Timex Stopwatches

Choosing Small Business Software

12oclock — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:35:42 +0000

You might have the best and the most detailed business plan but unless you have the right small business software, your business will lack profitability as well as productivity.

Take accounting for example. Try and maintain all your accounts and records by hand and you will know how tedious the job can be. I am not saying that it cannot be done. It’s just that it takes too much time and requires meticulous precision.

Contrary to what most people believe, accounting software is not at all difficult to use. It is inexpensive too. So why shouldn’t your small business have accounting software?

I have heard all kind of answers to this question. Some say that it is too confusing to choose small business software. Others say they do not want to invest in training the staff to use the software.

Choose the very basic

The kind of software that you choose also depends on the size of your business. Most small businesses do not have very significant book keeping needs. Hence very basic small business software is ideal for them.

If you are outsourcing a major chunk of your accounting work, then you might have to choose a slightly advanced book keeping software. Learning to use the software properly is extremely necessary.

But nowadays, most software vendors take this into account and create extremely user friendly software. Even an amateur computer user can start using the software with as less as a few clicks.

If you have had trouble maintaining balance sheets, then consider it to be over. For small business accounting software will create sheets that will balance and highlight the errors.

Uses Galore

You can use the small business accounting software for much more than tracking the expenses and creating annual receipts. Even the most basic accounting software can generate payrolls, manage your taxes, print out various important forms and keep a track of the bills.

Typical Lunch Breaks Around the World

12oclock — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 14:00:19 +0000

Next to breakfast, lunch is another important meal which you shouldn’t skip. Unfortunately, making lunch a priority is not the case in many offices today. Experts say that 45 percent of US workers are taking fewer and shorter lunch breaks than last year. In fact, most are lucky if they get a lunch break at all. Many workers make it a daily practice to eat at their desks and use down time to address e-mails, inter-office meetings, and other tasks that would interrupt the flow of the normal course of the work day.

Lunch breaks differ in various parts of the world. Under the UK Working Time Directive, an employer has to give a break of at least 20 minutes if the working day is longer than six hours. Under these minimum standards, if your lunch break is beyond 20 minutes, it counts as your full entitlement to a break for that day.

In New Zealand, the Breaks and Infant Feeding provisions are found in the Employment Relations (Rest Breaks, Infant Feeding and Other Matters) Amendment Act. It requires employers to provide employees with paid rest breaks and unpaid meal breaks.

Employees are entitled to one paid 10-minute rest break if their work period is between two and four hours; one paid 10-minute rest break and one unpaid 30-minute meal break if their work period is between four and six hours; two paid 10-minute rest breaks and one unpaid 30-minute meal break if their work period is between six and eight hours.

California law states that employees must get a 30-minute meal break if they work more than five hours. At this time, the employee should be relieved of all duties since it can’t be a working lunch. If an employer fails to give a proper meal break, the employee can get one hour of pay at the regular rate of pay for each day he or she is not provided a proper meal break.

Value of Testimonials

12oclock — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:25:13 +0000

Testimonials are very valuable for a business. The number of testimonials one gets as well as the quality of them can go a long way towards gaining new customers or clients. Businesses need a constant entry of new clients so having testimonials is very important if one wished to increase the amount of business they do.

Many people like to part of a crowd. They do not want to standout too much from the others. This may be due to some fear of looking foolish or making a bad decision. So many are afraid to stick their necks out too far. When a person is looking for a service person to hire they will often start with an internet search. For example “Columbus Ohio roofing”. When they put this search term in to a search engine they will see all the results. From these results they will begin checking out at least a few of the websites.

It is at this point of the search for a service or product that testimonials become valuable. When a person is reviewing two wed sites, one with testimonials and the other does not have any they will tend to trust the quality of the product or service when there are testimonials on the site stating that the product or service was good. This helps provide “evidence” that choosing that one will be a good decision.

Placing trust in the opinion of others is often called social verification. The quality of something and the decision to buy is verified as being a good decision with testimonials as the evidence. This is used frequently in television advertising when crowds of people are seen at a restaurant or event. Seldom will a television commercial show a single kid playing alone with a new toy. The child is surrounded by other kids all wanting a chance to play with the new play thing.

One of the first things a new business should do is begin a process by which the business can collect testimonials about their business. Many think the process is a long process, however it can be very easy to start and to consistently implement. It can be as simple as passing out a survey to clients and asking for feedback. It can also be set up as to be completed online. However a business decides to collect testimonials ti is important that they start doing so. It is a great way to make a business stand out from the others.

Timesheet Software

12oclock — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:15:11 +0000

In business, it is important that business owners put in place the necessary systems that can help make the company’s operations more efficient. This is especially important for the operations that deal with cash flow, including the way the company collects payment from its customers, the way the payroll is handled, and how purchases are made. With systems that improve the way these aspects are managed, the profitability of a business can be raised. The good news is that business owners can easily gain access to the tools they need for them to be able to install the necessary systems that the company needs. One of these includes timesheet software, which can help companies handle the different aspects of their cash flow in a more efficient manner.

Traditionally, companies use paper timesheets, which they have to fill in manually. Unfortunately, doing so makes the system vulnerable to inefficiencies like late submissions and inaccurate entries, which can lead to a number of negative effects that include delays in collections, payments and inaccuracies in the payroll. To avoid such problems, one of the best options that business owners can take is to use timesheet software. Doing so can provide them with a number of advantages and benefits. One of these is using the kind of software that allows the employees to enter data into timesheets as they work on various projects, which eliminates the need for employees to spend a lot of time manually transcribing the work they had just done. In addition to this, companies would also be able to accurately charge their customers given that the billable hours that employees put in are recorded in the timesheets. Moreover, business owners would also have an easier time in monitoring the operations of the business, given that the information that they need to do so is just a click away.

For businesses to succeed, it is important for business owners to put in place systems that can help improve the efficiency of the company’s operations. The good news is that there are a number of tools that business owners can use to help them do so, one of which includes timesheet software. Timesheet software can provide companies with an efficient and practical way to improve the management of the company’s cash flow, which is essential to success.

Stop Time Leakage And Save A Fortune

12oclock — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:05:34 +0000

Let’s say you have 100 workers – employees or subcontractors being paid an average of EUR25 per hour. And let’s say each one works 48 weeks per year and that each one of them loses a very conservative one hour per week based on a forty hour week.

That would be a loss of EUR120,000 per year, not to mention the opportunity cost of 4,800 billable hours that you could have billed elsewhere. If you then add to this the time taken by the foreman and administrator managing timesheets, it’s hard not to agree that – for every 100 workers – you could be losing more than EUR150,000 through time leakage!. This equates to >2.5% of the annual labour cost. In an industry where there is often a 50/50 split between labour/materials and where net margins average 5%, 2.5% saving on labour would add 1.25% to your nett margin.

I’m not going to tell you that you can save that much or more – only you know how the figures add up for you, but I wonder what happens when you imagine yourself saving a small fortune?

TIME LEAKAGE – MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN

Let’s take a quick look at what time leakage is and how it happens. Time leakage is jargon for ‘time lost’, and there are many factors that contribute to it, including:

o Manually filling out time sheets

o Faulty short-term memory – when filling out a timesheet at the end of the week. People’s memories seem to err on the side of additional time

o Foreman review and sign off of timesheets

o Transport of timesheets to head office from remote sites

o Administrators -

- entering time into payroll systems

- reviewing timesheets

- calling individuals and foreman to validate before finally signing off

o Reconciling timesheets with trips to the dentist, sick time, holidays and other absences

o Time recorded on site but not actually spent on the site

I wonder if you are a main contractor with many sub-contractors on a site and whether some of the causes of time leakage may currently be beyond your control. Or, if you’re a sub-contractor, how some of these problems may be beyond your control as it may be that you don’t always have your own foreman on site or you can’t spend time on the site yourself as you have too many sites.

In either case, considerable amounts of money leak away with lost labour time.

In an environment where people and sites are transient, it’s fair to ask:

o Can this problem be solved?

o How can I solve this problem?

o How do I stop the leakage and save money?

When you think about it, it becomes clear that a solution would have to include the following capabilities -

o Accurately track people entering and leaving sites

o Cater for sites of all sizes

o Communicate with head office automatically

o Track clock-ins – in real time

o Integrate data to payroll systems

o Be reliable, robust and scalable

Surely, the technology exists… so why is providing this solution still such a challenge in the construction industry? Primarily for this reason: One size does not fit all.

At least, not until now.

Consider this: A business may be characterised by small numbers of people (1 to 5) going to many customer sites or by large numbers of people working on small number of sites. A business may have small sites or large sites. You may be a subcontractor or a main contractor that simply wants to control labour costs, or you could be a project management company tasked with controlling labour costs. You get the picture.

And you may already be aware that, thanks to advances in technology, all these disparate requirements can now be solved with a single solution.

YOU CAN CONTROL LABOUR COSTS ON CONSTRUCTION NOW

Experience shows that the key to how you can accomplish this is the front-end flexibility that allows multiple and differing requirements to be integrated to a single back-end application. And what if it also provided both main contractors and sub-contractors a single solution while still allowing you to be in control of your own labour data?

I’m not going to say that when you have the ability to gather (in multiple ways) accurate data in the field that integrates the information with the head office, you have the problem solved, because you’ll know that when you experience the savings for yourself.

o Large and small sites scan in using biometric devices that return data to the application in real time over the Internet or over the mobile network. No phone lines or broadband required. Such hardware can be easily moved from site to site.

o Individuals travelling to multiple sites can clock-in using IVR (Interactive voice response) or using their mobile device.

Because each method communicates with a central system at head office (ideally a web-based solution that is visible securely anywhere you have internet access), which means that head office gets a complete, real-time, integrated solution that gives you control to end labour leakage, you can start saving a small fortune.

As technology advances you will see the construction industry change, and while some companies will wait until forced to change to stay in the game, others will take advantage of the opportunity to evolve, to get the competitive edge now and put an end to ‘wasted time’.

Because this solution has only recently become possible – with the convergence of improvements in biometric technologies, mobile networks, voice over the internet, functional mobile devices, and the desire to cut costs – you may want to speak with people like you who are already enjoying the savings before you decide to arrange for an audit and discover how much you can save.

I wouldn’t advise you to get in touch and arrange for a ‘time leakage’ cost savings audit until you are ready to start saving a fortune!

The Logic Behind Enforcing the Consultant Timesheet

12oclock — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:00:17 +0000

In the world of business, there always comes a time when a company would choose to hire a consultant to check on the very operations and everything else that is keeping that particular company afloat. This means that the company hires someone outside of the company to go through their operations, as well as their policies and regulation, just to get an outside and more objective view on how things are going in the organization itself. But when it comes to multibillion-dollar corporations where there are just so many employees in the payroll all over the world, managing all the consultants in tow from one branch to another would virtually be impossible. Consultant time tracking then becomes a must, and this is futile without the use of the consultant timesheet.

In its most basic form, tracking actually refers to the activity of ensuring tasks and jobs are completed over the desired timeframe. More importantly, these jobs and tasks are archived accordingly for future perusal. Tracking is then a very efficient tool that can actually make the work of any employee easier because no longer would employees have to physically dispatch tasks, do inventory checks, and conduct employee performance analysis. The timesheet is a very handy tool when it comes to keeping track of your employees and all the activities they take upon each workday.

In a regular 9-5 job, your employees would not really be productive all throughout. There would be 15-minute breaks and 1-hour lunch breaks. And then, there would be those times when your employees would spend idling, just whiling away. With the enforcement of a timesheet, all these unproductive minutes going to waste just might be minimized.

However, the same thing is not really as easy to implement when it comes to consultants. Simply put, these consultants are not really like your average employee on your payroll. They actually come from third-party services or companies that you hire for whatever purpose that you deem. In the setting of a caf9, for instance, a consultant might be hired to do weekly spot-checks on the overall performance of the caf9 – its operations, its food and beverages, as well as its employees. The consultant might be invited to drop by the caf9 at a stipulated time, say, around 9:00 Monday evenings so that he or she can see how the caf9 works at the given time. Good for you if the consultant is indeed prompt when it comes to the entailed duties and responsibilities.

The problem lies when the consultant himself becomes quite the delinquent, and this happens more often than you think. Naturally, you would expect the consultant to be the professional that he is supposed to be, right? How then would you deal with such delinquency? The consultant timesheet then becomes the handy tool here; after all, even if the he has flexible hours and he only reports once a week for just a few hours, he is still under your employ, so to speak. Thus, you are entitled to come up with ways and means to get your money’s worth. This timesheet is indeed one of the tools you can use to do just that.

Employee Time Clock Software

12oclock — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:35:54 +0000

Employee time clock software is a part of the time clock software and provides the ultimate way to control the efficiency of employee hours worked.

This software helps to do away with the conventional paper time cards. These time clocks automatically calculate employee hours, overtime and off-time pay, in an easy-to-use system to manage hourly labor.

With the use of automated time clock software, employees can improve efficiency and eliminate or minimize errors associated with manual calculation. Also, an employee is assured that all the hours they put in will be efficiently tracked and consistently calculated for processing payroll.

Also, employees who work on an hourly basis would just need to type a few keystrokes instead of punching the old style mechanical time clock to start off their work day.

Ultimately managers can measure efficiency in each division more competently.

Time clock software keeps accurate time entry records and allows each employee to easily punch in and out. It can easily and efficiently track employee time spent on different projects. The automated software program completely manages the time data and employee profiles. Moreover, it makes employee scheduling easy and saves a lot of manual time tracking effort. Time clock software is also the perfect option to existing work schedules where flex time and multiple shifts are very common.

Some of these software programs are so advanced that they can detect and document repeated chronic or habitual absenteeism (Fridays and Mondays, for example) and also list absenteeism by category for each employee.

It is a complete and comprehensive software solution for managing employee time, attendance, vacations, sick time and holidays. The employee time clock software ensures the collection, management, and distribution of employee hours in real time.

Increase Productivity by Up to 35% When Choosing the Correct Time Tracking Software Over Timesheets

12oclock — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:15:37 +0000

You may be surprised to learn that there are alternatives to the timesheet process. It doesn’t matter if you use pen and paper or the latest web online timesheet interface, the fact remains you’r e still expecting your staff to manually collect time during your business hours. The problem with manual timesheets (electronic or otherwise), are numerous and can be outlined as such:

1. Error prone. Staff are expected to write the time they started a job, and the time they complete a job. They must also say what they’ve been doing and for whom. Collecting all this information will lead to rounding and typo errors.

2. Timesheets are also time consuming. If your staff take 10 minutes at the end of each day to complete their timesheets, then they are using the equivalent of 1 full week of paid salary in a year to this mundane and repetitive job.

3. Timesheet software is also prone to forgetfulness. If the telephone rings at 11:03:22 and you speak for just 30 seconds to a client, are you really going to go to the effort of filling out a timesheet – or relying on your memory at 5:30 in the afternoon when you’re in a hurry to get home?

4. Timesheet and time attendance software also influences the morale and focus of staff. Common sense leads the way in this because we all know that multi-tasking is a less efficient way to complete a set of tasks.

5. Finally timesheets are generally disliked by staff, most especially because of their intrusive nature.

So what are the alternatives?

As early as 2001, early time tracking software started to appear on the market. The idea was simple – and came down to harnessing the power of the computer to act as an automated data logger, collecting time as the software was used.

We are now in 2008 and the time tracking solution has come along way. Now this type of software, for the first time allows for pre-emptive time tracking, meaning the user is pro-actively involved in the time collection process, and can choose the task they are about to work on before they start work. This has been shown to improve the time collection process from anywhere between 5-35%, increasing staff productivity, staff morale and best of all allowing those businesses that move away from the timesheet solution into the more modern time tracking, to generate a significant more income.

Web Based CRM Software, Critical to the Success of a Small Businesses

12oclock — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:00:33 +0000

Web Based CRM software is critical to the success of a small business. No business could survive for long without being able to stay on top of their leads and customers.

However, more and more smart businesses are realizing that they need a solution that is integrated across their business.

In order to deal efficiently with a customer the web based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software needs integrate with billing, project management, timesheets, documents and products and sales.

Billing

An advance web based CRM software should be able to generate an invoice instantly for your client. The invoice can then be tracked in customer history as to whether it’s been paid or not. You should also give your customers the options of different payment methods through online gateways including PayPal, authorize.net, and Google checkout among others.

It should be a relatively simple procedure to automate billing with recurring invoices for products or services.

By integrating timesheet management software with the web CRM software, billable hours can immediately be used to generate an invoice for services in an second without having to collect the data from various members of your team.

Project Management

When working on a project for a client it is a huge advantage to be able to import a standard project template so you can hit the ground running with a new client. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel with each new project. Gantt style project management software can easily forecast project completion dates and make sure the entire team is on task. It will also alert you to any potential problems or blocks, so they can be dealt with ahead of time.

Web Based Document Management

Stop sending large files to your clients via email. With web based CRM software you can create permission based folders on a secure server that allow your clients to access on demand the files they need. You can save time by creating templates of folders with all the common files you want your customers to have.

Track All Open Support Cases

It is obvious that your web based CRM software should integrate with your online help desk. Make sure that you are tracking all support inquiries, and that they are forwarded for follow up. You can also create comprehensive knowledgebase answers to many common questions as well as automate email answers where appropriate. With full integration each customer can have his own support area and those support requests can be attached instantly to active projects.

Clearly managing a small business requires a lot of functionalities that can be obtained by purchasing individual solutions. However, there is a clear disadvantage if an integrated solution is not chosen to start with.

First the cost of each separate software program, and additional seat licenses can rapidly become expensive.

Secondly, there are a lot of time consuming technical issues with integrating various software systems together. In some cases, they simply can’t be integrated, which will lead to slow and error prone double entry.

Finally, a fully integrated Web based CRM software can provide a higher ROI by having a single easy to use, and intuitive interface. Your employees can learn the web CRM software once, with the help of detailed videos, and immediate take advantage of the full software capabilities.

Automated Time and Attendance Systems Can Save You Money and Improve Productivity

12oclock — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:35:26 +0000

You have a great many things to worry about when it comes to running your business. In this day and age one of the things you should not be worrying about is how your time and attendance records are kept. There are many excellent tools on the market to take the stress and pain out of tracking your hourly employees’ time. Good time and attendance systems will also simplify the jobs of your payroll staff. This means time saved and consequently money saved. What could be better than that?

So do you need to step up your effort when it comes to how employees account for their time? Probably You should at least take a look at how you are currently handling time and attendance tracking to be sure that you are making it as easy as possible for your employees to check in and as efficient as possible for you staff to manage payroll. That means investigating the time and attendance systems that are currently on the market.

The most convenient systems work on the Microsoft Windows platform. These are simple to install and you can have them up and running in no time. The interface is easy to use and logical and you will find your payroll staff quickly picking up everything they need to know to put your time and attendance system running like a clock. Best of all, there is no costly new equipment to purchase and maintain.

From the employee’s point of view, an electronic clock in procedure will actually make their jobs easier since they no longer have to manually keep track of hours. While those who will be required to check in may be skeptical at the beginning, they will quickly see that your electronic time and attendance system frees them from worrying about hours and minutes. Of course, they’ll need to remember to clock in and out but overall once they get used to the system they may even find it a bit liberating.

While time and attendance tracking systems make the jobs of both your payroll group and your employees easier there are other benefits as well. Less time spent tracking down timesheets, verifying accuracy, and transferring data from timesheet or time cards in order to process payroll can be a real money saver. Having accurate and up to date information from which to run the reports you need to monitor time spent or supply documentation to taxing agencies can not only save money but reduce stress and take the uncertainty out of important decision making processes.

There are a variety of time and attendance systems available. Among the most convenient are those which use key fobs or bar code technology. Employees are provided with a key card or key chain fob which can be scanned when they check in and out. The information is stored in a database which is accessible to management and others with the need to know. Your information is always up to date and accurate.

The business world today is complicated enough. Why not do away with some of the complexity by automating your time and attendance process. Your job will be easier, your employees more productive, and your company more profitable.