Business review

We all feel at some point or another that we are literally drowning in paperwork. The post never stops coming through the letterbox and emails and admin seems never-ending.

It is a recognised good practice to set aside a period of time each week to go through all this paperwork and admin, but how many of us find the time to actually do this - every week? I'm an 'efficiency whiz' - or so they say :) - and I find it hard!

However, even if you do make the time, if you don't have the systems in place to deal with it all, then you are off to a losing start.

So here are some tips for ensuring that you have an efficient system in place for dealing with paperwork, emails and associated admin:

> First of all if you do have a lot of customer files and paperwork coming on to your desk every day then you really do need to get a filing cabinet.You will want to devote one part of the cabinet to your business processes - that is the running of your business - and another section to your business revenue - that is the activity of your business or your customers, products etc.

> You now have a choice of filing options including numerical, chronological, categorical and alphabetical. With your business processes you would probably want to break these down into functions alphabetically and then look at your customer or product or services files. if you do choose a chronological filing option for say your invoices and receipts then break this down in to sub-folders, one for each month of your financial year.

> Sub-folders are the key to successful and efficient filing. You can never have enough sub-folders! For example, you have an invoices received/paid folder. Within in one sub-folder path may be:

>> Invoices

>> May 2007

>> Stationery

>> Staples

By sub-categorising your invoices when it comes to doing your books or locating an invoice query - you can go straight to it by following the relevant path.

>Now you have your filing cabinet set up, you can start putting the paperwork in it! But unless you are actually setting up a new business right at this moment, then I am assuming you will already have some kind of filing system in place. It may just need a tidy up or you may need to implement the above tips. Wherever you are, if you don't have some kind of physical repository for your paperwork then as your business grows you will be facing a losing battle.

> So you are ready to go and it is time to start filing. As paperwork comes on to your desk you need to deal with it as soon as you can to avoid build up. With your new highly sub-categorised filing system you can achieve this with a few moments of time for each piece of paperwork.

> Here is an example: You get an email from a customer that is a completed agreement, contract or purchase order. You print it off and then file it immediately. You go to your filing cabinet, find your customer section, locate the relevant customer file in its alphabetical order, find the sub-folder labelled agreements/contracts/orders.

Here is the key to this system actually working well. Get yourself an action book. Buy a bright red book - a page-per-day diary is quite handy for this. Every time something comes in, make a note of what it is in your action book and what action you need to take to process it - then file it!! If you need to refer to it again you know where to look. :)

OK! That's the principles of an efficient filing system and keeping your desk and brain free and clear of paperwork. But if you don't put it in to practice then things won't get better. So decide right now on one thing from the tips above that you could implement this week that would make a difference to your business and stress levels!

Better yet - take a day out and put the entire system into place or update your existing system. I know... a red book sounds like a step backwards in today's ever stepping forward technology advances, but by keeping things simple you are less likely to make mistakes or overlook things that need to be done. Just get into the habit of writing everything down in your action book and checking it daily to see what you have to do and you should notice an increase in your efficiency straight away, as well as a dramatic decrease in the amount of paperwork lying around your office!

Here are some final tips on managing your new super-efficient filing system:

> Base filing on retrieval, not storage. Instead of asking yourself, "Where should I file this?" ask yourself, "Where would I look for this if I need it?" Then label the file accordingly.

> Consistently insert new papers into the front of the file folder. When purging files, start from the back where the oldest documents are.

> Purge files annually. You will be able to find needed items quicker and will save on storage space.

> Use colour coding for easy, quick identification. Office supply stores have all kinds of files and labels to do this.

Lastly, these tips are for a paper-based filing system, but the same principles apply to your electronic filing system and are even easier to implement.

Just Too Busy was founded and is run by Alexandra Greer, who has just been voted one of the top 2 VAs in the UK at the National Virtual Assistant Awards 2007.

Alex has an extensive skill set, gained through running her own newspaper business for the last five years, previous marketing and communications roles and now with running Just Too Busy: www.justtoobusy.co.uk

Alex earned her Media & Communications degree in 1996 and supplemented her time at college and university by taking on a variety of secretarial, administration and personal assistant temporary contracts. This formed the basis of her application knowledge, such as the Microsoft Office suite and other administration and office skills.

An accomplished PC and Mac user, Alex's IT interest goes beyond just using the applications, into providing software training as well as basic PC, peripheral and network support.

Alex is also an organisational whizz, with expert prioritisation, efficient practices & processes and time management skills. This experience was gained in the most part by running her own local newspaper and having to juggle adverts, stories, news and contributors on a daily basis.

"My skill set has been developed over the years and is constantly being added to, owing to my fundamental interest in learning new things and also from the point of view of being able to offer my clients a comprehensive service."

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Fighting a Losing Battle With Paperwork? Five Top Tips to Fight Back!