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manage your remote team

Best Practices for Managing Your Finance Team Remotely

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In 2020 more and more companies are offering remote work options for their employees especially under changing circumstances. However, if you haven’t managed a remote team before it can be a daunting task. Below are our top four tips to help you regroup and get your team on track.

Technology

Before you can offer your team the ability to work remotely or from home on a part-time basis you have to have the right technology in place. Cloud-based solutions give your employees the ability to access all of the information they need to get their job done as well as keep the rest of the company up-to-date. Cloud-based solutions are more flexible and easier to administer compared to VPNs and access to on-premise solutions.

Clear Direction and Expectations

When you aren’t in the same place as your employees it can be challenging to ensure you’re all communicating exactly what needs to be completed. How can you keep the lines of communication open?

First outline exactly what you want to be completed and think about what questions you would have if you were given the same assignment or project. Ensure you make time to go through the goals and objectives and let your team ask questions prior to starting their tasks. Give reasonable timelines for projects and offer touchpoints throughout to ensure everyone remains on the same page.

At the end of a project or task have a check-in to see what worked, what was helpful, and what could have been better. Clear communication is key.

Schedule Pulse Checks

Since your employees are working from home or an outside office they are often left to their own devices to ensure they are completing their job. Scheduling regular check-ins to discuss everything going on with their projects, daily tasks, challenges, and take note of what’s going on in their personal life. The more you communicate with each remote team member the better you will understand their workload, where they excel, and what they need from you.

Offer Flexibility

Part of working remotely is having the ability to work at a pace that is best for you. From a manager’s perspective focusing on accomplished tasks vs. hours is key to being a success in these new roles. It also gives your team the ability to take care of their personal life the way they need to which in turns means when they work they will be 100% focused on the tasks your company needs to be completed.

While managing a remote team may be a new concept for some companies, it can be one that is extremely productive with the right steps taken.

 


time poor

Managing Your Business When You are Time Poor

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One of the main constraints owners face is the fact that there is only 24 hours in a day. The needs of a successful business can take up more than 24 hours in any given day rendering them time poor. Below are top tips for managing your business when you are running out of steam daily to help reorganize your company’s structure.  

 

Expand Your Team- 

 Having the right internal and external team can help balance the hours in a day. While your company is in the growth stage the balance between hiring your own key staff members and using outsourced companies is important to redistributing the work load. Startup and growing companies alike should focus their hiring efforts on employees who are involved with the product or service creation and delivery. This will allow the business to stay focused on what they do best and not get weighed down by day to day support tasks. Owners should look to outsource support services such as social media management and accounting.  Creating a balance between internal/external teams helps you redistribute tasks, maintain efficiency,  while minimizing your total costs.  

 

Have a Clear Vision for Each Day: 

 Before beginning each workday take the time to have clear priorities on what needs to be accomplished. Your business priorities should not only be set for you but for your internal team and external partners. The next step is to recognize any distractions that need to be handled before starting your daily tasks. This can include any fires that need to be put out or personal items that need completion so they don’t distract you the rest of the day.  Create weekly check-ins with all of your internal team members and bi-weekly check-ins with your external teams. This will help you stay on top of what is happening and able to change focuses as your business changes.  

 Another way to manage your day to day work is to set up calendar blocking allowing you to focus on each aspect of your business uninterrupted. This is the practice is separating out chunks of time each week to focus on specific tasks or portions of your business. You can set aside Monday mornings for marketing, Friday afternoon for employee checks, etc. This practice helps you focus on and complete tasks in a more efficient way.  

Redefining how you manage your 24 hours a day through internal and external resources can be the difference in creating dynamic growth.

 


How Hospitality Survives in 2020

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These are completely unprecedented times and with stay-at-home orders across the nation, hospitality companies are facing new challenges to stay relevant. The overall hospitality industry has taken a huge hit in business and is facing sales that aren’t enough to cover their fixed costs. With that in mind, hospitality companies’ goals for the next six months focus on maximizing profit margins for delivery, take out, new programs that can be mailed out, and virtual programs. Many of these offerings can be completely new to the business making it a significant challenge. Given this, what are a few ways to meet this challenge and bring customers back to your business?

Offering Discounts:

Many of your customers are stuck at home therefore you aren’t losing them to a competitor but rather to no decision or rather lack of opportunity. With that in mind, offering a discount will encourage your customers to call in order even if they aren’t able to eat at your restaurant. With many people out of jobs, or on limited hours a discount could also put your business back into their budget.

New Offering for Stay-at-Home Customers:

Hospitality companies that relied on their customers to be able to come into their place of business such as gyms, or breweries are looking for ways to still engage and be relevant. The big question here is what can you offer to customers virtually? For example, a Pure Barre studio could offer classes virtually- allowing them to still collect their monthly memberships and help customers remain connected. Breweries can offer a drive-through option where customers can still pick up their weekly drink of choice. Local boutiques can offer delivery within a certain radius of their store with virtual shopping appointments.

New Services at Lower Prices:

The economic landscape has drastically changed in the past month leaving many households with a more limited budget for fun or extras. Hospitality has always been in the extra category, therefore, taking a look at what your previous cost as per customer and where ideally you think your customer could afford to be is a huge factor in surviving. Restaurants alone can offer new to-go options that are more cost-effective on their end for ingredients, and eliminate actually cooking them by offering ready to cook options. These options could be family-style and slightly lower than their typical menu. For hotels offering a post-pandemic package that includes a resort credit or is a slashed room rate can entice customers to return later this year even if they won’t have the same travel budget.

The overall key for hospitality companies to survive and thrive is to look at ways they can reinvent themselves to match the new landscape.

At rinehimerbaker, we provide leading cloud-based technology packages as well as best-in-class outsourced accounting to hospitality companies. If you are struggling to keep up with your business from home reach out to our team to see how we can help you change the dynamic and put you back on top.

 


Help for All During a Challenging Time

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One thing that companies didn’t plan for six months ago was a pandemic that would swiftly restructure the entire world including how all businesses operate.  With changes in businesses that are allowed to operate, and some companies operating under completely different circumstances, many companies are experiencing a strong decline in revenue. Where do you reach out for help to keep your business operating?  How do you connect with other companies who are also facing the same disruption?

The best thing to come out of this pandemic is the desire for businesses to help one another through a challenging time.  Companies are being relieved of months of rent, customers are ensuring they promote their favorite businesses online, other companies are reworking their production line to produce items healthcare employees are in desperate need of, and B2B businesses are offering free or low-cost services to help one another. This is the time for all businesses to work together towards a common goal of overcoming the largest challenge of our generation and to help each other come out stronger.

How can you take advantage as a company needing help?

Companies such as rinehimerbaker are helping businesses apply for small business loans, disaster relief loans, and outsourcing any finance work that companies can’t handle currently. Cloud-based automation services are also offering multiple free months to help ensure you can still run payments and receivables remotely.

Bill.com is offering customers facing a significant decline in the revenue 3 free months to automate their AP remotely and help them get back on track. To find out if you are eligible please reach out to the rinehimerbaker team. We will help you with setting up a demo and getting onboarded quickly.

This deal ends 4/27/20

 

Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get results through the cloud by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.


Using a Slow in Business to Your Advantage

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Businesses have stagnant periods throughout their longevity that sometimes are caused by actions that are out of their control such as large customers going out of business, changes in the supply chain, or pandemics.

Currently, the world is facing a business slow due to COVID-19 that companies haven’t experienced before. Employees are quarantined, customers are shutting down for extended periods, and states are calling for mandatory shut-downs. While many executives see this time as a negative to their bottom line there is a silver lining- It’s a time to complete improvement projects that will allow your organization to come out stronger. We have pulled together three ways executive teams can maximize a slow-down.

• Accessing current processes and how they can be improved
Many times executives are faced with needing to automated and improve processes but they lack the time to get these projects completed efficiently. With the inability to travel, and the reduction of travel time from everyone’s day there is more time to look into how to upgrade technology and eliminate manual work. Where should a company start? First look at the processes or business tasks that currently can’t be done remotely. Is there a solution that would allow team members to executive this at home? If so, set up a demo and evaluate the pros and cons of implementing it now. Secondly, take time to follow up on current best practices for HR, finance, sales, and marketing. Is there anything your team has tabled for the year that would be a benefit if you took the slow time now to evaluate? Any improvements that can help with a remote team will only increase your overall strategic power once COVID-19 is controlled.

• Elevating Your Customer Experience
This is a great time to check in with your customers and find out how they are doing during this economic crisis. It’s also a great time to send out a survey through your preferred platform on how they enjoy working with your company. It’s a great time to find out what your team does well, and where opportunities lie to improve.

• Education
Many companies are offering FREE webinars, web series, and information daily to provide thought leadership and helpful advice. Take advantage of these opportunities and use them for the above two bullet points. Rarely in the day to day operations do we have time to work on improving our business

Not just focusing on the bad during the time, but the ways you can improve your own business, and provide value to your customers. At rinehimerbaker, we can help you evaluate your current finance processes and technology package. Contact our team through the form below to get started today.


ready for COVID

Are Your Finances Ready for COVID?

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The coronavirus has created anxiety around the globe leaving companies in a vulnerable position with their staff – how do we continue to operate, while keeping our employees’ and the public’s health a priority? Furthermore, how do we do prioritize human health while staying ahead of a potential economic crisis?

Companies that are not on the cloud are currently experiencing not only a loss in workforce availability, but limited capabilities to function due to the lack of access to their data, workflows, and more. These businesses are facing harder financial losses than those that can continue to operate with team members in quarantine.

The companies still thriving are able to do so because they have the ability to continue day-to-day operations remotely because their employees can be anywhere and still access critical company data. Cloud ERP solutions such as Sage Intacct allow companies to not only maintain the status quo through a world-crisis without limiting the work that can be done but also gives them an edge in attracting and retaining high performing employees without geographic restrictions.

The cloud provides a secure way to keep businesses going when worker mobility is limited, plus positions finance departments for success in the future by providing room for more flexible working arrangements.

 

Anywhere, Anytime Benefits of the Cloud:

 

  • Workers can be productive wherever there is an internet connection
  • Additional flexibility helps attract and retain top talent
  • Increased collaboration and version control with real-time data

 

While bracing for the worst of the coronavirus spread, we encourage you to take the time to evaluate how your company can continue to operate efficiently while keeping your staff safe. If you aren’t on the cloud, now is the time to change to ensure your business won’t skip a beat when uncertainty clouds the future.

Contact our team now to start your move to the cloud. 

 


CFO

How Your CFO is Leading the Charge in Change

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As the digital age continues to shift how companies operate, the responsibilities of the CFO are extremely vital to the pulse of the company. The amount of data that the CFO is responsible for producing and interrupting in real-time is vast and makes the difference between growth and being stagnetic.

 

CFO’s are not only in charge of making sure that the books are correct for tax purposes but providing clear data on where the business current financials are in real-time. CFOs are able to provide better insight into inventory, location by location profit and loss statements, vendor costs, employee costs, and more because of the technology they are implementing not only in the finance department but across the company. CFO’s are making the room in the annual budget to upgrade every department from HR to sales to accounting to cloud-based solutions that offer open APIs. This allows for information to seamlessly travel between systems automatically. This is eliminating human error and giving CFOs better insight into exactly what is the cause of each result. This alone is saving companies up to 75% of the time it currently takes to check the accuracy of their reports. The upgraded technology also allows CFOs to have custom dashboards with instant real-time results such as totaled up expenses, revenue, net income, and more.

 

What does better insight lead to? Better performance. Better performance leads to growth.

 

What CFOs are creating through technology upgrades, and better insight into their business is moving them into a strategic role instead of just the “numbers position”. With all of the data that is being created at a much faster rate than before the CFO role is now including interrupting the data at a higher level. This includes a recommendation on vendors, quick reactions to locations or lines of business underperforming, and more. The CFO is now flexing different muscles because they are creating the recommendations and bring them to the executive team vs. just the reports. This also gives them immediate insight into where money should be spent for expansion.

 

The CFO role is ever-changing due to their ability to drill down into the business faster giving them the ultimate insight into what is working. This role is becoming as equally as important as the CEO in order for a business to be successful.

 

 

 

 

 



Does Your Accounting System Make the Grade?

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Your accounting system can make or break a finance department’s strategic impact on your company’s growth. If you find yourself having to put in hours of manual work, lacking insight into your business, and an inability to grow your company because of your accounting system it is time to consider if it’s making the grade. Read through our list of what your accounting solution should provide.

What You Should be Looking For in Your Current and Future System:

  • Accurate Bookkeeping- Overall an accounting solution allows businesses to keep track of financial transactions. This includes being able to create income statements, balance sheets, cash-flow statements, and custom reports all without human error. Being able to eliminate errors ensures that decisions for expansion are made on accurate information.
  • Scalability- The accounting system your company uses should have the ability to grow as sales increase. As your business expands through new locations, product lines, expansion into new countries, or additional customers your system should be able to easily add these into its system. Look at your current system if you added a new location to your company how long will it take for your accounting solution to add it? Hours or days? Is there a cap on how many can be added in total or is it unlimited? How easy is it to add a finance employee to your system? If your system is limited in its capabilities to expand then it’s not making the grade.
  • Ease of Use- Having a system that is user-friendly is key to maximizing the insight a finance department can produce quickly. This also allows you to focus on potential employees’ capabilities from a strategic point of view vs. their pre-knowledge of how to use your accounting system.
  • Audit Features- An audit can be an intimidating part of the year if your finances aren’t organized. An accounting system that allows you to add notes to any manual changes that are made as well as a drill-down ability makes it easy to get by with flying colors.
  • Cloud-Based/ Web-Hosted- In the current technology impacted times not being able to access your financial data anywhere anytime will instantly put you behind your competition. Does your current system allow you to have team members spread out across the country? Can you log in at any point in time to access a report?
  • Time Saving Automation- When companies implement new technology one of the biggest benefits they are looking to achieve is time savings. Your accounting system should be working for you. Reports should be instantly produced based on settings that have been saved. Your system should also have the ability to seamlessly integrate with your other software solutions such as your CRM. If your business changes how long does it take to get a new report from accounting?

Does your current accounting system do all of the above? Does it make the grade?

Find out how rinehimerbaker can help your company get results through the cloud by reaching out to accounting@rinehimerbaker.com.

 


Intacct customer success

Become a Sage Intacct Customer Success with rinehimerbaker

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Transforming your business is essential to remain competitive in the complex and unsteady business world. However, this can be overwhelming if you don’t have a starting place. We suggest starting with your finance department since its connected to your employees, production, customers, vendors and more.

 

We have helped all of our customers save hours of manual work, close faster, get better real-time results, create growth, and keep a streamlined team including MemberClicks. They were able to achieve such amazing success that even Sage Intacct recognized them for the work they accomplished after implementing their cloud-based ERP with a Customer Success Award.

 

Find out more in the video below, and then fill out our form to start your journey to transformation today.


Growing Internationally with the Cloud

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At rinehimerbaker we focus a considerable amount of time helping our customers grow within their currents markets and helping them achieve their growth goals. If their growth takes them into international markets we take steps to ensure they have the tools to succeed. Expanding into international markets brings communication and data sharing challenges if you don’t have the right technology in place.  Here are some of the ways cloud-based ERP’s can help alleviate the complexity of growing internationally.

Seamless Connection Around the Globe

The cloud is a set of servers that can be accessed over the internet. This eliminates on-premise hardware and allows a company or person to be anywhere with access to their data. There’s no need to set up your own internal networks or maintain security on your logins. Cloud systems protect your data and are constantly updated to ensure you can access it anywhere anytime. This is what has created the boom in remote employees and has given companies an easy way to expand their business. This includes going international because they can seamlessly add team members without missing a beat.

Real-Time Data to Monitor and Create Growth

With the anywhere anytime access companies also gain the ability to see real-time results for their business including net income, expenses, revenue, and more by total company or separate location. As companies add on new countries of business, they can easily create separate entities to track how the new area is performing. It also lets you easily see the difference in cost for vendors, profits, customer turnover, and more. A cloud-based solution also allows you to easily rollup that data for a total company performance. With the ease of insight into what is working and what is not working across all departments it allows a company to successful set up new branches no matter the location.

Multiple Currencies and Compliance

 

When growing internationally you may find your that your business has to conduct transactions in foreign currencies. Leading cloud ERP solutions can seamlessly handle transactions in multiple currencies which lessens the burden on your accounting staff. Compliance and tax laws can also become more complex for your business when you cross borders. Cloud ERP’s offer the ability to structure your company so that you capture all of your data and stay in compliance.

Expanding your company’s reach has never been easier, take full advantage of what the cloud has to offer by ensuring all the technology your company uses is cloud-based.