If your business has grown to the point where admin is either non-existent or chaotic at best and there are no efficiency processes, it’s time to organize.

1. Elevate professional correspondence – admin with owner approval

  • Incorporate your company’s logo to create branded company communications, including letterhead and envelopes, SOP templates, etc. Let me know if you need some simple Administrative Procedures upgrades; I can send some training your way.
  • Create a professional email signature for every forward-facing company email address.
  • Learn to make it a habit to optimize, streamline and monitor your emails every business day. Unanswered emails at top management levels pile up and impede the flow of efficiency for the entire company. The company’s most important person can actually become the biggest roadblock for the company’s efficiency and productivity levels if they are unresponsive. Be diligent, and make it a permanent policy.
  • Add a professional company outgoing message (voicemail) to every business phone.
  • Build a professional website. Recognize that websites need to be maintained and updated regularly.

2. Define the company structure – owner decisions with admin implementation

  • Create a mission or a vision statement that describes the company’s core purpose and values. Add that statement to the company handbook. I designed a mousepad and had it printed at Vistaprint online — everyone in the office is reminded by the mission statement every day.
  • Build an org chart in Word that defines departments, managers, supervisors, employees and rates of pay.
  • Write detailed job descriptions for each of those positions, so everyone knows what is expected of every position, including employees and management.

3. Create a company handbook – owner/admin

Ensure that the company handbook makes company policies easy to read and understand. Have all new hires read and initial consent to the policies at onboarding before their first day. This handbook will be referenced often; make a digital copy for company accessibility (upload this in your payroll software, and in Smartsheet > Company Documents).

4. Reduce paper files – admin

Digitize company paperwork and shred unnecessary files. Start with HR files. Scan and store them into organized folders and shred the paper. This task will cause organization and efficiency of access. Later you will learn to use Smartsheet to store common company documents that are accessible to administrative staff, so go ahead and make them all digital now, organized neatly into folders. Use secure online storage so you can access your documents anywhere with an email address and password.

5. Make the move to Smartsheet – owner decision with admin implementation

Take this advice from years of experience: Smartsheet will transform your company. It’s free for 30 days. Implement Smartsheets for every department. Use Smartsheet for the storing of all kinds of digital documents and details, including task lists. Learning Smartsheet is an ongoing process that will take more than a month; but use this month to build processes, forms, smartsheets and dashboards. If you want to use that 30 days to learn efficiently, consider utilizing pre-built templates to hit the ground running.

6. Standardize accounting processes and regularly track Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable – owner/admin

Match receipts to expenditures – if you have multiple credit card users, consider using a Smartsheet form for paper receipts and require a submission with receipt photo for every purchase (eliminating the paper receipt, but keeping the record). Institute policies for immediate collections onsite or over the phone for service calls, and check unpaid invoices weekly. Remember that the service call is not complete until an invoice has been issued. Get everyone into the practice of issuing invoices before leaving the customer’s premises. It’s a simple policy that will save your company thousands.

7. Utilize managers for employee-related reporting in Smartsheet – owner/admin

Basic template examples of Smartsheets for managers include: Employee Discipline, Employee Separations, Incident Reports, Job Applications, Manager Reports, New Hires/Onboarding, Notices of Layoff, Notifications of Absence, Performance Reviews, Remote Work Agreement, Training Classes with sign-in sheets, Workers Comp Claims, etc.

8. Learn to write Standard Operating Procedures – admin with owner approval

Store SOPs in Smartsheet > Company Documents. Update regularly as processes change, and complete an audit of all SOPs once a year (choose your least busy season and make that the rule). You can delegate some of this responsibility to supervisors in each department.

9. Cross train the positions that you can – admin/managers

Cross train so that you’re never dependent on only one trained employee in any area. Start this just as soon as you can, using the Standard Operating Procedures format for training reference. This step may take some time depending on the size of your company, but it will be invaluable for future growth and efficiency. Standard Operating Procedures and cross training go hand in hand as they not only standardize processes and approved methods, they also pass along good business habits and professional policies to succeeding generations.

10. Create department and company-wide Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – owner/leadership

KPIs are SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely) with measurable progress and results. The reason they are so effective is because KPIs carry with them progress accountability and measurable results within a specified timeframe. Integrate KPIs into your customer relationship management (CSR) software so that monthly reporting becomes efficient.

11. AI Integration – owner/admin

Consider investing in AI for automated standardization, like answering business phones and incorporating a chatbot on your website, among a million other things. A good AI service, for example, is programmed to answer multiple calls simultaneously, answer basic questions, serve customers well, and automatically sends transcripts to customer service representatives’ email addresses – all for the cost of about one employee. AI is transforming the business world as we speak.

12. Place admin throughout the company – admin/owner

When your company is large enough, consider placing administrative personnel specific and essential to individual departments, rather than one overwhelmed administrative person for the entire company. This person will handle the admin paperwork, coordinate internal and external communications, etc.