General Business Management

The Income Tracker is one of QuickBooks’ more innovative features. If you’re not using it, you should be.

One of the reasons that QuickBooks appeals to millions of small businesses is because it offers multiple ways to complete the same tasks, which accommodates different work styles. Say, for example, you wanted to look up a specific invoice. You could:

• Go to the Customer Center and select the customer, and then scan through the list of transactions,
• Use the Find feature (Edit | Find), or
• Create a report.

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It’s probably your least favorite task as a manager or human resources professional. But there are ways to minimize the unpleasantness associated with layoffs.

It’s nice to be on this side of the Great Recession that began last decade. Companies were shedding jobs so fast and furiously that it was a luxury to have time to cushion the blow that hit both those employees who were laid off and the “survivors.”

But even in a good economy, downsizing isn’t that uncommon. Businesses reduce their payrolls for a variety of reasons all the time. Whether it’s due to an ongoing cash flow problem, a merger or acquisition, or a reduction in products or services, all companies that must downsize have one thing in common: the tremendous challenges involved in orchestrating the layoffs and dealing with the emotions and changes in workflow for those who remain.

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As with most of your non-profit’s business management decisions, there are both pros and cons. Here’s a look at some of them.

As a nonprofit organization, managing your financial accounts is a greater challenge than it is for many other types of small businesses. You have regulations and requirements that for-profit businesses don’t.

Further, there’s the whole stewardship issue. You’re not exchanging goods and services with the goal of enriching shareholders or the company itself. You have a more altruistic mission. People give you money because your cause is worthy of it, without expecting a furniture store truck to back up in their driveway. You have to spend those dollars as judiciously as possible.

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