MANAGING THE RECORDS SIDE OF BUSINESS

RECORDS PLAN

Clutter, especially with business records, can be disheartening and make even the most laid-back creative person come unglued. Organizing "things" is important enough to your craft business that I couldn't take the text down to less than four parts to share with you. We'll cover many types of records, several kinds of storage and how to store the various things in these segments. So come back and read each as it is published for hints and links on controlling records.

Think of all the things that must be considered records of your business: papers, books, financial records, photographs, and much more!

How quickly you can find an item is a very important phase of your business. Develop a storage plan for filing all items in a designated place. Review the Glossary of Records Management Terms before writing a records plan.

What should you keep and file? All pertinent items that are important to your business! Hints on what To Save Or Not To Save at the HandyGirl Professional Organizing site will give more insight into dealing with clutter.

TRANSACTION DOCUMENTS

The records used daily in your business - any business form, such as sales receipt, proof of sales record, invoices, purchase orders, checks, contracts, any record critical to the running of your business.

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS

The documents that you will refer back to in the future. Historical records help make decisions that are similar to those made in the past, such as quotations on a work order and how much wood to purchase for the year. Reference items can also mean the stack of catalogs used in purchasing and the bookkeeping reports created to show sales figures.

EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

The papers of communication between you and a customer or a supplier; a message written on a piece of paper about a phone call received; information critical to a sale that must be kept for future communication.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS

The records: of equipment and assets owned, the payroll records of employees, inventory control records, etc.

WHY WORRY ABOUT A RECORDS PLAN?

It's simple. If you have a plan to follow you'll always know where everything is. When you can't find an important "need it now" piece of paper, life can become frantic. Problems like some of the following can impact your business and its profit:

1. An unmanageable jumble of papers.
2. Wasted energy and time searching for a essential item.
3. Loss of important documentation, some of which might be legally important.

It isn't enough that you have the problems listed above, with poor records management you lose control. With control, you can keep only what is necessary to the business, know what can be stored for reference and throw away all unnecessary materials.

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