Please note that the SBBA list server and newsletter is for bookkeeping related content, and not for personal postings or advertisements of any kind.  All submissions will be included at the discretion of the newsletter committee and the editors.

QuickBooks User Group will take a break during tax season. 

Winter classes are available for adult education at http://ce.sbcc.edu/classes.htm

THE FOLLOWING ARE UPCOMING CLASSES at Santa Barbara CITY COLLEGE, FOUR OF WHICH WILL BE TAUGHT BY OUR OWN SBBA MEMBERS (Brenda Richter, Sandy O’Meara, Carolyn Terry, Karen Ziegler)

* ACCT 110 - INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING (4.0 UNITS)
Basic theory of accounts. Principles of sole proprietorship, including concepts of how to keep financial records for small businesses.  Daytime, Evening & Saturday classes available. (Taught by Carolyn Terry and Brenda Richter)

* ACCT 130 - PAYROLL ACCOUNTING (4.0 UNITS)
Study and application of payroll accounting concepts, procedures, related internal controls and legislation.  Thursday’s 5:30p.m.-9:30p.m. (Taught by Karen Ziegler)
 

* ACCT 160 - ACCOUNTING WITH QUICKBOOKS (3.0 UNITS)
Review and application of accounting principles using QuickBooks. Topics include setting up business books and working with inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll, financial statements, reports. Tuesday’s 5:00p.m. – 8:05p.m. (Taught by Sandy O’Meara)
 

* ACCT 230 - FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING (5.0 UNITS)
Analysis and ethical application of financial accounting concepts, principles and procedures for corporations, partnerships and proprietorships engaged in manufacturing, merchandising, or service operations. Computerized applications are emphasized.

Daytime and evening classes available – These classes are almost full already!

* ACCT 240 - MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING (4.0 UNITS)
Study and application of managerial accounting concepts and procedures.

Daytime and evening classes available – These classes are almost full already!

* ACCT 270 - /CIS 270 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEMS (4.0 UNITS)
Introduction to the design and use of computer-based information systems in accounting. Topics include computer-based accounting systems, systems development, data management and modeling, accounting cycles. Tuesday or Thursday; 5:30p.m. – 7:35p.m.

A tidy work space saves time, money

Monday was National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Did you miss the memo? Perhaps it's buried under one of those piles of paperwork on your desk. Don't worry. The entire month of January has been dubbed National Get Organized Month. You still have time to tackle what for most people is a top New Year's resolution.

Despite their resolve to do better each year, small-business owners often end up pushing time for organization to the bottom of their to-do lists. Yet a disorganized desk and office can be a drain on time and the bottom line.

If you can't find a client's file, notes from the last sales meeting or an important telephone number in 30 or fewer seconds, your methods are costing you money in terms of lost sales and lower productivity, not to mention mental stress, experts say.

The biggest challenge for most small-business owners is paperwork, despite technology-inspired dreams of a paperless office. “If any of us look around our offices at this very moment, we see piles and files filled with paper," said Mona Williams, vice president of buying for Coppell, Texas-based Container Store.

"New technology and all of the data we now receive translates to more reports and pieces of paper we have to keep up with," she said. To help conquer the paper storm, Container Store and other retailers are coming out with new lines of office organization products. Gone are the traditional putty or smoky-gray plastic accessories. Instead, bright colors and textured neutrals are being rolled out to satisfy the clamor for attractive yet functional pieces. Even the manila folder, the workhorse of the office, has been transformed by contemporary printed patterns of colorful stripes, circles and swirls.

Target Corp. is also answering the demand for office products with personality. Its line of organizing tools from Real Simple magazine sports the trendy colors of orange, hot pink and chocolate brown. Having the proper tools solves only part of the organization equation, experts say. To be a success, you need an organizing system tailored to your needs and a commitment to spend the time to keep it up.

Professional organizers typically charge $100 to $200 an hour to analyze your work space, create systems to optimize your workflow and teach you how to use and maintain them. First, they try to do everything themselves, the typical time-draining habit of small-business owners. Second, they are perfectionists. That leads to indecision and procrastination. They can't decide what to do with that e-mail document, so they let it pile up with the other unanswered electronic correspondence. Or they may be holding out for the perfect file cabinets, which they don't have time to shop for, so paperwork piles up on the floor. Last, they don't allow themselves time at the end of the day to stop for 15 or 30 minutes to get organized for the next day.

Most don't cry uncle until they realize how much their inefficient ways are costing them. For one attorney it was a move to a smaller office with fewer employees that started him on the road to an expensive habit of office chaos. When he first hired an organizer several years ago, she sent him her list of favorite organizing tools, which included yellow highlighters, desktop hanging file bins for "hot action" files and cardboard file storage boxes. The first thing recommended was to install antivirus software. Then she created a computer backup process for him to follow and gave him the name of a computer technician to keep vital office systems up and running. Mail was the next target. She set up a sorting system that ensured time-sensitive legal papers were not lost in piles of junk mail. She also set up a personalized version of her favorite organizing system, the desktop action files. This organizer favored a plastic hanging file box that holds half a dozen or so file folders labeled, in her case, "To Call," "To Pay," "To Read Now," "To Buy" and "To Reply.” The client’s action folders are geared to his workflow and include one for his bookkeeper, who comes in twice a month to record checks, invoices and receipts. Plastic containers are used as project boxes to corral paperwork related to a single project. They are the right size to set on a credenza or a bookshelf when not in use.

She taught the client how to make the best use of what she calls "million-dollar real estate" on his desk and within arm's reach. Files that are used less often were cleared out and stored in file cabinets on the other side of the room. Tax records and other archive materials were sent to off-site storage.

Visits from the organizer tune up the organization systems about once a year and to make sure the client and his assistant are living by her mantras that everything in the office must have a home and that organizing is a process, not a one-day project.

cyndia.zwahlen@latimes.com