by Marcia Francois
I bought a pair of sandals some time ago. They looked very cute but the straps on the top of the foot were very uncomfortable.
I decided to return them and within a minute or two, had retrieved the receipt from FOUR months ago.
I could find the receipt easily because I do 5 specific things to keep my receipts organised and in order.
by Carrie Greene, CarrieThru, LLC, Coach & Professional Organizer
Thirteen and a half inches! Every day for one week I measured the amount of mail I got. All totaled, over a foot of paper came through my front door. Only half an inch of it was even remotely important.
How you handle the mail coming into your home is one of the keys to reducing your piles of paper.
by Janet Barclay and Jennifer Kubilis
When starting out, it’s not uncommon to personally handle all the work involved with running your business, but if all goes well, you’ll reach a point where it makes more sense to pay someone else to perform some of the administrative functions, so you can devote more time to serving customers and generating more income. In many cases, bookkeeping is the one of the first tasks to be delegated.
Unless you’ve been well trained, a qualified bookkeeper will be able to process your paperwork more efficiently than you and make sure that all income and expenses are recorded appropriately for income tax purposes. Keep in mind, however, that for your bookkeeper to do his or her job accurately, it’s up to you to provide all required information. Since you are likely paying for the service by the hour, it is also in your best interest to make sure that your paperwork is organized in a way that your bookkeeper doesn’t have to spend a lot of time going through it all to figure out what everything is.
by John Morris
Records management is one of the most important elements of good business management, and there are several instances when you need to destroy your records for the good of your customer and for your own protection.
by Marcia Francois
You won’t believe all the excuses I get from people about their untidy desks!
“It’s because I’m creative” or “I know where everything is”.
SOUND FAMILIAR?
This may very well be true. However, for most people, an untidy desk makes you feel overwhelmed and out of control.
And how can you be productive when you’re overwhelmed? Right?!
The good news is you can have a tidy desk in just 5 steps:
by Janet Barclay, MVA
One of the most common reasons people invite me to their office for an organizing consultation is to help them deal with the piles of paperwork that are encroaching on their workspace.
It is generally understood that part of the problem is the lack of an efficient filing system and by efficient, I mean one that includes making time to file paid bills, completed projects, and so on. The other part of the problem relates to active projects. For some people, designating a desk drawer for these files is a viable solution, but for visual thinkers, and there are a lot of you out there, the immediate reaction to such a suggestion is, If I can’t see it, I’ll forget about it! Sometimes a desktop vertical organizer will work well, especially if it is slanted so you can see all the file labels, but if you have a large number of active projects, or if the files are very thick, it’s not very effective.
By Janet Barclay, MVA
It seems that you’ve just got used to it being a new year, and here it is February, and time to archive your files!
Why archive your files? Quite simply, because if you don’t, your filing cabinet will become overfilled, and you’ll have trouble locating needed documents and finding room for new ones. When your filing system is inconvenient to use, you stop using it properly, and it becomes even less functional.
By Maria Gracia
One of the most basic ways to find papers when you need them is to retrieve them from an effective filing system. A good filing system will allow you to find what you’re looking for in 10 seconds or less.
Here are 3 simple filing guidelines that can help:
1. Categorizing
A filing system is only effective, if you can find everything you need, when you need it–without a struggle. And all good filing systems have different categories of papers. Your papers are either going to fall into a MAIN category, or a SUB-category.
By Monica Ricci
Nobody enjoys filing, at least nobody I’ve ever met. But like it or not, keeping track of paper information is crucial to living an organized life or running a successful business. The biggest problem most people have with filing isn’t how to store it, but how to retrieve it. So how do you create a filing system that works? Here are three basic steps to get you started.
Sort your material into BROAD TOPICS. (common categories are money, house, health, auto, hobbies/interests, family history/identification, insurance, etc.) Try to keep it to about ten broad categories. The plastic tabs on your hanging files should be at the FAR LEFT side on the FRONT flap of the folder, not the rear one. This makes the folder easier to open, you simply grab the tab that you want and pull it toward you to open it. The FAR LEFT tab position is a visual cue for you that this folder begins a broad category.
By Suzanne McLoone
I LOVE using Classification Folders. I will use any excuse I can find to rationalize utilizing these little pronged wonders! Mostly I use the 6-prong Classification Folders, but they also come in 2 prong, 4 prong and they even have ones with elastic bands for the corners. These are absolutely brilliant for large files. The last time I used the elastic bands were for a client’s Business Development Contract files. They had the Lead Sheet, Proposal, Contract, Sales Account Plan, Meeting Notes, and Sales Forecast and it was gorgeous! The Account Manager had an instant snap shot of their client and papers never fell out of the file! Not only did the papers stay put, it made the AM look like a million bucks when visiting with clients. Although this is a standard reason for using classification folders, it’s not the only one!