Just in case you thought all was perfection and fun vacations in ‘Ros-land’, here’s a pic that Ed took of me this afternoon.
Yes, that’s me sitting on the floor amidst a pile of Visa, American Express, banking, utility and other business statements.
Yes, I do have both a bookkeeper and an accountant – but I still have to wade through and keep track of those papers so they can process them.
And YES, if I actually took the time to handle them more than once every 3 months, it probably wouldn’t seem like such a darned horrendous undertaking. The big stumbling block however is that just the thought of filtering through and filing all that stuff brings me close to tears at times.
There’s always something better to do. A new affiliate promotion. Newsletter writing. Blog posting…
By result, I regularly waste money on late filing fees and otherwise unecessary interest payments.
So there, that’s my grand confession for today.
So… any thoughts about what YOUR upcoming New Year’s resolutions might be?
Share ’em below – misery LOVES company. 🙂
If you find a good system, let us know…I can relate to the paper blizzard. I’m trying to reduce the amount of paper bills we get these days but there is still to much to file!
Hi Rosalind,
You’re picture made me laugh – that’s exactly how my living room looked approximately 2 weeks ago.
I don’t do new year’s resolutions, but I’m trying to get a system in place so that I don’t have to bust my gut every December to get my accounts in order!
So I’m trying to schedule accounting on a monthly basis when I get my business bank statement and am trying to raise my accounting priorities higher in my list of to-dos.
Good luck with yours – mine are with the accountant, I’m now just waiting for the tax bill!
Desiree
I feel your pain Rosalind, accounting and bookeeping is a horrid experience. No wonder most accountants have the personality of a garden beetle(not all of ’em), they have to crunch numbers all day long.
It’s the only thing I procrastinate doing in my business, tracking all of that paper. But I have made the committment to do it every 30 days, so here’s hoping 2009 is a more organized year…lol.
Top resolution.: Somebody else does the work somebody else can do. Even if it’s only 90%. You can finish it up in a jiff. Pay for the help by saving late fees & making a thousand dollars an hour with the freed up time. (Or so they tell me – we’ll see.)
That photo looks like something I do to clean out the old files. I used to hate doing paperwork and would let them pile up several months at a time. That was until I realized it was so much easier to do them weekly. Now the new receipts and bills are kept on my desk as a reminder to take care of them. Once entered, the papers are filed. Statements are reconciled monthly, keeping my work load down and the accountant having less to do.
WOW! I do remember those days, one thing that has helped me immensely is Microsoft Money program. now the key to this is keeping up on putting your receipts into there but the beauty is at the end of the year, i just print out a report and all my expenses are there and categorized.
You can always try and paying a family member to enter them for you if you think you will be procrastinating this.
LOL! I don’t know what else to say but:
Gesundheit! :p
~(G)Q
I just like your office layout, especially the desk. And that window in the middle looks like a good idea.
I hope to move sometime in 2009 and am always looking for ideas.
And at least you’re smiling in the picture!
Best regards,
Tom
Ros,
I’m looking forward to having a paperwork problem by the end of 2009. That will mean that I’m on the right track and making money!
Thanks for being there for us.
Nancy
One of my new years resolutions has to be to make even more money! One thing I really want is an ergonomic computer table that raises and lowers, so I can stand up and type, instead of sitting on the old arse all the time. lol
I also thought it was time for a change in me, so I just cut my long hair yesterday. (ouch!) I am ready to turn back the biological clock.
I also want to start an adwords campaign and have several keywords that I will start with, that have lower PPC’s. So many people have told me this is an expensive way to get traffic, so I’ve decided on how much I can spend on it and we’ll see.
When I get bills, I separate them into 3 piles, according to due dates. (first, middle, end) IF I find that a bill is due too soon to send payment, I pay online. I’ll do just about anything, short of driving my payment to them, not to pay these outrageously high late fees. Late fees can really hurt your credit score and credit card companies can change their percentage rates with no warning, if you continue to pay late.
Hope you have a great holiday season Ros. You are tops in my book and always will be! Thank you for all that you do! Christmas Hugs, Carolyn
18 December 2008 02:20:36 Central Standard Time
Hi Carolyn,
Yes, pay your bills online!
Where not in México, where you have to stand in line all over town to pay your bills.
When I get a paper bill I put the due date and the amount on my Palm Desktop a Calendar, Scheduling and Database etc. that came with by Palm Treo a PDA or Cell Phone on steroids. Bill Gates uses the Palm Treo so that’s good enough for me.
I pay AT&T, water, gas and electric with automatic bank draft. I juggle money to pay my bank loans for all this equipment from two different banks when I have the money, but always online!
QuickBooks by Intuit is what the tax man wants you to use because even is you erase something it can be located elsewhere, so even if you make a mistake or something like that it could come back to haught you. QuickBooks also has steep learning curve too.
I think Chris Bradley is on the right track with Microsoft Money, my Mechanic is a real smart guy and that is what he uses.
Just in case nobody has thought about it my Audio Visual Workstations are placed on galvanized steel tubing with nicely stained three quarter inch plywood using Kee Clamps, so it can be raised and lowered to fit you ergonomically. Not to mention the fact that you can stack it to the ceiling and still crawl up there to hook up or fix cables etc without the slightest worry that it will cave in on you. Also, if you move to a new location you can move it easily because it is just nicely stained plywood, galvanized tubes from the hardware store and Kee Clamps from Global Industrial Supply.
If you get a nice chair you can raise or lower it to where is is comfortable for you, I also recommend a foot rest. I use something I found at a yard sale that raises my legs up to get more veins blood return. I put the monitors on rollers or magic sliders so they can be moved closer or further away.
When it comes to sitting on your arse, I’m not sure what to recommend. Try lying down like I do. when my back finally gives out on me and my mind is still working.
You will notice the Rosalind uses a special chair that forces her to keep the posture of her back erect like your supposed to.
Good luck Carolyn and Merry Christmas!
Frank Funston Eckdall
Esquire
Unix Administrator and Webmaster
Assuming this paperwork is all business related, I am looking forward to having such a problem!
A-Super-Affiliate-in-the-making,
Sandee Lembke
Hi Ros
I really feel your pain. But I am really surprised of how can you become creative, writing interesting post, doing videos, and coming out with brilliant ideas when you are buried in paper. You have to share your secrets.
One cool gadget I heard is some kind of portable scaner where you put through your bill and the gadget copied and then you can download all your bills to your computer ether in excel format, PDF, or direct to your bookkeeping software.
I don’t know if that will help or it will become part of the gadget mess we have in our desk.
Ros did you know one amaizing thing about a messy desk.? Once you organize everything, you CAN’T find anything. !!!!
Hi Ros,
I had a great BIG laugh at your photo. Before I became an affiliate marketeer, I was a office manager/executive secretary to a very high ranking US federal government political appointee. I loved working for her and she loved my work. When I left to start my own company, she cried and asked me to return. While I was on vacation and getting ready to make a 1500 mile relocation trip, she had the HR dept call me to return for a couple of days. Although I had given her a three months notice to train a replacement, she rejected and fired the replacement and pleaded for me to stay an extra week.
I didn’t realize how much my work was appreciated until now (Smile)
Best wishes to your,
Sonya
In a previous life, when I ran three businesses and had three kids under ten, I set aside a morning each week to do all the bookkeeping work for the week, invoices made up and sent out for acc rec. payables and entering everything into simply accounting.
I did it on Sunday mornings each week unless some disaster had struck first but it was hard for a disaster to strike before I could get started on a Sunday morning and in fact, I think the only times I didn’t get it done was when it was -35 out and the pipes had froze so that I had to take care of that problem first, before I could make coffee and therefore get something hot into myself so that I felt like getting started on those pesky bookkeeping chores.
Accountants don’t appreciate a big jumble of records when it is time to box everything up and take it in to them:-) Simply Accounting really helped as did setting up my bank accounts so that certain reoccurring payments were paid on time each month like the fuel, hydro, internet services, and so on. I can’t think of why one could not set up their internet business’s reoccurring payments like hydro, internet services, telephone, hosting services etc.
I already do that each month. I’m not certain but I think that one can download payments made to your credit card accounts and so on, hydro etc. can be sent straight to your accounting program as they are made and my bank sends me a confirmation e-mail that I can send to my accounting program. Your accountant should be able to help you set these programs up so that most of it is automatic just like your business is automated by your auto- responder and your affiliate tracking programs.
May Mickelow
Well, Well, Well… Maybe I am Not the Only One…
Ros, I feel the same way about paperwork. Ugh.
Now if you weren’t inside I’d say a match might be the proper tool…..
Lowell
I feel with you 🙂 some people call these days christmas – i call them horror as i have to finish everything for 2008 🙂
So it’s not just me who does that! Thank you for sharing. And thanks to everyone who posted cos everyone’s tips are helpful. It just shows that you have to knuckle down to it after all (sigh!)