time and energy that could be focused elsewhere.
With the ability to complete the ATF F 4473 digitally, filling out paperwork and retaining it in that digital format hasn’t been simpler. Quickly upload the Form 4473 in our secure 4473 Cloud system and relish in the time your team can now spend with your customers.
3. Cover More Ground with Less Actual Ground
We’ve seen it time and time again, FFL dealers’ space being consumed by mountains of paperwork and rows of filing cabinets. You may have written off all of the paper-clutter and wasted warehouse space as a cost of doing business, but you don’t have to anymore!
Take back your prime real estate and use it to expand your FFL and grow your business. That paper-mountain no longer rules your office space, gun vault or warehouse. By switching to 4473 Cloud, you just “bought back” your own real estate, now you just have to put it to work to grow your business!
4. Security
In the firearm industry, FFLs take digital storage security very seriously and rightfully so. Securing your firearm paperwork is just as important to the health and growth of your business. The security controls provided by 4473 Cloud eliminates risk of loss, damaged or stolen paperwork at your FFL.
With 4473 Cloud, you manage user permissions and have complete control over who has access to your FFL’s Form 4473s. Beyond controlling who has access to your Form 4473s, you also have control over what each person can do with a 4473: view only, self-audit, review, edit, etc. Permissions are at your fingertips and editable whenever you need to make a change.
5. Reliability, Protection, and Recovery
Especially in the firearm industry, a lot of us have lived by the mantra, hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The same thing goes for your paperwork. The ATF requires you retain your Form 4473’s for at least 20 years after you transfer a firearm, and losing just one document could have catastrophic effects to your FFL.
Going digital and moving your paperwork to 4473 Cloud protects your valuable Form 4473’s from loss due to things like employee mistakes, natural disasters, or a mouse making a nest out of your Form 4473s (Yes, we have seen it happen!). It’s a simple switch to 4473 Cloud that offers the most reliability and highest level of protection the moment you upload your first Form 4473.
6. Zero Maintenance
It’s easy for many businesses, regardless of their size, to stick with what they know – and that’s storing paperwork in-house, in filing cabinets and paper storage boxes. While this approach has been the standard, it nevertheless comes with additional overhead. Storing paperwork in-house does require care and maintenance, and this means that you are in charge of how your Form 4473s are stored. And, that can be a costly proposition.
Thanks to 4473 Cloud storage, FFLs can save a lot of time and money on maintenance and upkeep. Instead, you can focus resources on core aspects of the business and your customers, and let 4473 Cloud store your forms digitally.
7. Self Auditing Tools
It is a matter of when, not if, ATF will visit your FFL unannounced to complete a compliance inspection. Being prepared for that “when” is the best way to have peace of mind during an ATF compliance inspection. When not prepared by conducting your own self-audit, an ATF compliance inspection might seem daunting, intimidating and outright scary.
With 4473 Cloud, the power to prepare is at your fingertips. With full self mock-audit functionality, you can assign employees to review, track potential compliance misses on the forms and take the necessary steps to reconcile those issues on a regular basis. Inspecting your own Form 4473’s in the same manner as ATF will help you feel confident for your next ATF inspection.
Simply put, you expect your team to complete Form 4473s accurately and completely. 4473 Cloud gives you the tools to Inspect what you Expect!
8. Faster ATF Inspections
As we said, it will eventually be your turn for your FFL’s ATF compliance inspection. After conducting your own internal mock-audits, you’ll rest easy when the ATF visits and it will be just another day in the office.
Not only will you be confident in the results of your ATF compliance inspection it will be done in a fraction of the time as a standard ATF inspection. 4473 Cloud has an exclusive “ATF Audit Mode” function that allows ATF review your Form 4473s much faster than the old paper process.
9. Faster ATF Traces
ATF can trace firearms dating back decades. And sometimes finding those “old” Form 4473’s, scanning them, and emailing them to the ATF Tracing Center can eat up hours of your or your employee’s time.
With its user-friendly “Fast Trace” search fields, 4473 Cloud you can locate the Form 4473 with the serial number being traced in seconds.. That form is then populated into an email for submission to the ATF. Hours of time reduced to seconds.
10. Scalability
As your business grows, so can your digital storage space without taking up precious real estate at your place of business. Your storage will be measured in gigabytes, not by square footage anymore. Go as big or small as you need to, and if you need more space, you can quickly update your account to do so.
4473 Cloud is designed to meet the needs of all FFLs, regardless of size and volume. As you grow, so does your storage vault for your Form 4473s.
11. Quick Form Search
Searching for a specific 4473 can feel like a needle in a haystack. With the regulations requiring you to keep Form 4473s organized in a specific manner, you may feel like you’ve spent an eternity on just keeping organized alone.
With the ability to search by name, address, serial number, TSN and Date of Disposition 4473 Cloud offers a streamlined way to find the forms you need, in a fraction of the time it takes you today.
12. Peace of Mind
It’s no question that ATF compliance is one of the most important operations to keep your FFL running smoothly. Stressing over maintaining compliance can even impede on your overall growth as an FFL dealer.
You cannot put a price on the peace of mind that comes with knowing your data and your paperwork won’t just mysteriously disappear. Your FFL’s regulated paperwork and data is secured with most advanced encryption and storage standards available today. Additionally, knowing you can save more as much as 67% of your current printing costs for Form 4473s, 4473 Cloud provides you with a level of security you can be confident in and saves your business expenses you can reinvest in your FFL.
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