Will you trawl through all the paper and electronic files to find the information you need and sort it as you go? Or will you grab everything you can see that might be relevant and drop it into a box and take it to your accountant?

It may be a bit late to get your files organised for the last tax year.  But you can make it a lot easier for yourself for next year if you start to sort your tax information now.  And if you do have time to deal with last year’s files, then you can follow this advice now – it will just be a bigger job because you have a whole year’s worth of information to work with.

Firstly make a list of all the sorts of information you have and that you need for your end of year accounts.  This list will need to include invoices, receipts, bank statements, dividend and interest statements, information about all business income, GST returns, cashbook, assets sold and purchased, motor vehicle log books.  If you have an accountant, you will probably get a questionnaire that sets out all the information you need to provide.  You can use this to help organise your files so you don;t have a hassle next year.

It doesn’t matter how you store your business information – in electronic form if you run a paperless office or in some sort of paper filing system; you can organise your stuff in the same way.

A large ring binder or two is a good starting point for your paper filing.  Use a set of dividers to separate out the different bits of information. You can label these dividers for bank statements, credit card statements, PAYE, GST, invoices out, invoices in, investments, etc etc

For your electronic directory, you can use the same headings for your electronic files.

The important thing is to get your tax files organised so that tax time doesn’t seem such a burden.

Just think how nice it would be if this time next year you could just pick up some organised files, or download your electronic files to a USB stick and hand it to your accountant ready for him or her to do their magic to produce a set of accounts.

And more importantly, just think how much teem you will save by not having to spend so much time finding everything that has been put into a pile somewhere not to mention the smaller bill from your accountant because your tax information was so well organised.

So – its tax time again. Yea!

At the same time however the technology has matured to the point where it doesn’t matter where you work, you can still be in touch with your colleagues and have access to your office computer system.  Or you can set up your own business based in an office at your home.

Recently newspapers have picked up on this trend.  The latest article I’ve seen was in the Dominion Post on 28 April.

Working from home isn’t for everyone as noted in this article in the New Zealand Herald.

The Christchurch earthquake has no doubt contributed to the good advice from the New Zealand Government business web site here.

And further afield comes advice about work life balance when you are working from your home.

And there’s lots more in magazines, other newspapers and numerous web sites.

While many of these articles are about working at your office job from your home, the same advice applies to those considering setting up a home based business.

No matter what sort of work you’re doing from your home, you need to have good systems and processes for coping with the information you need to do that work.

Is your desk covered with papers you don’t need today?

Do you spend time each day sitting waiting for your computer to respond or for a document to print?

Are your emails building up in your in box?

If you answered Yes to any or all of these questions, try this tactic to use your time productively with a one minute action plan to clean up your office or desk.

You can use this tactic to move towards having a tidy desk or office even when you’re really really busy.

1. Next time you make a cup of coffee or tea, take it back to your desk and before you start work again, spend just 1 minute working on one part of your office that needs cleaning up.  It might be a pile of papers that has been building up, or you might delete some old emails.
2. If you are brewing coffee or have to wait till the water boils, do the same – spend just 1 minute working on one part of your office that needs cleaning up.
3. Remember to take just one minute to do one thing at a time.  If you don’t get finished in one minute, leave it till the next coffee break.
4. At that next coffee break, spend one minute finishing off the task you started in your previous “One minute at a time.”
5. Or start on a new area of your desk or office. If you’re sorting papers, make one pile of those that you need still (active files), and another pile of those papers that you no longer need or don’t need in the next day or two (inactive or dead – you can choose the label!).
   This might take several “one minutes” at different coffee breaks.  If you’re dealing with emails, select a date range and do a one minute job on that selection
6. When you have sorted papers into an inactive pile, take them away from your desk. Anywhere will do – just get them off your desk!!  Dealing with them properly will be another one minute job another time.

You are to spend only one minute at a time on each of these actions. Each one minute adds up to a lot of minutes over the course of a day or a week. And you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes to your day and your increased level of efficiency in your work.   Try it!!

It can be a bit daunting as you see the piles of paper building up and wonder where you’re going to store it all year after year.  I know one business where the records are kept in a cupboard (locked!) under the stairs in their building because the business owner doesn’t know what to do with them.  She figures when the cupboard gets full, she’ll biff the older stuff. Really? Hmmmm!!!

You will be aware that you need to keep your financial records for seven years.  Your accountant will have told you that – that’s governed by the law.  After that you can destroy them. Or you can keep them longer if you want to.

It’s the same with personal records if you employ staff; you need to keep records relating to your staff for six years after they leave.  That’s also a legal requirement.

The legislation gives you these guidelines for the minimum time for the core information in case of a future audit or a staff grievance. If you want to keep it for longer you can. For example you might want to be able to do an historical comparison of the financial position of your business after 10 or even 20 years.  Or look back on the sort of staffing roles you had 10 years ago compared to today.  It can be very illuminating to look back, and can help you with forward planning when you see how far you’ve come.

What the law doesn’t cover is all the other information that is necessary to run your business.  I’m thinking of your business plans, marketing plans, your contacts database, web site content, business cards and brochures and any other information you collect in the day-to-day running of your business.

You only need to keep this sort of information for as long as you need it for your business.  For example unless you have an historical bent and want to compare your current situation with what went before, you can destroy your business, marketing etc plans as soon as you have replaced them with a more up-to-date version.  You can go through your business card folder from time to time and remove those that are no longer relevant to your business.

The way I see it is that you really need to keep some core information, such as financial and staff files, business plans, for as long as you need to for good business reasons.

I’ve also seen what the desks of high achievers look like when they’re busy.  I’ve noted some of their habits and share them with you here.

1. Start the day by planning what you expect or hope to achieve by the end of the day. This can be a written list or just a mental note.
2. Check your emails before you start your first activity or task.  Deal with them as appropriate (see Good Habits around Email).  Check emails again at lunch time and again late afternoon if you need to.
3. Turn off email alerts do you don’t get distracted mid-task.
4. Gather the information you need for the first activity and get going.
5. As you complete a task, sort out the related papers and bin or file them. Save and close down related electronic files, emails and applications.
6. Mentally prepare yourself for the next piece of work.  Take a break – grab a coffee, fill your water bottle.  Go for a walk and get some fresh air – even 5 minutes round the block works wonders to clear your head.
7. Stop whatever you’re doing 5-10 minutes before you need to leave. Spend that time tidying your desk, closing down desktop applications, binning and filing papers. Taking this time will set you up really well for the next day.

By now you’ll be dissing this blog as fairy tale land. You’re thinking how  can you possibly focus on tasks when there are so many interruptions in the course of your day – how do you deal with phone calls, people stopping by to chat, not to mention meetings etc.

How can you stop work a few minutes before you leave when it will only take you another few minutes to finish off what you’re doing. (That’s a hard one that I really really relate to. I hate leaving a job before it’s finished.  But I have learnt to manage that over time).

Maybe you can leave a bit later, catch a later train or bus. Bit more tricky if you car pool or have to pick up a child from day care or similar.

So I suggest you use these ideas to work out how you can create a habit that works for you.

PS – My desk isn’t necessarily tidy at all times during the course of a day.  I do clear the papers and close documents, web pages etc when I complete a job.  And I do tidy my desk at the end of the day.  It makes such a difference in the morning to make a fresh start, even if I’m finishing off something from the day before.

This may be on the dining table when everyone else is in bed or you may be lucky enough to find a corner of a bedroom or living room where you can keep your office stuff (PC, telephone, paper files etc) in one place with minimum disruption for and from the family.  While not ideal, this can work while the business remains home-based.

If however you are looking to move house, suddenly you have the opportunity to decide what space is needed for the office of the home-based business in your new home.

As you consider the family requirements for a new home, make sure you include your requirements for your home office. To do this you will need to have a clear picture of yourself and how you like to work (self-knowledge).

You need to consider what your business needs to operate effectively.

• Is it purely administrative?
• Do you sell products that need to be stored?
• Are you involved in drawing up plans that need to be stored vertically so they don’t get damaged or creased?
• Do you hold confidential information about your clients, eg personal data, financial data etc?
• Do you work entirely with electronic documents or do you tend to use a lot of paper?
• Do you need to store paper records for some time after you have finished working with a client?
• How much storage space do you need for this sort of archival material?
• Can you scan it and store it electronically or do you need to keep it in paper form?

All these factors, and more, can help you to decide what sort of space you need for the office of your home-based business.

So many questions and so much to think about.

For a full check list of deciding factors, or to talk about your home-based business needs, contact us for a free consultation.

It used to be organised and filed once, but then you got busy.

Now you’ve forgotten how you used to organise your paper files and you’ve started storing some of it electronically. But you don’t want to throw the paper away in cased you can’t find the electronic version.

And so it goes on.

Help is at hand and you don’t need to be in a city to get that help.
First up let’s look at some hints and tips so you can start to tame those feral piles of papers.

1. Clear a desk or table or even some space on the floor
2. Get a large rubbish bag and put it beside your cleared space
3. Decide on a 15 minute block of time to work on the feral paper
4. Pick up one pile, no more than 20 cm high, and put it in the cleared space
5. Pick up each piece of paper and decide if you still need to keep it. If you don’t need it, put it in the rubbish bag. If you do need it, put it in one corner of your cleared space.
6. Repeat with the rest of this pile, sorting the papers into smaller piles with similar items, eg all bank statements in one pile, credit card statements in another, research articles in another etc, etc

Try not to get distracted by anything that looks particularly interesting.  Your 15 minutes will disappear in no time.  Put these interesting items in a separate pile and make a date with yourself to read them another time.

Next steps:

1. Find a permanent home for those items you are going to keep so you don’t simply create new piles of paper
2. Get a system in place to help you decide how long you need to keep certain items
3. Decide if you need to keep a paper copy or if an electronic version will be sufficient
4. Make a time to go through another pile tomorrow or in a few days.  Put the time in your diary.

If you need more help contact me. The Terrace Consulting file tamers can visit you in person, can Skype with you to talk and have a look at your paper and advise you, or we can simply talk to you on the phone and give you some ideas to tame your paper filing.

Terrace Consulting has taken me on an amazing journey.  I’ve met some wonderful people, some of whom I can now count as friends; I’ve had some exciting assignments; and most of all I feel I’ve made a positive difference to the way the organisations I’ve worked with have managed, accessed and stored their information.

It hasn’t always been an easy road for the people I’ve worked with as inevitably they have had to change the way they work.   The changes have come about largely by the changing way people who need information want to access it.  That has been heavily influenced by technologies.  No longer do people want to, or have time to, browse the library shelves or search the physical file stack.  Many people want information delivered to their desktop and want it NOW. “Google it” has become part of everyday language.

My biggest challenge has been to match the way the end users want to get information with the way the suppliers deliver it and to have a happy bunch of people at both ends of the process.  That  didn’t always happen.

A personal challenge has been to find a substitute for work colleagues to bounce ideas off and to keep up to date with current trends. That has been most interesting and very rewarding

So what is ahead in the next ten years for Terrace Consulting?

More of the same I have no doubt.  Also for some time now I’ve been aware that new businesses get little if any advice on how to keep good business records.

2012 will see the development of instructional advice on the Terrace web site, using a range of media, to small and medium business owners and managers on a range of record keeping and information management issues.  First off the block will be instructions on how to manage email – this seems to be the big issue for 2012.

Thank you everyone who have been part of this journey over the past 10 years. Without you I couldn’t have done it.  I hope you’ll continue to be on my journey from 2012.

The biggest thing to hit me so far this year is the problems people have with their in-box. It was right up there with losing weight and getting fit as  a NY resolution.

Before we had email it used to be the in-tray that caused people grief, especially on a Friday afternoon when the tray had got higher and higher during the week and there’d be no time to move into it.

It became a Friday afternoon job to sort the in-tray and move stuff on to other people, like the journals that were circulated around the office.  You’d have a quick flick through to see if there was anything interesting.  If there was, you’d send it on without crossing your name off the circulation list so it would come back to you another time when you hoped you’d have time to read it (that seldom happened!).  If there was nothing that took your eye – you’d cross your name off the list and send it on its way to someone else’s in-tray, where it would sit for another week or two in someone else’s in-tray.

It’s worth using the same sort of technique with your email inbox. Spend a few minutes every Friday afternoon going through your emails. You’ll be amazed how many you can delete in 5 or 10 minutes even. Then the rest will look more manageable – until next week at least!

Not everyone is able to create this sort of space for a home office. So you need to create a ‘virtual’ space if you are going to run a business effectively from home.  By ‘virtual’ space, I mean putting yourself and your mind into work mode.

Make sure you’re working in a clear space, not amongst household clutter.

Even if you can’t work in a separate room, its important that you have your own desk that is for work purposes only.  Your desk is not the place for everything that is moved off the dining table when the family sits down for dinner. Nor for the washing that needs folding, or the toys that don’t have a home.

If your work space is already cluttered, consider clearing it as one of the household chores and tidy your work space before you get into work mode. Tidy your work clutter away each night before you ‘leave’ work.

The most  important part though is to think in work mode.