Earthquake document safety drill.
Whether it is an earthquake, a fire, or flooding, are you ready in case of a disaster? Are your vital business documents protected?
There was an earthquake drill on January 26th at 10:00 am organized by BC Earthquake Alliance called ShakeOut BC. Even though earthquakes do not occur often in the North Okanagan, according to North Okanagan Emergency Management (NOEM), there is some significant risk.
Three basic steps were outlined: Drop, Cover, Hold. As we know, practice is important.
Do you have a vital records emergency plan in place for your business documents? For some companies, this may not cause any disruptions while it may be of serious consequences to others who are not prepared.
Are you vital records organized and protected? What are vital records? These are the business documents, which are vital to the recovery of your business in case of disaster. Not only is it costly and time consuming to find and recreate those documents, it is crucial to your organization to be able to do business. It is about the protection of your assets, human resources, and priorities associated with business functions. As for your clients, your reputation as a reliable company may also be at risk, and this may impede on how they do business with your firm.
Do you have a plan for disaster recovery? Are you waiting for a disaster to happen? Are these documents safeguarded in-house and/or protected elsewhere? Are they saved in an acceptable format? Microfilm is one option for storage.
Who is involved in the process? Assign someone to become responsible for this area of critical business in coordination with senior administration and/or the owner to lead the project. Align the plan with the company's mission and objectives and create a committee. If you are a sole proprietor, get some input from other colleagues in your field of business or ask for assistance from a professional service.
Start with a plan. First of all, determine what type of documents fit this category. Critical business functions, financial, human resource, and legal considerations are all vital to your organization.
Do the inventory and save your documents in the best format or consider other technologies available for storage of data. Be aware of new technology, the benefits and drawbacks, and select what is best for your business.
Other considerations include allocating a temporary location for staff to meet as soon as business resumes. Have an emergency telephone list and a call plan to advise staff. Decide who has the permission to access all vital documents in your plan and who is to show up as the first emergency responders. Enforce regular drills. Adjust, review and be ready.
For more information on earthquake preparedness for personal safety, visit www.shakeoutBC.ca.
Francine Renaud
Records Management Consultant
http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988
Monday, January 31, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Organizing your business receipts for taxes
Organizing your business receipts for tax time.
Whether you are preparing to do your own taxes or sending them off to a professional service, it is always a good practice to keep all of your receipts in order on a regular basis as this will save you time, money, and the agony of doing this at the last minute. Develop a method and follow it diligently, this will ease the burden at the end of the year or around tax time.
You have many options today to help you organize those receipts and time and effort will be the deciding factor as to what system you will adopt. You can set up a manual filing system, create an electronic document filing system and scan your documents, or outsource the task.
Small receipts are unavoidable such as cash register slips, store receipts, or credit card slips. They are not always clearly defined as to what was purchased and the dates can cause some concern over the month and day depending on the convention used such as 2011/07/08, is it July or August? Most retail stores in Canada work with day, month and year. Begin with writing the date on the receipt and the item you purchased. If you are folding the receipt, fold it with the printed side open to view especially when traveling, it takes very little to mistake it for just an old piece of paper. I always put all my travel receipts in an envelope and take care of writing down the information immediately until I scan them. You can also take a photo of the receipt and send it to your office in case of loss. However, the copy should be clear and easily read. Keep all your paper receipts. You may want to verify that all is entered in your system properly.
Basic System:
To organize a manual filing system for your receipts, you can do this by purchasing coloured hanging folders with each category written on each tab, which can help you with quick filing or you can also slip them in an accordion file by main categories under each tab. Add up your receipts monthly and attach the subtotal to the receipts by month.
EXCEL:
If using Excel, create the main categories and enter your receipts with all pertinent information, date, item, store or company, notes, category and sub total for every month or at the end of the year. You can simply file them in their appropriate folder by category with the monthly sub total. A bit more tedious and does require discipline.
Scanning and creating electronic folders:
If creating electronic folders, create the categories, scan the documents, rename the image and drop them into the correct folder. Keep the paper copies and calculate the monthly or quarterly total. Send the attachment to your email or mail your lists organized by category with total amounts for each category.
Categories:
Major categories to consider when developing your folders: assets, associations/memberships, auto/fuel catering , bank/checks, CD and books, conference and meetings, entertainment/restaurants, invoices paid, gifts, marketing material, office equipment, professional courses and training, professional services, purchase for resale, seminars and workshops, shipping and postage, travel expenses, utilities etc.
Outsourcing:
For the small business owner, time can be a factor and for others, it may simply be that they prefer to put everything in a box and leave it to someone else to work on it.
You can select a service and outsource the task. The documents are usually mailed to be scanned and returned to you within a short period of time. However, inquire as to what type of tracking system is in place, does the company provide a tracking file of your parcel or envelope or is it tracked by the postal service? If you are concerned with the loss of receipts and documents by sending them off in the mail to a service, find someone who may be able to do this for you in your own business community.
Portable scanners:
Today, there are wonderful choices for scanners with a software program included, which saves a lot of time with setting up categories. Find out if they allow you add and tailor the categories for filing. In most cases, the software program is compatible with various accounting software programs. Ask your accountant or bookkeeper for the accounting software program they consider to be the best.
You can also purchase a small scanner if you prefer and scan each receipt immediately at your office. If you have a small portable scanner, you can scan your receipts and send immediately to your office when traveling or after meetings outside your office.
Portable scanner:
Visit this Website for some of the tips and more information on selecting a portable scanner.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com/travel-scanner#
Francine Renaud Records Management Consultant http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988
Whether you are preparing to do your own taxes or sending them off to a professional service, it is always a good practice to keep all of your receipts in order on a regular basis as this will save you time, money, and the agony of doing this at the last minute. Develop a method and follow it diligently, this will ease the burden at the end of the year or around tax time.
You have many options today to help you organize those receipts and time and effort will be the deciding factor as to what system you will adopt. You can set up a manual filing system, create an electronic document filing system and scan your documents, or outsource the task.
Small receipts are unavoidable such as cash register slips, store receipts, or credit card slips. They are not always clearly defined as to what was purchased and the dates can cause some concern over the month and day depending on the convention used such as 2011/07/08, is it July or August? Most retail stores in Canada work with day, month and year. Begin with writing the date on the receipt and the item you purchased. If you are folding the receipt, fold it with the printed side open to view especially when traveling, it takes very little to mistake it for just an old piece of paper. I always put all my travel receipts in an envelope and take care of writing down the information immediately until I scan them. You can also take a photo of the receipt and send it to your office in case of loss. However, the copy should be clear and easily read. Keep all your paper receipts. You may want to verify that all is entered in your system properly.
Basic System:
To organize a manual filing system for your receipts, you can do this by purchasing coloured hanging folders with each category written on each tab, which can help you with quick filing or you can also slip them in an accordion file by main categories under each tab. Add up your receipts monthly and attach the subtotal to the receipts by month.
EXCEL:
If using Excel, create the main categories and enter your receipts with all pertinent information, date, item, store or company, notes, category and sub total for every month or at the end of the year. You can simply file them in their appropriate folder by category with the monthly sub total. A bit more tedious and does require discipline.
Scanning and creating electronic folders:
If creating electronic folders, create the categories, scan the documents, rename the image and drop them into the correct folder. Keep the paper copies and calculate the monthly or quarterly total. Send the attachment to your email or mail your lists organized by category with total amounts for each category.
Categories:
Major categories to consider when developing your folders: assets, associations/memberships, auto/fuel catering , bank/checks, CD and books, conference and meetings, entertainment/restaurants, invoices paid, gifts, marketing material, office equipment, professional courses and training, professional services, purchase for resale, seminars and workshops, shipping and postage, travel expenses, utilities etc.
Outsourcing:
For the small business owner, time can be a factor and for others, it may simply be that they prefer to put everything in a box and leave it to someone else to work on it.
You can select a service and outsource the task. The documents are usually mailed to be scanned and returned to you within a short period of time. However, inquire as to what type of tracking system is in place, does the company provide a tracking file of your parcel or envelope or is it tracked by the postal service? If you are concerned with the loss of receipts and documents by sending them off in the mail to a service, find someone who may be able to do this for you in your own business community.
Portable scanners:
Today, there are wonderful choices for scanners with a software program included, which saves a lot of time with setting up categories. Find out if they allow you add and tailor the categories for filing. In most cases, the software program is compatible with various accounting software programs. Ask your accountant or bookkeeper for the accounting software program they consider to be the best.
You can also purchase a small scanner if you prefer and scan each receipt immediately at your office. If you have a small portable scanner, you can scan your receipts and send immediately to your office when traveling or after meetings outside your office.
Portable scanner:
Visit this Website for some of the tips and more information on selecting a portable scanner.
Source: http://www.squidoo.com/travel-scanner#
Francine Renaud Records Management Consultant http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988
Monday, January 10, 2011
Selection of a document management software program
Check list for the selection of a document management software program
If you are thinking of converting to a paperless environment, it is important to assess various software programs for document management and your business needs.
A few tips on what software to select for your business documents. I would like to present to you 5 major points to keep in mind when purchasing a document software program.
First of all, access and retrieval are key components.
1. Searching
Searching is vital and quick access and retrieval to documents for a specific purpose in every day activities is crucial to saving time, money and increasing productivity.
Is it easy to find those important documents? Does it have an advanced search option? Can you search by fields such as client name and/or file number, type of document, keywords, notes or description of document, title of document, format such as PDF, paper, or microfilm, by geographic location, or other fields of interest to your industry? Are you able to search both file content or properties, or by metadata? Find out how you can search for your business documents.
The filing system may or may not be customized. If you have a program, which offers a customized filing system, it is advisable that it can be tailored to suit your industry needs. Can you add extra codes for filing? Which system is being used for filing? Will you be able to categorize your documents according to your day to day business activities, such as invoicing, purchasing, specific types of reports, drawings, legal documents and more?
2. Tracking of revisions
Tracking is also important. With each document, revisions are made over time and must be tracked. You need to know which revision is the latest and which document will be the final copy. Is there a document trail of your revisions?
3. Check-in and check out
How much time does an employee spend searching for a document, which has been borrowed? Similar to your local library, there can be a loans component for this purpose. Who has what, where the document is located at the time of borrowing, when is it due back or when was it returned.
A software program can also remove access to other employees once a document has been checked out by an employee for purposes of editing the document. No one will have access to the document until it is checked back in. This will ensure that not more than one person can edit a document at the same time.
4. Security
It is important to have a security level set up for access to documents. Some documents can be viewed by all employees and other documents should not be available for viewing. Some documents can be set up for reading only while others may be set up for editing only. In some cases, some groups of documents may only be available to the department such as HR employees.
5. Reporting
Do you have the choice to select a reporting system? Can documents be sorted by date or by type of document report? Can you generate reports from your search?
Automation:
Additional functions are available to software programs for document management. These check points are valuable to your selection and should not to be considered as a comprehensive list.
Francine Renaud Records Management Consultant
http://www.timeouttoorganize.com/
Tel: 250-763-3988 Toll Free: 1-888-763-3988
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