Understanding and documenting your network is the first step in saving yourself money and time when problems arise or when considering bringing in an outside consultant. Many people don’t understand why they should document their network environment, the simple answer is that you run reports on your business to help you make informed decisions, this [...]

Our host John gives advice to use before hiring a consultant.

Before hiring a consultant or making internal decisions concerning technology, it’s important to understand and document your network environment. Doing so will help eliminate frustration and save money. So, when beginning this evaluation, there are some things to take into consideration: control, location, equipment, and software. Working with networks is all about control. It’s important [...]

Simplifying and streamlining processes and procedures isn’t as hard as one might think. When thinking of procedures it is imperative to apply Occam’s Razor Theory. In short, that means if you can get the same outcome with fewer steps, do it. Finding shortcuts is not a bad thing, cutting corners, on the other hand, is [...]

After simplifying a procedure the next step on the list is to streamline the process, also known as therblig. Therblig isn’t about changing the process or making the steps shorter. It’s about completing the steps in the process faster. This is used heavily in manufacturing where people have to interact with the process. We can [...]

  Technology can have a huge impact on productivity in the office, whether it’s dual monitors, faster scanners, label printers or faster computers. Equipping staff with better tools can make a world of difference for productivity. Some may be thinking, “Why do I need two monitors?” the answer; two monitors doubles viewing space. Have emails [...]

LinkedIn, the social network for business people and can be more beneficial than Facebook and Twitter for a business owner. LinkedIn is a social network with profiles, groups, events, and discussion boards designed for professionals to network together. A LinkedIn profile can be broken down into five main sections: a synopsis, a summary of what [...]

While technology affords us new learning opportunities like webinars, webcasts, and video conferencing, the art of personal interaction and the benefits of sharing in common groups are being lost. Nothing can replace the feeling of sharing goals, ideas, and solutions with those who understand our problems, frustration, and needs.While we need the large conferences and [...]

Sometimes our desks can get a bit out of control and then sometimes our desks can begin to take over our workplace. David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done, talks about keeping your desk in order. This is where I find our inspiration for this post. Our desk can slowly creep their way towards [...]

Excess clutter on a staff members desk or clean their desk is can make the difference between productivity and stagnation. A clean desk promotes productivity and helps the bottom line. Lets clean it up today. We all know we might not have the cleanest desk in America, and that makes us less efficient than we [...]

One way to empower productivity is internal instant messaging. There are a lot of benefits to internal instant messaging, like improving communication, and archiving historical data. Internal messaging prevents outside access to your network. This improvement in communication comes from the ability to talk to other people in different areas of the office. This also [...]

Knowing which type of training pairs well with each learning method is great but what if you or your staff member doesn’t know which learning method works best for them. Understanding how your staff members learn and pairing instruction with the method can dramatically change the way your office operates. It can also limit frustrations [...]

Training can be arduous and frustrating, especially after training is completed and you continue to see procedures being performed incorrectly or ignored. You should consider who is performing the training; you, staff member, or hired consultant. There are many advantages and disadvantages to every trainer but you should make your decision on a hierarchy. Make [...]

Why change the way I track tax work through the office? Isn’t the manual system better? If it ain’t broken don’t fix it! I have heard these and many other sayings over the years and it never surprises me, because Accountants, like many of us, don’t like change. If you are using a manual system [...]

Many owners have considered removing such luxuries as the “coffee break” to help curb lost productivity. There is a guilty culprit to lost productivity, and it’s not the coffee break. The following will describe a workplace environment we know all too well. In a firm that has multiple staff members, delegation and management for the [...]

There are many ways to communicate to those in our department, office, our clients, and vendors but it has become increasingly difficult to manage the most effective ways to communicate. Here are some of the most common problems and best practices to have more efficient communication. Let’s take a look at the many elements to [...]

What the Right Practice Management Suite Can Do for You? Practice Management Suites come in many flavors but how do you find the right one for you? My Office Today interviewed Toni Springer, owner of Toni B. Springer, CPA, with an office of six employees. Toni looks to Office Tools Professional to help her run [...]

Many believe that workflow and document management should be separated like oil and water, only hoping that one day they can coexist cohesively. Here are some details to consider when combining a workflow and document management system. Document management has many known benefits when trying to reduce overhead, but is going paperless enough in an [...]