America's North Shore Journal

Here are a few articles about office operations in a business that you might enjoy.

Selecting a good copy/printer for office use

One of the most overlooked areas in managing expenses is the costs associated with your copier. Chances are you went through a simple price comparison and then went with the low bid.

Let me suggest a more detailed method of selecting the right copier or copiers for your business, a method that will work to analyze your existing copier arrangements as well.

Deciding which paper to buy for your copier or printer

How do you decide what kind of paper to use in your copier or printer?

The machine’s manufacturer has some great suggestions. Somewhere in your user manual the manufacturer has spelled out what kinds of paper will work in his machine.

The paper’s weight range is given. Most ordinary copy paper is 20 pound. High quality stationary might be 24 pound. If the paper is too heavy or too light it will not feed properly or it may jam the copier / printer.

How to organize your office efficiently

An office is not just a place to work. It is an example of how you work. Organizing your office efficiently will speed up your work process. It will ensure that priorities are easily seen and actionable. The act of organization will reinforce organized thinking habits that will aid problem solving.

Start with a blank slate, an empty room. What furniture do you need in the office to perform the day to day tasks of your job? As you decide on each piece of furniture to place in your office, evaluate how it adds to your ability to work.

Advice for setting up an office filing system

Your office filing system is dependent upon two key issues. The first is that there are papers that you and your employees will need to access on an hourly or daily basis. The second is that there are papers that you will need to retain for a period of time, for legal or tax purposes.

One of the keys to office efficiency is to limit the handling of any given piece of paper. Invoices to your business that will need to be paid should go to your accounts payable person, or to the spot you have designated for accounts payable. The same holds true for all of the paperwork that comes in or is produced in the office. Put it where it belongs.

Paperwork organization tips

Organizing paperwork is a major factor in managing your job, your household or your business.

Above all is rule number one: Handle a piece of paper once. In real life that means handle paperwork as few times as possible. Don’t spend your time managing stacks of paper; do something with them.

Set aside some time every day to organize paperwork. Open the mail, look at the memos, take those pieces of paper into your hands. Then, take action.

Advantages of going paperless

For three thousand years people have been writing information down and then filing it. From clay tablets to papyrus to linen to paper made from wood, people have been producing, using and storing information in hard copy form.

The modern business runs on paper. Time cards record employee working hours. Copiers churn out reams of printed material for distribution, comment and filing. Accountants print spreadsheets and balance sheets and worksheets.