Expense Reports

One of the things I absolutely dreaded when I was an Admin was doing expense reports. All of the receipts, currency conversions, finding out who was at the dinner, and the little crumpled pieces of paper that WERE receipts were enough to drive a girl out of her mind! Not to mention the poor people back in accounting trying to decipher it all. In all honesty, I wish I had a way of making expense reports just go away, but they are most definitely a necessary evil. Especially to the person receiving the check!

Instead of making them go away, I do have a few solutions to making the process go a bit smoother for all parties.

1. Have your executive start using a receipt file or poly envelope. Similar to the one that is sold by Levenger. Every time he travels or spends money on something expensable she needs to put it into the envelope. It will take her a bit of time to get into the hang of it, but when she doesn't have to dig through her purse and wallet to find missing receipts she will thank you!
2. If they travel a lot and if you are utilizing the Travel Itinerary system add an envelope to the notebook. Every receipt from the trip will be kept in one spot and they won't have to worry about losing a $600 dinner receipt! Which takes us back to the Travel Itinerary System, if you are using both the expense report and travel itinerary system this is going to save your life when it comes down to figuring out WHO they had dinner with. You will already know by cross referencing the date and the time as it will be in the Travel Itinerary!
3. Once you get the receipts back from your executive, go through and highlight the amount and the date. This may seem tedious, but it will help you when you enter them into whatever program you use to input expenses and the accounting department will give you a nod of thanks.
4. If your accounting department has a specific way for turning in receipts and expenses, don't worry about this part. If they don't, then try taking your generosity one step further. Take the receipts you have highlighted and chronologically sort them. Next tape them to blank pages of paper in the chronological order. This will help them tremendously when they have to cross reference your expense report! They will soooo love you!
5. You can also just go in and ask them how they prefer the receipts. Some people like to have all of the Food receipts on one page, all travel expenses on another and some just like to have it done chronologically. Taking the extra time to find out what makes them happy will definitely give you some good brownie points. They are, after all, the one who issues the checks!

Do you have a system that you use for expense checks?

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne

Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone

There is nothing more wonderful than walking down a familiar street, driving a road that you have known your entire life, or going the same way to work every single day. Just like there is something wonderful about meatloaf and mashed potatoes. It's comforting! You know what to expect, you know you are going to enjoy it, you know it makes you feel warm and fuzzy.

The same can be said with how you do things at work, what you excel at, what you KNOW. Of course, being "the best" at something is a wonderful feeling no one wants you do anything different, but how about the things you don't do so well? What about the areas of your job that aren't so comforting, that you don't fully grasp, that perhaps even intimidate you? You totally shy away from those things, don't you? You make up excuses why you can't do them right now or perhaps you ignore the chore all together.

For the past couple of months I have been taking kickboxing; going into it I knew that I was completely out of shape, I have absolutely no coordination whatsoever, and quite frankly I'm not all that great at it. Total lack of self-confidence in this arena. I mean, hello! I was the girl who always a note in P.E. Even though I have this lack of self esteem in my "physical prowess" (which is non-existent), that isn't what smacked me in the face today. (No, it wasn't my instructor, either.)

What hit me was something that made my heart beat faster than even those damn speed drills. Total FEAR! Not a feeling of "oh someone is going to hurt me", but a grip of "oh, my God! I have no direction! I have no boundaries. I have no idea what the hell I am doing!" So what was the incident that sparked my heart jumping into my throat and a cold sweat to break through the gallons that were already pouring off my face? Something so silly, so simple, so scary "to me". (Get ready to laugh, because this is TRULY pathetic.)

Marcus wanted me to just hit, kick, punch, do whatever my little heart desired to three pads. Yep, that was it. That was all he asked me to. Just do whatever I wanted. I could kick any way I wanted to kick. I could jab, side kick, front kick, smash my elbow into anything I wanted and I FREAKED out!

What happened to my drills? What happened to the 1-2, front kick, side kick? What happened to him telling me WHAT I had to do, WHERE I had to do it at, what happened to my STRUCTURE?! It flew out the window is where it went to! Do you know what that man made me do?! He made me do it TWICE! As if the first time wasn't bad enough, he made me do it again. He even threatened to take away my rum! (I had a few choice swear words on that threat!)

Bottomline, I was faced with a situation that I knew nothing about, it intimidated me beyond all measure, and not only did I actually live through it without throwing up, I did it twice. Not that it makes me feel any better, but I did do it.

What are some of the things about your job that seriously make you want to crawl under your desk in the fetal position and hide until the sun is well set? Is it cold calling? Speaking up in a meeting? Creating relevant charts? Managing your department? Telling someone 'no'?

Find your "Fear", confront it, overcome it, and step out of your comfort zone every now and again. It may take a while for you to embrace the fear, but perhaps you will be able to bring it into your zone. Think about how much more valuable you will be to your department, to your company and to yourself.

As for me, I see a lot more personal growth that I am probably going to fight tooth and nail over, but will probably thank Marcus for in the end. (insert foul expletive here)

Tell us what some of the things that intimidate you about your job.

Isn't It Just Cozi?

Have you ever wished that you had one calendar that you, your husband, and children could access no matter where you were? With a click of a button you could see when your husband was going to be out of town on the next business trip, you could see where your daughter's finals were taking place, and see when your son's karate tournament was taking place. Just one little click.

Well, I think there just be such a thing! I haven't played with it extensively yet, but Cozi is a nifty new site that not only syncs with your Outlook, phone or PDA, it also allows you to send text messages to the family, holds your grocery list, allows you to post pictures and essentially keep your entire family on the same page!

Think about it, you have your work calendar in Outlook, you may even have an Outlook calendar on your home computer for personal items. Oooh and how many times have you forgotten your grocery list? If you enter it into your Cozi site, you can have it sent to you in a text message! Or shoot, send it to the man and let him pick up groceries! :)

If you decide to try out Cozi or if you are already a fan, please let me know! I would love to hear what you think and I'm going to continue to play with it myself!

Happy Organizing!
Suzanne

Travel Itineraries

Putting together travel itineraries is one of the main job functions of an administrative assistant. Your executive needs to fly to San Jose, then to Dallas, finish the trip in Boston before heading home. In between flights there are business meetings, scheduled stops at site facilities, there are hotels and client dinners. Plus, it's your job to make sure everyone is in the loop and your executive doesn't get caught in a cross fire.

So, how does your executive keep up with all of it? How do you look amazing when they call for directions? By putting together an equally amazing itinerary, of course! Not only will you empower your executive, but you will look incredible!

An itinerary isn't just flight information and where they are going to be staying, it's one document with EVERYTHING they could possibly need.

How should your new itinerary be set up?

• The date of the trip and purpose should be the Header of the page.
• Your travel itinerary should always be chronological by date and time.
• Confirmation numbers should always be bold.
• Formatting should be clean.
• Depending on the size of the finished itinerary, consider binding it.

What should be in the itinerary?

Flight Information

• Airline
• Flight Number
• Confirmation Number
• Arrival and Departure Times

Car Rental Information

• Company
• Car Size
• Location (Onsite or Offsite)
• Confirmation Number
• Rate

Map From Airport to Hotel (or destination from airport)

Hotel Information

• Name of Hotel
• Address
• Phone Number
• Check In Time
• Confirmation Number

Map From Hotel to First Meeting

Meeting Information

• Date and Time
• Address
• Names of People Attending
• Phone Numbers of People

REPEAT

These steps should be repeated for each leg of their trip. There are several different enhancements you have available to you depending on the extensiveness of the trip.

1. Consider using a coil bind system to bind the itinerary.
2. Use page dividers for each state or country.
3. Include maps inside the actual itinerary AND create a tab for all maps.
4. Include a section for the "contact information" for everyone they are meeting.

Now that you have created this wonderful travel itinerary, what do you do with it?

1. Print 3 copies; one for the traveler, one for you and one for the receptionist. Just in case the traveler loses their copy they can call either you or the receptionist.
2. Email a copy to the traveler and the Executive Assistant to their boss. You never know when the CEO or VP over your executive has a question, plus the Executive Assistant has a tendency to want to be kept in the loop. Plus you want to email it to the traveler so they can forward it on to their family or just in case they lose the hard copy.
3. Save it to your hard drive. You never know when you may need to reference it.

It may seem like a lot of work, but with this type of detailed itinerary you will become an even more valuable asset.

Cheers!

Devyn McLeod

For more helpful administrative solutions, please check out the Administrative Basics: Set Yourself Apart eBook.

What Do You Do With All of Those Business Cards?

Marcia over at Take Charge tagged me in a blog post and asked what do I do with all of the business cards?

More specifically she asked me three questions:

Where do you put them?
What do you do with them when you get back to the office?
Do you have a plan to process them, or do you hoard them as my colleague does?

First, I will cover what I do with them NOW versus what I did with them when I was an Admin.

IF I take a business card at trade shows, networking events, or random people that I meet I immediately put them into my handy dandy business card organizer. (OK, it's really an index card organizer you can get at Target for $.99)

I label each section with:

People who are interested
People I'm interested in
Random People
Avoid at all costs

Seriously, there are always those people you DON'T want to talk to again. So I make sure that I label them so I don't have to deal with them again.

As soon as I get back to the office I enter the ones that I am interested in or are interested in me and I put them in my Outlook. After I am finished I put them back into their respective sections in the business card organizer and then I label the organizer with the date and the function and store it away. You never know when you may need to dig through the Random People cards to check something out.

When I was an Admin, I had one VP who wanted me to use a big 3-ring binder and section it off by company. We would then alphabetize the business cards by last name. Another one HATED business cards, so as soon as he would bring them back I would enter them into his Contacts and then toss them.

Of course, I also had the boss with that stupid electronic business card reader. Oh, that was HORRIBLE! It would have been so much easier just to type the damn things in. Especially now that everyone's business cards are set up differently.

How do you manage the business cards your executive brings back?

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne Babb

Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Virtual Workshop

It's Here!

Although I have been diligently working on trying to be everywhere at the same time, it just hasn't been working out too well for me, much to my dismay! Instead, I figured I would just psyche myself out and figure out a "work around". Which I did!!

Eight years ago, I created my own email system to work in conjunction with Outlook and the VP I supported. Not only was the system extremely successful, it followed me and it followed the VP I first implemented it with. For eight years I have been training assistants, vice presidents, presidents, directors and managers all how to use and successfully implement the Colored Flag System into their daily routine.

Not only do they stay on top of their massive amounts of emails, it works while they travel, while they are out on vacation, and it creates a sense of control when it comes to their emails. It truly is a wonderful system that any one can use successfully.

Typically I go in-office or do training workshops for this system, but again I can not be in all places at one time. Which is why I have put together my first Virtual Workshop! Not only will you have the eBook and shopping lists you get to have me and my annoyingly sweet voice walking you through every single step of the way. The audio files, the PowerPoint, eBook, shopping lists and worksheets come in one handy dandy CD so that you are able to customize your most effective learning style.

Take a listen to the preview to our audio segment for the "Managing Your Emails with the Colored Flag System" Virtual Workshop.

If you would like to order your "Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System" Virtual Workshop, please click on the link below.

ORDER NOW!

Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Virtual Workshop - $39.95
Shipping - $4.95

Included in your Virtual Workshop:


Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Audio Presentation
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System MP3 Downloads
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System eBook
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Worksheets
Managing Emails with the Colored Flag System Shopping List

Just so that you know, this system is not for the feint of heart. It is an easy system, but it requires diligence, paper, and a lot of printing. It is also NOT just for Outlook. Anyone with any type of email system can use it.

I hope you absolutely love your new email system and be sure and let us know how you used it!

Happy Organizing!

Suzanne Babb

Certifications for Admins - Is It Worth It?

To Certify or Not To Certify, I sound like an over used and bad rendition of Hamlet, don't I? Do I even continue with, "That is the question?" I had a question from a gal here in Phoenix who was wondering what I thought of admin certifications, were they worth the money, who pays for it, what benefit do they have, and if they were really necessary.

Although I wish I had one easy quick answer, but the truth is I don't.

Are there admin certifications? Yep, there sure are. IAAP is the International Association of Administrative Professionals and they offer a slew of certifications.

Are they worth the money? Ask your supervisor or HR department. Certification can cost about $300 per certification. So it just depends on whether or not your company views it as important.

Who pays? Your company should pay, but that isn't always the case. They may suggest that you pay for it upfront, but if you pass they will reimburse you. If they won't, then you would have to decide if it's important to you.

What benefit do they have? Monster.com did an article on benefits so I'll let them give you advice on this one since I have never taken the certification.

What do I think about them? Hmmmm, you know, I looked into it quite a few years ago and after talking with my supervisor he didn't feel like it was necessary to spend the money, the "man hours" studying, or putting one more thing on my plate for me to worry about. Instead, he wanted me to learn how to better utilize Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. He wanted me to strengthen my areas of expertise and learn to do the things he hated to do. :) Those were things that could directly impact the both of us, help with every day tasks, and increase my benefit to him, the department and the company. (If you have never done a bubble chart, I highly recommend you learn how. Talk about a WOW factor.)

Plus, there is a huge part of me that feels that I don't need a piece of paper to validate that I know what I am doing. THIS could be my downfall especially since I wouldn't have a little blurb to put on my resume as being "certified", but what does certified really mean? You studied, you took a test, they gave you a piece of paper saying you know how to do something. BUT did you implement it? Did you use it? Can you give an example of how you have benefited yourself or anyone else because of it? I can show you a piece of paper or I can show you how I can rock your world. What would you prefer? Which does your company prefer?

If you work for a company like Intel, take the test, get the certification.
If you work for a company that started with a dream, hard work, and dedication, wow them with your skills and learn specific skill sets that will benefit everyone.

Learn about computer programs; PowerPoint, Excel, Word, Access, Outlook. ~ Microsoft has great free trainings!
Take some training in Time Management.
Read up on how to better yourself and your position.
Determine your weaknesses and overcome them.

Regardless of what you do, take snapshots of how you were before the training, before the learning, before the new skills. Have specific examples of how you improved work efficiency. Be sure and let your supervisor know what you are doing. Remember, they aren't the most perceptive group in the bunch. (That's what you are for!)

And ask. Ask your boss what you could do to help them out. What programs would they like for you to enhance your knowledge on, where could you increase your value, what would make their life easier? You will have better results by just asking the questions that need to be asked.

Happy Organizing!

(If you have been certified or you have thoughts please let us know!)