The Software Shoppe Blog

 How to Run Your Business More Efficiently   By William Curling 

This year, make your life easier. While it may sound simple, sometimes the easiest things are the toughest to accomplish. With old habits in place – like organizing your inventory on spreadsheets, balancing your checkbook by hand and mailing your statements one by one – you might think it’s not worth the effort or the time to make a change. But, believe me, if it ain’t broken, fix it.  By taking these few simple steps, your business will run more smoothly and more efficiently, and you won’t be running behind the eight ball. 

1. Check off your check list. Many people put off paying fixed costs, such as insurance premiums for service trucks and worker’s compensation, until the last minute. Delays can cause scrambling to meet deadlines, or in the worst case, forgetting to pay a bill. To avoid getting a nasty-gram because of a missed payment, you can set up a bill-paying system that allows you to pay all recurring bills at the same time.  This way, you stay organized and save time – as well as save the headache of potentially having your telephone disconnected when you’re trying to work out logistics for an industrial fire door installation.

2. Stamp out tedious mailings. How many times have you been late sending out statements because no one has had time to print, collate, stuff, stamp, seal and mail them? What if you could simply click the printer button and your individualized statements would automatically be e-mailed out to your customers? Distribution software, such as PDF-eXPLODE

 (www.thesoftwareshoppe.com\public_html\pdfxplode_software.htm), turns your reports and documents into secure PDFs and then automatically e-mails them to the designated recipients with one click, saving you time and money – as well as helping to increase your cash flow.   

3. Know what you’re in for. Forecasting can help you gain business efficiencies, since it ensures you are not loading up your warehouse or running out of stock. By reviewing your historical values and what you’ve been doing for years, you will know when you need to pre-order. So if, for example, you know that during a certain time of year you do more service calls, you can take advantage of timely discounted pricing from your vendors without having to worry about overextending inventory.  

4. Straight to the bank. Bank reconciliation can be a tedious task if it’s done by hand. Companies that continue to use spreadsheets – or 3 by 5 cards – can save themselves a lot of time and gain back-office efficiencies by automating bank reconciliation through an accounting software program.
5. All programs have a bank reconciliation feature that lists out all checks and deposits in one location, which can be checked off and reconciled in a matter of minutes.

By rethinking your processes and taking a handful of simple steps to streamline them, you can start the year off on the right foot.  That way, when you need to fulfill all your recurring, and often tedious, tasks, you won’t be dreading them – you’ll have the time to marvel at how easy you made them to accomplish.   # # # 

William Curling is president of The Software Shoppe, a business software consultancy.  He can be reached at bcurling@thesoftwareshoppe.com or (877) 642-9545.