Improving administrative operations within your Green Industry business might not be the most thrilling part of managing your company, but investing in this area can yield substantial benefits. Neglecting office and administrative functions can lead to bottlenecks that hinder growth and profitability. Your field operation deserves support, so directing attention to your managerial and administrative team will provide them with the necessary support. Below are some tips that our team and Cycle CPA have developed to ensure the efficient functioning of your administrative team:
Use the Recurring Invoice feature in QuickBooks Online for customers who receive the same invoice every month to save time, instead of recreating it each month.
Don’t bother putting Bills into Accounts Payable that will be paid immediately or with a credit card. Also, utilize Bill.com if your accounts payable volume is increasing.
Develop checklists and processes for your accounting and administrative functions within your company. An example of this would be timing payments to vendors for cash flow management, or effective accounts receivable processes to ensure sufficient cash inflows.
If creating invoices in QuickBooks Online, avoid doubling efforts by reentering invoice data in other systems.
Automate by keeping customers’ credit cards on file to reduce the amount of follow-up on accounts receivable. The credit card fee will almost always outweigh the time spent trying to collect payments from customers.
If you work with an external accountant, create read-only/view-only login credentials for bank and/or credit card account access. This is not only great for security purposes but will also limit back-and-forth communication during the month-end close process.
Make sure that your overhead staff have separation of duties and clear responsibilities. This will reduce confusion, redundancy, and help prevent embezzlement.
Use platforms like Groundwork to save administrative time during the sales process.
Ensure that the overhead staff are capable of performing the tasks that they are assigned. Matching employees’ skillsets with their roles will reduce the time spent by management in having to redo or fix too many administrative mistakes.
Keep an open line of communication between yourself as the leader in your company and the administrative team. They are in it day-to-day, so have them be a part of process improvements and decisions relating to their role.
Invest in a platform like Monday.com or Trello to track administrative operations.
Ensure overhead staff are properly trained in their duties and responsibilities. They should understand how their role affects the rest of the operation.
Use a payroll platform like GUSTO. GUSTO not only helps with payroll processing and payroll compliance, but there are also human resource capabilities built into the platform as well. For example, within GUSTO, you can onboard new employees, ensuring they complete all required forms required on the Federal and State level. You can also track progress with many of these tasks within the program.
Ensure there are clear expectations in place to reduce owner involvement and oversight. This starts with a clear job description and ongoing steps to hold your team accountable.
Invest in outside training/consulting if your current administrative processes aren’t streamlined. SimpleGrowth helps to streamline and automate business operations, and is a great example of a resource that could increase efficiency in your company.
Build incentives and targets into administrative functions. Examples could be having a bonus align with specific accounts receivable collection targets or tracking and incentivizing staff based on how many inbound calls are picked up and handled well.
Reduce the number of payment processing systems to streamline the process, and try to utilize more aspects of your field management software. For example, if you are an Aspire Software user, we recommend Two Twelve Advisors LLC to help you use the software to its highest capability!
Use platforms like Divvy (now Bill Spend & Expense) or Ramp to allocate transactions to specific classes (service lines) within QuickBooks Online.
Sometimes having external/outsourced companies assist with certain technical administrative tasks can be cost-effective and deliver a higher return on investment. Examples of this could be a marketing agency, accounting firm, call center, human resources, legal support, etc.
Successful companies that experience sustained growth over an extended period usually share one common aspect: they prioritize the administrative side of their business. Sometimes, the tasks within your business that are not the most exciting to work on yield the highest return on investment. Consider implementing at least a few of these points and take action!