Every entrepreneur can appreciate Ben Franklin’s quote, “Time is money”, but figuring out how to use the principal in our day to day operations can by tricky. Should I send an email or take the time to call the customer? Should I outsource the accounting, or hire an in house bookkeeper? Tim Berry, founder of Palo Alto Software, came up with a simple formula to calculate an estimate of Your ‘Time-Is-Money-Rate’.
Though not scientific, it is an interesting exercise:
http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/05/do-you-know-your-time-is-money-rate.html
The lesson here is that time is one of our most precious resources, so be stingy with it.
As a QuickBooks Pro Advisor, I educate my clients how to work smarter using QuickBooks software. The following list are my top 5 QuickBooks timesavers:
1. 1 click buttons – Instantly know where your business stands by customizing the icon bar with 1 click buttons. Remove the icons you don’t need (upgrade) and add the ones you use everyday. The valuable one click buttons I always use are: the profit & loss report, the balance sheet report, open invoices, and unpaid bills.
2. Memorize, memorize, memorize – This is a triple whammy. You can memorize recurring transactions (like loan payments) a group of transactions (monthly invoices) and reports that you have already customized.
3. Email invoices and statements - When you e-mail an invoice, your customer receives it as a PDF file e-mail attachment along with a cover note. You can also batch email multiple invoices. QuickBooks supports Outlook 2000 or later and Windows Mail.
4. Use the keyboard shortcuts – If you can keep your fingers on the keyboard vs the mouse, you will work faster. My favorite is: Calculate on the fly: If you are in an amount field on a check or other transaction, just pressing the number keys followed by a mathematical symbol (+, -, /, *) you will pull up the calculator. You can continue to enter numbers and math functions until you are done. You can find the others by clicking here.
5. Reconcile to your bank statements in 10 minutes or less – A critical task, but this trick will make it easier; Click a checkmark in the “Hide transactions after the statements end date”, then Click the “Mark All” button. Scan the statement and manually uncheck the transactions that do not appear on the statement. A lot less time then individually checking off every transaction.
So please, heed the words of President Franklin or, for my sister, who color coordinates the clothes in her closet, it’s a nice use of the same principal. For me, its all about remembering The Ben.