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By Rayanne Morriss

One of the basic realities of running a successful business is that you often have to spin several plates at once. When you must worry about suppliers, clients, contracts, payroll, and so on, it can be daunting to track. When there is a delay in tracking who has been paid, who expects to be paid, and when materials are supposed to arrive, it can snarl productivity and profits. This article provides tips on optimizing the comings and goings of doing business so that your business avoids catastrophe.

Contract management software

Most new businesses will probably have little trouble managing all of their business contracts because the owner can probably count them all on one hand. However, when it comes to businesses that have been able to establish themselves and network with plenty of other individuals and organizations, the full count of contracts and their durations can be a considerably larger number.

To help with this, using contract management software in salesforce can be a sound decision. Rather than having to constantly recheck who is contracted to you until Day X of Month Y, these sorts of programs only need to receive the input once and can then let you know when something notable happens to a given contract like needing to pay the other party because another month has passed by or the contract is about a month away from expiring.

Payment processors

Rarely do businesses go completely analog and go cash-only for their earnings. In fact, it is unheard of when getting into the realm of international commerce. This situation means that just about every business needs at least one payment processor company to manage the intake of card orders, whether they do business online or even do face-to-face transactions with their phone and a peripheral for swiping/tapping.

While a payment processor’s job is to manage all the intricacies of credit and debit card transactions, some of them, like the ones an independent business might rely upon at a craft show or convention, also offer support for point-of-sale transactions.

Payroll software

While general accounting is a necessity for any profit-focused venture, it can sometimes be hard to tell where the money is going or recognize the exact moment that payment has just sent your company into the red. Payroll software can track and control what employees, partners, and contractors get paid, when those individuals were paid, and even automate the process, leaving you with one less thing to worry over during your day-to-day activities of running your business.

If your needs are a little more grandiose, possibly because your pool of employees, contractors, and partners are based in different countries, there are entire companies that can handle the payroll and associated tax forms for you; all you need to do when working with such firms is to send them the relevant paperwork. Furthermore, if your demands for future hires necessitate that they live within or outside of a list of certain countries, these sorts of firms ensure that you will only be doing work with citizens and companies based in countries that you are fine working with.

Surveillance and monitoring software

If you are paranoid that your employees may be working from home with less efficiency or dedication than they would from your office or place of business, several varieties of surveillance software exist to satisfy that concern.

-Keyloggers can record every keystroke that your employees make on their device(s) during work hours. They can also gauge when an employee’s inputs are related to work and some keyloggers also offer time-tracking services to average out an employee’s efficiency based on the metrics you understand for your company’s line of work.

-Face monitors can make sure that employees are at their computers and actively paying attention to the screens that are relevant to your company during company time.

Employee satisfaction

One crucial part of keeping track of your business is to keep track of your employee’s happiness and satisfaction. There are many ways you can do this, including focus groups and anonymous employee surveys. There are also a variety of ways you can help to keep up employee satisfaction, such as having lunches catered, leaving early on Fridays, or even using a good video editing tool to create videos highlighting their accomplishments for everyone to enjoy. Happy employees are the foundation of a great business.

Conclusion

Managing a business and its profitability can be a daunting challenge due to several factors. Fortunately, programs exist to help monitor your employees, the payment of everyone your business deals with, the payments you receive from other parties, and even the various contracts and leases you establish with everyone in your company’s sphere of influence.

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Rayanne Morriss is currently working towards her BA from Oregon State University. She loves to write, read, travel, and paint. She enjoys finding new coffee shops with friends and expanding her cooking skills with her husband.