What is the best way to finance my growing business?
What is the best software for me to use for my business?
How do I store all the information I so I can find it next time I need it?
These questions and many more are often asked by business owners.
My mother is 93 and living in a rest home. I’m not terribly happy with her situation and I’ve been reading Atul Gawande’s book “Being Mortal” looking for better options for people like her. I was surprised in the first few chapters to find some similarities with business information systems.
Business information, whether electronic and hard copy, holds valuable intelligence about your business activities.
Losing this valuable information, or being unable to access it quickly when needed, could result in loss of contracts and lower profits.
A structured electronic filing environment works better than having a ‘bucket’ of items that you search right through to find the item you want
What does this mean and what is the difference?
Being able to find information you need when you need it is fundamental to the way you manage your business.
It doesn’t matter what your business does – whether you’re making pies, children’s’ clothes, iron gates or if you provide
Recently I’ve noticed a number of accountants offer their services to do a one-off service to sort out the shoe boxes of paper records their clients bring to them. It seems that a lot of small business owners still put all their receipts and invoices into a box or maybe a folder or envelope and don’t bother to look at them again.
If you’ve been following my blog you will know that I am keen to help businesses and government organizations to manage their business documents so they can find the one document they need when they need it. Now! Not half an hour after a crucial business meeting starts, or
Sarah recently gave some advice to a couple of clients and asked me for my thoughts. She suggested that electronic filing is CRUCIALLY about “levels of access” – designing your folder structure around “security clearance levels” works best. So you start by working out what is “confidential inner-management ONLY” (e.g. Strategy & Planning), what is
On 23 May 2014 an historic homestead in Central Otago was burnt to the ground, apparently due to an electrical fault following a lightning strike. The homestead was at Paradise, beyond Queenstown, beyond Glenorchy, beyond the top of Lake Wakatipu, . It’s a fantastic place and lots of people go there to get away from it all. No mobile coverage, no tech toys. Just nature at its best amongst the mountains.
In New Zealand for small businesses (and not so small) it’s all about EOY – or end of financial year – at the moment and advice is pouring in from experts on how to deal with your particular EOY issues. For example:
Gaylene Hughes at JDI Business Coaching offers her tips for EOY accounting processes. Other accountants are also advising their clients on how to improve their EOY processes.
Phil Astley points out a number of cardinal errors made by small business owners either through the box of papers or even with an accounting system.
What is missing from these and other commentators is help with organising all this financial information so you can store it in a way that makes it quick and easy for you to locate everything you need when you’re preparing to take it all to your accountant.
That’s where we come in.
At Terrace Consulting we specialise in helping businesses to organise their office mess and to sort out their files, either paper or electronic – or both. We can save you money that you would normally pay your accountant because with our help your EOY documentation is in order before it gets to your accountant.
This means that our clients can get on with their money-making work to produce their profit, knowing that they will be able to find the information they need when they need it. No more wasted time searching for information that hasn’t been organised properly or has been saved in a hurry – somewhere!
Contact us today so you too can benefit from our 20-plus years experience working with businesses of varying types and sizes to organise their information. We can work with you in person, by email, phone or skype. Alternatively you can DIY with our step-by-step workbook “Keeping Good Records for Small Businesses”
Let us do what we do best so you can get on and do what you do best. You’ve got nothing to lose and lots of time to gain