How to become File Clerk in 2024

File Clerk File correspondence, cards, invoices, receipts, and other records in alphabetical or numerical order or according to the filing system used. Locate and remove material from file when requested.

File Clerk is Also Know as

In different settings, File Clerk is titled as

  • Claims Clerk
  • Clerk
  • Documentation Specialist
  • File Clerk
  • Manufacturing Clerk
  • Medical Records Clerk
  • Office Assistant
  • Police Records Clerk
  • Records Clerk

Education and Training of File Clerk

File Clerk is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for File Clerk

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for File Clerk

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to File Clerk

Training Required for File Clerk

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to File Clerk in different industries are

What Do File Clerk do?

  • Add new material to file records or create new records as necessary.
  • Track materials removed from files to ensure that borrowed files are returned.
  • Gather materials to be filed from departments or employees.
  • Sort or classify information according to guidelines, such as content, purpose, user criteria, or chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order.
  • Scan or read incoming materials to determine how and where they should be classified or filed.
  • Place materials into storage receptacles, such as file cabinets, boxes, bins, or drawers, according to classification and identification information.
  • Assign and record or stamp identification numbers or codes to index materials for filing.
  • Answer questions about records or files.
  • Modify or improve filing systems or implement new filing systems.
  • Perform periodic inspections of materials or files to ensure correct placement, legibility, or proper condition.
  • Eliminate outdated or unnecessary materials, destroying them or transferring them to inactive storage, according to file maintenance guidelines or legal requirements.
  • Operate mechanized files that rotate to bring needed records to a particular location.
  • Design forms related to filing systems.
  • Retrieve documents stored in microfilm or microfiche and place them in viewers for reading.
  • Input data, such as file numbers, new or updated information, or document information codes into computer systems to support document and information retrieval.
  • Perform general office activities, such as typing, answering telephones, operating office machines, processing mail, or securing confidential materials.
  • Keep records of materials filed or removed, using logbooks or computers and generate computerized reports.
  • Find, retrieve, and make copies of information from files in response to requests and deliver information to authorized users.
  • Complete general financial activities, such as processing accounts payable, reviewing invoices, collecting cash payments, or issuing receipts.

Qualities of Good File Clerk

  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.

Tools Used by File Clerk

  • Computer inkjet printers
  • Copy machines
  • Document scanners
  • Document stamps
  • File cabinets
  • Laser facsimile machines
  • Mechanized file systems
  • Microfiche viewing equipment
  • Microfilm viewing equipment
  • Multiline telephone systems
  • Personal computers
  • Stepladders

Technology Skills required for File Clerk

  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Electronic filing software
  • Electronic health record EHR software
  • Email software
  • Intuit QuickBooks
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • Optical scanning software
  • Word processing software