Category: Processes

Bring It All Together: How to Implement Processes in a Nutshell – Part 2

Pamela Ayuso August 5, 2019

If you are thinking about implementing processes at your company, the task of doing so can feel daunting. Additionally, getting the infrastructure off the ground is a lot of work, but it’s also a great investment of time and effort.

Processes are a group of tasks that are performed to obtain a desired objective within a company. Outlining the main processes and implementing them for you and your team will result in greater efficiency, adaptability, and peace of mind. In Part 1 of this post (add link), I outlined the initial steps for implementing processes at a firm.

Bring It All Together: How to Implement Processes in a Nutshell – Part 1

Pamela Ayuso July 29, 2019

Once a business grows to a certain level of success, it becomes an absolute necessity to organize daily tasks to avoid mistakes. Errors happen all the time, and inconsistencies can result in unhappy customers, tense employees, and unbudgeted costs.

The best way to organize these daily duties is to create and implement business processes. A process is a group of tasks that are performed within a business to obtain a specific objective—it is like a chain of events that guides a project from start to finish. By clearly outlining for yourself and your company what the main processes in your company are and how, ideally, they should work, you will gain greater efficiency.

The Value of a Little Patience When Automating Processes

Pamela Ayuso June 24, 2019

When implementing a new process in a company, it takes some time to find a new rhythm of work. Routines and habits must change, and the team has to adjust to the new way of doing things. It requires patience, and sometimes, in the middle of the transition, you may wonder whether it will ever work.

Once the implementation is completed successfully, though, it’s beautiful to see. The process you had been working on now operates independently without you having to do anything about it. The team, the systems, and the processes have all adapted, and the new way of doing things is the new normal.

Configuring Processes to Gain More Efficient Results

Pamela Ayuso May 27, 2019

Our company recently underwent a company-wide process revamp: we examined all our processes, revised the content, and standardized the formatting since it was not consistent across departments. This project underlined the importance of setting up processes to be as clean and organized as possible with proper categorization and structuring. This deliberate configuring helps the user focus on the language itself and not be distracted by discrepancies in the arrangement of the processes.

We have processes for every department within our company. Some departments, like Finance, have more processes than others based on the nature of the work. For more on how we use processes at Celaque, our firm, please refer to my blog posts on processes: The Benefits of Implementing Processes in Your Business, How to Improve and Grow Your Business with Effective Processes, and 6 Useful Ideas to Make Your Processes More Streamlined.

Your Business and New Employees: How to Adjust Your Processes

Pamela Ayuso April 22, 2019

The ultimate benefit of processes is that they are adaptable. They are living organisms that can be modified as the company grows or changes. Because a structure with preexisting processes is already in place, it is easier to adjust, add, or remove responsibilities as the team grows and evolves.

When a new person joins your company, the current processes can provide the foundation from which you and the team can see what work is being done now and how it can be modified. From there, it is easy to reduce the workload for other members of the team, if necessary, and to assign new responsibilities.

This is Our Monthly Accounting Close Process

Pamela Ayuso March 4, 2019

One of the central processes in any business is the monthly accounting close stage. Each month the financial books must be reviewed to ensure everything has been accounted for properly. If a specific process is not strictly followed, the consequences can be very painful for a company. There are always differences or accounts that need to be reconciled, and if strict vigilance is not maintained, the differences may slowly mount, and reconstructing prior transactions will be a lot more difficult. Recurrent accounting processes will also help you detect errors and when an action can be taken to correct any nascent issues. Taking care of the company’s numbers will ensure that all the hard work you have put in in other areas of the company will be accurately portrayed.

Over time, my company, Celaque, has developed a set of documents that we prepare on a monthly basis to ensure our accounting is always as flawless as possible.

The Key Processes that Will Need a Three-Level of Review

Pamela Ayuso February 4, 2019

Before any critical document goes out both internally and externally at our firm, it must be reviewed by three sets of eyes. We have found that having different team members looking at the final product ensures that any errors are found. What one person doesn’t see, the next person probably will.

Three levels of review might sound like a lot, but all that it means is that the first person generates the document, the second performs a detailed review, and the third does a final overall check to ensure that everything makes sense. Having three separate points of view on critical documents guarantees that they will get different perspectives and be more accurate.

Business Processes and How to Maintain Them

Pamela Ayuso January 21, 2019

The one downside to working with processes is that they require maintenance. People move on to different roles or companies, the way the work is done changes and regulations are modified: variation is a constant in business. For processes to remain relevant, a business must plan and prepare for change.

I am reminded of this fact more than ever. We are currently doing an overhaul of all our processes to reorganize them by department and function. As we reclassify the processes, we are also questioning the overall design by department and improving each task. Because we are reprogramming everything for the entire company, it has transitioned into a major project.

This Is How Review Processes Can Streamline Success

Pamela Ayuso November 5, 2018

As the CEO of the company Celaque, I need to know and analyze the main events and metrics in each of the departments. The best way I have found to stay up-to-date is through a recurrent review of key indicators and documents within the company. In an established company, this is usually all set up, but in a startup, that is not always the case.

I learned this the hard way as a manager a few years ago. I would sometimes get a question about something that was going on, and I felt embarrassed because I didn’t immediately know the answer. I was in the dark because I didn’t have the numbers at my fingertips or I hadn’t checked in a couple of weeks. I realized then that I needed to find a way to stay on top of the information I needed.

How to Make Sure Processes are Always Up-to-Date

Pamela Ayuso September 3, 2018

If there is one constant in the office, it is that everything will change. Once processes have been developed within a company, they need to be reviewed recurrently to ensure they are still effective, relevant, and up-to-date. A new member may have recently joined the team, or perhaps a new system has been implemented which alters the workflow in the office.

We have developed a system for keeping our processes updated at my company, Celaque. It includes periodic reviews, ad hoc modifications, and self-reviews. The best way to make sure the entire body of processes is always updated is through a programmed annual or semi-annual review. Self-review procedures and taking the opportunity to correct processes when mistakes are found are both essential practices to ensure that processes are in the best shape possible.