Creating office policies for your small business can be difficult, as most of us are well aware. How do you handle sick time, vacation time, personal time, or a death in the family? Better yet, how do your clients and/or customers handle it when it happens to you?
I was reading a very interesting article yesterday about “Can You Require Sick Employees to Stay Home“? My first reaction was “Wow! Good question” quickly followed by “as a small business owner I should be able to”. After all, it is officially cold and flu season and already every where you go people are coughing and sneezing; do you really want them bring that to work? I know I don’t want that to happen!
Sunburst, like many other small businesses consists of my husband Ben, myself, and Cheryl {who works 2 mornings a week}. It’s a given that if I get sick so will Ben and vice versa – but what about Cheryl? Does she need to come to work and end up with “whatever” we have, take it home and “give it” to everyone that she comes into contact with? Or should she come to work and we end up getting “whatever” it is she has?
Coming to work when you are sick isn’t any fun for anyone – you, the people you work with in your office, or your clients and customers. When we’re sick we just don’t perform our job duties with our usual amount of professionalism, courtesy, or speed – as a matter of fact I know I get downright crabby when I’m sick; mainly when I can’t think as fast as usual and especially if I have to repeat things to the same person multiple times during the same conversation.
There are no federal laws which specifically address whether or not employers can require employees to say home and not come to work; however, the Americans with Disabilities Act {ADA} does prohibit employers from discriminating against the disabled, although having a cold or the flu is not considered being disabled.
Encouraging employees to take a paid sick day and stay home when they have a fever, is often a common practice for larger companies and might be something that you want to consider having in place as an “office policy”. I’m sure many of you are gasping at this point and thinking “I can’t afford that!”, but think about it – which is cheaper – paying a sick employee to stay home so that others don’t get sick OR letting them come to work and you all end up getting ill? Just a thought….
In the ever increasing 24/7 connected world we live in – expectations run high – and sometimes people overlook that fact that people are sick, are away on vacation, at a Doctor’s appointment, or have had a death in the family. When we are connected 24/7 we fall into that immediate gratification or I gotta have it now trap and when those expectations are confronted by someone being unavailable some of us become very intolerant.
When you are the chief cook and bottle washer {or there is only yourself and perhaps a part time person} for your small business, it’s certainly difficult to justify taking time off; I know it is for us. Most years we are hear every day except major holidays, occasionally we are out of town {or out of state} on business, and if we are lucky once a year we take a week in vacation.
How do you handle situations such as sick time, vacation time, personal time, or a death in the family in your business? Do you have written policies in place or do you pretty much just “wing it” and handle it the best that you can at the moment? How do your customers or clients handle your being unavailable or away?
Has the need for instant gratification made us forget our manners? More and more people seem to want everything their way and they want it now – no matter when NOW is. Instant everything. Instant messages, email, fax, internet. Instant food, the faster the better. Instant education, job, wealth. Instant medical service, diagnosis, and an instant cure. Instant family. Instant travel. Instant information. Instant banking. Instant support and training – even if it’s 10 p.m. at night. Right or wrong, good or bad, it seem that most people want it NOW! What happened to please and thank you?
I live in a very small, rural town – where people still wave at strangers, if you see someone broken down on the side of the road – you stop to help them out. Life flows along at a very relaxed pace in our little corner of the world.
Cell phones are nothing more than expensive paperweights up here – if you try to use them {IF you are lucky enough to get a signal} you get a Canadian operator who asks you for your credit card — in French! We are not connected 24/7 – nor do we want to be.
Wanting and demanding things NOW is a pretty uncommon occurrence – around here — until I walk across my yard and up the stairs to go to work and then it all changes.
Gone are the days when the phone would ring and we’d hear “Hi, this is so and so from company name – how are you today?” Instead we hear “I need help!” when we answer the phone and seldom is there a please or a thank you. Everyone is in a hurry, their poor planning induced emergency is supposed to become our one and only priority – I need it now is not for me!
Computers and all of these gadgets were supposed to make our lives easier – give us more time for friends, family and fun. As an outsider, for the most part I don’t see that’s happened. People can’t drive down the road without being on their cell phones {even though it’s illegal here in Vermont}, they can’t go to the grocery store and get their groceries without being on their cell phone {the grocery store 14 miles away is one of the few places that you can actually get cell phone service}, my grandchildren seldom go outside because they are glued to video games, and my oldest granddaughter {12} has had a cell phone for 2 years and my daughter complains because she’s always on it “texting” to her friends instead of doing her homework!
If I took “do unto others as they do unto you” to heart – I’d be disconnecting the phone and the internet and hanging a “closed” sign on our website.
Thank you for reading this. If it hits home, please take a moment to leave a comment or share this on your favorite social media site using the button below.
A guest blog post by Daniel Richman of The Domestic Assistants from the Ventura, California. He and his wife, Jennifer, are a whirlwind of energy and together they make up a tag team duo who “get the job DONE!
The day has come to get rid of your clutter….WHAT do you do?
Do you jump on the occasion? Rip, shred, and tear the junk away from your workspace?
I don’t know about you, but in my business, I’ve seen it all. The one thing that’s common about most is….the amount of paperwork.
Past, present, and sometimes even future (pending) paperwork goes into the mix. We all do it, I’m guilty.
So, what do YOU do?
Are you reliant on your desktop/laptop computer to store the information into a hard drive? Are you a file cabinet user? Do you just keep the papers as separate as possible until tax time?
Whatever you do, take it one step at a time. Make yourself a schedule, don’t let it get out of hand.
By that I mean, follow some kind of guideline, give yourself a little head start, and don’t be so mad that it drives you to ignore it. We’ve seen so many office spaces, some neat, others not-so-much.
The need for organization is present, but it’s so overwhelming.
There are dozens if not hundreds of programs out there to keep you somewhat “above water”. You could even find yourself a professional. Someone who knows where things go, and files them away for you. The problem we face is who to trust. People need to know that they can trust you. I always suggest a “consultation” before an actual appointment. This allows you some breathing room, a chance to meet the hired help, and if you don’t like them, give them the boot. It’s nothing to them, but common courtesy is always nice.
Many business owners feel that they can pay their employes “whenever” they want and that is true to a point. Business owners can pay their employees whenever they want as long as the “whenever” meets the laws of the state their business resides in.
As a business owner you probably feel “in control” when it comes to setting a payroll schedule for the people you hire. Certainly you have options, you can issue payroll on a:
- weekly
- bi-weekly {every other week}
- semi-monthly {twice a month, perhaps on the 1st and the 15th}
- or a monthly basis
While there is no federal laws that require how often you pay your employees, the payroll schedule you choose MUST conform to the requirements of the state that your business is located in.
Most states require that every employer has to pay all of the wages due to an employee on a regular payroll schedule, which is determined by you the business owner – BUT you must notify the employees of how frequently you intend to pay them. A “regular schedule” means that you must consistently pay your employees using whatever frequency you choose, in other words you can’t just randomly issue a payroll check.
Many states also tell a business owner how much of a “holdback” they can take. Meaning that if you decide your workweek starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday and that you will pay your employees on the Friday AFTER the end of the work week; you are holding back a week’s worth of pay.
A word of caution – a business can get into trouble if it doesn’t pay it’s employees as often as the law requires – and I’m sure you don’t want or need that additional headache! Believe it or not, but each state has their own set of rules and regulations {imagine that!}, in some states the rules are different depending upon the employees occupation. In other words, setting a payroll schedule that is realistic for your company AND that conforms to state requirements can be a mess!
The U.S. Department of Labor provides a fairly detailed overview of employee payroll schedules by state, you can find State Payday Requirements here, the information provided is ONLY an overview of general information – you should most definitely contact your state department of labor for all of the details!
We hope you’ve found this article to be helpful, if so please take a moment to leave a comment or share it with others on your favorite social network.
Best practices and tips for installing a QuickBooks 2012 upgrade on a computer that already has an existing version of QuickBooks in place.
Remember, QuickBooks MUST be installed using a Standard User Account when you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7 AND you use QuickBooks integrated 3rd party programs – see Windows, QuickBooks & 3rd Party Apps – The Struggle Within.
If you have Intuit do the upgrade, DO NOT let the Intuit rep install the new version from within your computer’s Administrator account and DO NOT let them choose the “upgrade” option when they do the installation. Also, make sure that your computer IT person is aware of the requirements and best practices – many do not.
Make sure that you watch and understand what is being done to your computer – don’t let others simply do “whatever”
Installing/upgrading QuickBooks is a fairly straightforward task, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some things that can trip you up along the way. Below are some “best practice tips”, based on technical support calls from our customers, that will help you to ensure a smooth installation/upgrade:
PLAN AHEAD and make sure that everything is in order – DO NOT install the new version of QuickBooks 2012 on the day that you need to run payroll, do billing, or perform any intensive task that requires access to your computer/company data file.
- Perform some basic file maintenance in your current QuickBooks version – backup your file, rebuild the data, check the current file size and number of database file fragments.
- If you use 3rd party integrated applications, make sure that you contact the software developer (if they haven’t already contacted you) about compatibility with and update procedures for working with QuickBooks 2012 – Gold and Silver Developers {those who have applications listed on the Intuit Marketplace} did not have access to a final release copy of QuickBooks 2012 until 9/12/2012; for other developers – well they might have access to the new version today.
- Start with the computer that houses your QuickBooks data file – paying close attention to the following screens.
- On the “Choose Installation Type” window select the “Custom and Network Option“
- On the “Custom and Network Options” window, select whatever the current settings are on your computer
- On the Upgrade or Change Installation Location window, choose the Change the install location option. This installs QuickBooks 2012 in a new folder and when the installation is complete you will have BOTH your current {old} QuickBooks version and the new QuickBooks 2012 version installed on the computer.
- When the installation is complete, you’ll be prompted to reboot your computer. After the reboot, start QuickBooks 2012 and open your company file.
- Rebuild your data file, check your file size and number of database file fragments.
- Install the new version of QuickBooks on each of your other computers; repeating Steps 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Once the new version of QuickBooks is installed and running properly on all of your computers, remove the old version by going to your Control Panel -> choosing Add/Remove Programs {Windows XP} OR Programs & Features {Windows Vista & 7}, find the old version in the list of programs and choose Uninstall or Remove.
We hope that you’ve found these best practices and tips for installing a QuickBooks upgrade to be helpful. If so please take a moment to leave a comment or share it on your favorite social network.
