Policies, Procedures and Processes Articles





Policies and Procedures Articles

Browse our article list for valuable information. Learn how to gain internal control with your accounting policies and procedures. Discover what a quality management system can do to improve your company. Or see why updated documentation is crucial to performance and continuous process improvement. Here, you will find collected knowledge on many important topics that affect you and your business.We add a new article each week, so check back frequently for the latest news and information. And if there is a topic not covered here that you’d like to see, please let us know. We gladly welcome your suggestions and feedback!

How Are You Managing Your Policies And Procedures?

February 8th, 2010

If your company is like most, you’re storing your policies and procedures on a file server. Perhaps your working drafts are in one folder, approved versions are in another folder, and previous versions are archived in yet another folder. Some companies will create folders for the different clauses of ISO 9001 or arrange documents according to functional areas or departments. A lot of these companies aren’t even practicing the most basic security techniques, like limiting “read-write” privileges to a select few. »» Read more… »

Do You Really Need Document Management Software?

January 25th, 2010

Policies and procedures need to be managed, not simply collected, as we oftentimes tend to do.  Add in the offspring of policies and procedures — records — and you have the making of a problem common to business…a lack of control.

Control of records and documents is critical to compliance.  ISO 9001 requires document control, record control, and specific procedures that clarify how you are maintaining control.  HIPAA requires access control.  Sarbanes-Oxley requires access and revision control.  Document and record control are at the heart of many of the various compliance schemes businesses encounter. »» Read more… »

7 Keys to Developing Great Policies

January 18th, 2010

Policies are most often rooted in undesired consequences.  Something happens that shouldn’t — a door isn’t secure from the outside and someone gets in your building who doesn’t belong — and a policy (i.e., “That door is for exiting the building ONLY in case of emergencies.  It is NEVER to be used as an entry.”) is enacted.

A few — such as high-level, or corporation-wide — policies are designed to promote desirable consequences for an organization, as well as prevent undesired ones.  In this article, we’re going to stick with the first kind.  In any case, the best policies give everyone in the organization a sense of purpose and direction.  So…how do you write a good policy? »» Read more… »

7 Steps to a Policies and Procedures Manual - Part 2

December 17th, 2009

In part one of this article, you learned the first three steps in the Bizmanualz process of making a policies and procedures manual – research, design and development, and procedure writing.  Now, as Paul Harvey liked to say, “Here’s the rest…of the story.” »» Read more… »

7 Steps to a Policies and Procedures Manual - Part 1

December 14th, 2009

A lot of work goes into developing every Bizmanualz Policies and Procedures manual.  We start by conducting…

1. Subject Research

In the not-too-distant past, we primarily searched the Internet for clues as to what people wanted. We’d find what topics people were interested in by doing the same thing you do: searching by keywords. »» Read more… »

How Can You Use Pre-Written Procedures To Save Time?

November 20th, 2009

You’ve just been given the task of writing a new procedure that documents an existing business process.  You make sure you understand, and you close with, “I’ll get on this process right away.”

That’s when your boss says, “Process? Did I say ‘process’? I meant processezzz! Plural!”  And before you can blurt out, “What do you mean?”, the boss says you need to develop procedures for all accounting processes, not just the one.  Oh, and he wants them by the end of the month!

»» Read more… »

Your Procedures Drive Your Total Cost of Compliance

November 16th, 2009

Writing procedures is an exercise in controlling the cost of compliance.  You’re trying to comply with customer expectations, management objectives, government regulations, and/or industry standards, making compliance expensive.  Regardless of the reason for compliance, wouldn’t you want to write as few procedures as possible if you could still conform to the compliance mandate and keep your compliance costs to a minimum?

»» Read more… »

How to Reduce Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Costs

November 6th, 2009

Small public companies like yours may finally have to begin providing the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with certified assessments of their internal controls.  Smaller micro caps will be required to comply with SOX 404(b) reporting requirements beginning June 15, 2010; they’ll have to attest to the effectiveness of their internal controls in their annual reports released on or after June 15 of next year.  So, for those whose annual reports are just seven months away, the time to consider is over — it’s time to take action! »» Read more… »

How Do You Know Your Procedures Work?

October 26th, 2009

You’ve written a new procedure.  Your procedure review identified completeness, correctness, and subject matter applicability.  You feel you’ve caught your procedure writing errors and the procedure’s ready to go…but go where?  How do you determine if your new procedure is working?

»» Read more… »

Do You Really Have to Write Procedures?

October 19th, 2009

Not all processes require procedure writing.  There’s a lot of overhead associated with every business procedure you write.  Therefore, the more business procedures you write, the more procedures you have to edit, implement, train, audit, and »» Read more… »


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