10 Admin Tips To Save You Time & Get Your Sanity Back

With the long weekend almost over, how many of us dread the start of the first day of work?

Our inbox will be piled up with unread emails, voice mails piled up and people are chasing you from every side you turn.

Let’s face it! Business is about providing services and bringing in the money. We want to grow our business but no business can run smoothly without admin work. They are a crucial part of the business but not a revenue generating stream. But without admin work like quotes, invoicing, customers’ information, notes, etc. the business will not exist either.

Therefore as a tradie who has to be out on site doing the work that generates revenue, more often than not, the evening times or weekends are the only time you have to catch up on admin work, invoicing, checking accounts receivables and then plan for the next day or week’s work. Furthermore, with stacks and stacks of paperwork whether it’s hidden in the van or stashed behind the desk, it’s often difficult to find a specific piece of information whether it’s a certain customer’s details, when was a particular equipment last serviced, or how much is currently owing from your customers. With time being insufficient to begin with, you now have to waste even more time looking for such information. The thing is, admin work should not consume your life!

Wouldn’t it be fantastic to feel in control and be on top of things because you have some parts of your business automated?

Here’s 10 admin tips that will save you time and give you back your sanity:

1. Get organized

We are all human. There is only so much our brain can remember so if we don’t do a task immediately, make it a habit to write it down on a to-do list. Tick off your items on the list one by one once done and make sure the important ones are at the top.

2. View Today’s Task Only

It is always tempting to view all your tasks even though they are not urgent and don’t need to be done until next week. When you task view spans out into next week or month, it can get overwhelming and create a sense of anxiety making it hard to start on the current task because chances are your brain is thinking ahead to next week task. So put first things first and focus on current task.

3. Clear out unwanted items

We’ve all been there – “I’ll keep this just in case”. Well, if you haven’t touched that item in the last 3 months, chances are you will never touch it. So put it away or discard it to make room for items you actually use.

4. Start your morning with a success routine

I am a firm believer in this. Your morning defines the rest of your day, so do something that will make you feel good so you can tackle the rest of the day with confidence and with full control. Be it a jog; go to the gym, grab your morning coffee from your favourite place or simply visualizing how the rest of your day’s going to be.

5. Turn off your email or phone

At times it’s simply impossible to be there for everyone while still getting your job done. It does save more time if you get to focus and complete a single job and then check your emails and voicemail and reply to them during breaks in between jobs.

6. Automate your workflow

Every business needs some sort of technology and for tradies, Ascora job management software is a must. Ascora helps tradies automate their workflow, automatically send out SMS reminders for jobs and outstanding invoices, uses template and pre-set prices to create quotes and create your next repeat job automatically with the same information so you cut down repetitive data entries.  It also lets you create automatic follow ups on invoices or quotes, so you don’t have to!

7. Place your items back where they came from

We know that we have a stapler on that corner of the table from the beginning of time. So if you took the stapler away, make sure you put it back to its original place. The two extra steps you take will save you heaps of time down the road wondering where in the world that stapler has gone.

8. Integrate your accounting system to your job management software

No one likes to look at numbers at the end of a long day. No, not even in the weekends! But things like cash flow, profit and loss and BAS are crucial to run your business so make sure your job management software integrates with your accounting system. That way, once you’ve completed your job on site, you job management software can generate your invoice right away and your customers can also pay you straight away via the app. With as job management software like Ascora (ahem, we know we are a little bias but it’s such amazing software it’s a shame not to show it off), you can get all the above done and with a push of a button, your invoices and payments are already entered into your accounting system, right there while you’re still on site.

9. Do not procrastinate

If there’s a phone call or email to return, return it and reply immediately. This avoids things left forgotten and customers always appreciate a quick reply.

10. Plan for the next day at the end of each day

To be honest, with good job management software, this is possibly an easy task. Ascora has a dashboard where you can enter your entire to-do list and it will even remind you when it’s due making everything a breeze and as organized as possible. Regardless, it’s still important to look at the dashboard the night before to have better preparation for the next day. It’s a heads up to start the day off better.

So we hope these tips will help you get back in control of your business, stay on track and end each day with a smile.