1. Is OnPolicy strictly a document manager or does OnPolicy come with Bizmanualz’s policies and procedures?
OnPolicy is document management software that can be purchased stand alone or with Bizmanualz policies and procedures Word templates.

a. Is Bizmanualz’s policy and procedure library available as a bulk document purchase? Can one buy all the forms at one time?
When you buy the OnPolicy Library you will receive all Bizmanualz documents preloaded into OnPolicy or you can purchase any of Bizmanualz products and we can load your purchase into OnPolicy.

b. Can one buy individual policies and procedures as the company develops them?
Individual procedures are available at PoliciesandProcedures.com for purchase anytime.

2. Can the blank policy and procedures documentation be posted to OnPolicy at one time (bulk document purchase) and then downloaded for revision and branding?
OnPolicy manages a document revisions, approvals, and releases.

3. Will OnPolicy notify the administrator when a document has been approved or being edited?
Users may be assigned to editing workflow, which will send you an email when the document is ready for review, approval or release.

4. How much customization is allowed for the company branding?
Your company name will appear on the screen at the top left so your employees know that they are logged into the right place. This name can be changed by your administrator.

5. Does OnPolicy have a transaction log?
All unreleased documents maintain a detailed transaction log of every edit session, including a copy of each document edited. Released documents contain released transaction data.

6. Does OnPolicy meet minimum record keeping requirements for compliance purposes?
OnPolicy was designed to conform to ISO document control quality standards, which are the basis for most compliance purposes.

7. Does the required reading function provide a notification that the employee has read the content and signed off on the document?
A transaction log is maintained listing every employee and their read date.

8. What is the cost of OnPolicy?
Monthly OnPolicy Pricing is about $3 to $4 per person and varies depending on the number of total users. Quantity discounts apply for large installations.  A 25-uesr system starts at $990 per year.

9. Is OnPolicy Web-based?
OnPolicy is a Software as a Service (Saas) product, which means that it is fully web based and executes on Bizmanualz servers. You are paying for usage like a utility.

a. If yes, how is information kept secure?
Security measures are built in to ensure that your data is seen only by you.

b. Would anyone lose information if the company no longer exists?
If the application became unavailable, for whatever reason, then all of the data could be fully exported so that you would not lose any data.

10. Please confirm that Microsoft word, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Adobe pdf’s are all acceptable documents to add to OnPolicy.
Many file types are supported including native integration of Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, and most other file types (extensions) like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, Lotus123, QuatroPro, PDF, graphic formats, text formats, and html.

For more information about OnPolicy check out these links:

• Free OnPolicy Trial
• OnPolicy Pricing
• OnPolicy Blog
• OnPolicy Features
• OnPolicy Video

ST. LOUIS, MO — Bizmanualz, Inc., a St. Louis-based Software as a Service (SaaS) provider for the document compliance marketplace, announced the launch of www.policiesprocedures.com, a new website that offers hundreds of downloadable and fully editable policies, procedures and forms.

Many of our website visitors had been inquiring about buying individual procedures, because they didn’t need the whole manual,” explained Christopher Anderson, Bizmanualz President and Founder. “Over the years, our policies and procedures manuals have helped thousands of companies improve their documentation, and providing them a way to download policies and procedures à la carte was really a no brainer.”

The new website includes individual policy and procedure documents from Bizmanualz comprehensive policies and procedures library. Currently, the website includes procedures from six manuals–Accounting, Finance, Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, Computer & IT, and ISO 22000 Food Safety. Most of the procedures also include forms and references. Pricing is base on the length of each procedure. As an added bonus, all customers receive a free 34-page policies and procedures writing guide with their purchase.

“Each instantly downloadable policy and procedure template based on industry best practices provides an excellent starting point,” said Shailesh Panth, Director of Marketing at Bizmanualz. “All policies and procedures can be easily edited in Microsoft Word, and provide excellent value for our customers by saving many hours of research and writing time.”

A free sample policy and procedure is available for download for those wishing to review the content, language and format of the documents available for sale. For more information, or to place an order, customers should visit www.policiesprocedures.com.

About Bizmanualz

Bizmanualz is leading the evolution of SaaS-delivered document compliance applications marketplace. The company’s procedures management software is designed for ISO 9000 document compliance and also encompasses a full library of over 2,000 policies, procedures and forms for every department. This SAS 70 Level II certified solution “simplifies document compliance” and allows clients to focus on their core business functions. More than 20,000 companies rely on Bizmanualz solutions and services to comply with document management requirements. Bizmanualz is located in Saint Louis, MO. and is an ISO 9000 certified company.

You may hear people ask about the SOP for purchasing new equipment.  In this context an SOP is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).  In other words, what are the steps for purchasing new equipment?

Procedures are required by compliance standards such as ISO in quality, Sarbanes-Oxley for public company accounting, or the Joint Commission in healthcare.  We also use procedures to train new employees on a process in order to obtain more consistent results.  Procedures are used to document company knowledge to ensure important information is retained.  We also use procedures in process improvement to document the future state of a process after we improve it so that we may communicate the new steps to others.

Over time, procedures improve and evolve into “best practices”.  Sometimes these are called Good Manufacturing Practices or GMP for short.  A GMP is an SOP that has evolved into a best practice.  The medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry refers to a procedure as a GMP in their quality system.

Procedures are often associated with or supported by other documents like policies.  What’s the difference between a policy and a procedure?  The policy is the goal statement and the procedure is the description of how to achieve the goal.  So basically, every procedure should be associated with a policy.

Other procedure supporting documents may include:

• Process Maps
• Business Manuals
• Job Description
• Reports, Forms, and Checklists
• Business Objectives

If you are writing a company manual or employee handbook, you will define policies necessary to comply with various laws and regulations as well as your own company standards.  These employee manuals include policies and sometimes also include procedures too.

As you grow you will require more than an Employee Handbook.  Your Employee Manual will grow into a full business manual.   Keep growing and each individual department will write their own policies and procedures manual.  Larger company’s write online policies and procedures because it is easier to communicate them to all employees at once.

Bizmanualz produces a full range of easily editable Microsoft Word templates covering your most important business departments:

• Accounting Policies for controlling assets
• Financial Procedures for managing cash
• Computer & IT Procedures for maintaining networks
• Sales & Marketing Plans for growing revenues
• Human Resources Policies to minimize employee liabilities
• Security Planning and Disaster Recovery to prepare for emergencies
• ISO 9000 Quality Manuals for customer satisfaction
• Policies and Procedures Supplements for industries

So What is a Procedure?

A procedure is a way that you achieve consistent results. Procedures can be called a Standard Operating Procedure, an SOP, a GMP, a work instruction or a best practice.  Procedures are required for compliance.  Procedures are helpful for training.  And procedures help to retain important information.  If you are implementing policies and procedures in your organziation, then you should look into OnPolicy Procedure Management Software instead of using document management software.

Company rules are found in your Employee Handbook.  One example would be sexual harassment.  It is illegal in the United States to subject others to unwelcome sexual conduct in a work situation.  If you are going to write a company policy, you would start with the law or regulation issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).  The EEOC provides definitions and additional information that will allow us to describe a company policy.

Every company should have a sexual harassment policy in their company manual that reads something like this:

The Company is committed to providing a workplace free from sexual harassment and as such prohibits the sexual harassment, or gender-based discrimination of any employee.

Notice this is a rule about relationships and ethics.  So now that we have written a rule, what do we do with it?  We are not done.  Before we release this policy we need to put some context behind it.  We could use some basic descriptive information:

Sexual Harassment Policy

• Title: What is the policy going to be called?
• Policy: What is the text of the policy?
• Purpose: Why do we need a policy for this?
• Scope: Who does this policy apply to?
• Responsibilities : Who is responsible for the policy?
• Definitions: Are all terms in the policy clear?
• References: Does this policy refer to other documents?

Once you have answered all of these questions you are ready to produce a complete policy document (see figure).  But what if you need to write a company policy as part of a business procedure (think an accounting policy and procedure manual)? Then you should focus it on the process results.

A Policy in a Procedure

A policy in a procedure acts as a mini-mission statement containing the customer of the policy, its purpose, and a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) to communicate how users know the procedure is working.  An example of a policy for an Accounts Receivable Procedure:

Accounts Receivable Personnel are responsible for the timely preparation, distribution, and collection of invoices to optimize cash flow and customer payments while maintaining accurate records for proper internal control.

In the Accounts Receivable policy you see the customer is the Accounts Receivable personnel. The purpose is to optimize cash flow and customer payments while maintaining accurate records for proper internal control and the KPI is optimize, timely and accurate. The procedure needs to define what optimize, timely and accurate means.

I would try to keep it to a single paragraph.  A longer policy is more complex and is harder to follow.  Here we have three KPIs to follow.  You could just as easily shorten the policy:

Accounts Receivable personnel shall ensure that all outstanding customer invoices are paid in a timely manner.

A shorter policy is more focused on a single KPI and much easier to follow.  What do we do with the questions we need to answer for Title, Policy, Purpose, Scope and Responsibilities?  Answer them, but in this case we are writing a procedure policy so the answers are in the context of the procedure, not just the policy.  Otherwise it is pretty much the same as writing a policy rule.

That is How to Write A Business Policy

It is easier than you think.  But you don’t want to write hundreds of policies from scratch. It is very easy to start with Bizmanualz policy and procedure templates.  Just image the time you will save writing standard operating policies and procedures for your business.  Try out Bizmanualz Free Samples.

This question has been on every business manager’s mind since the first company was started.  Large or small, it doesn’t matter.  When it comes to business valuation, people want to know how to get the most for the company.

Today I’m going to tell you.  It’s so shockingly simple, it may take a few seconds before you realize the truth of this statement:  The key to unlocking the value in your business is by documenting your business processes, in writing, for all of your employees!

Why “in writing?”  Multiplication. Once you can document your business process, you can multiply your valuation power.  You just take your written documents and multiply them for every new employee that comes on board.  There you have it – the secret of unlocking your hidden business value.  It’s as simple as that.

In business, writing that documents your business processes are called “Policies and Procedures.” And the kind of writing that is phenomenally successful in increasing the value of your business is called “Power Policies and Procedures.” Knowing how to put together Power Policies and Procedures is the key.

But there’s a problem. Teaching someone to write Power Policies and Procedures is not easy.  Even when you show someone all the “tricks of the trade”, most people just don’t seem to get it.  If they did, being successful would be quite a bit more commonplace!

However, here’s the good news – I’ve developed the one product in the world that really can teach others how to write Power Policies and Procedures.  And not just a select few people, either.  This product can teach anybody.  It can teach you.  Listen to what one of the customers has to say:

“I have reviewed the entire [Policies and Procedures] Manual and related software and find it extremely well organized, helpful, and all the things a happy customer is looking for.  As CFO of a public company, this will assist not only in organization, but our audits as well.”
- Richard Nance, CFO General Automation, Inc.

What is this amazing product?

Bizmanualz, Inc. has developed The Business Policies and Procedures System covering all the major departmental areas within your organization.

“My superiors were impressed with the immediate results.  Given the fast paced environment we live in today and the various responsibilities management is held accountable for, these manuals provide a convenient means of establishing very detailed processes within a fraction of the time it would take to perform from scratch.  Thank you for making some of my daily responsibilities less hectic.”
– Dan Gugliotta, Spring Air Partners

Yes, experts and ordinary businesspeople alike recognize Bizmanualz, Inc. as the master of Power Policies and Procedures.

But maybe you think you don’t need this skill.  Is that what you think?  Then think again.  Because 8 out of 10 new businesses fail in the first 5 years.  The biggest reason for failure: weak management.

Yet when you know how to write Power Policies and Procedures, increasing your valuation is easy.  It’s practically like taking candy from a baby.  Yes, it’s just about that easy!

Not only that – You can use Power Policies and Procedures to create an automatic “money machine” for your business.  Now you can go on vacation for weeks to places like Hawaii.  And when you get back, the business will be running just as smoothly as if you had never left.  Now that’s what I call freedom!  So why don’t you have this skill already?

Time.  Nobody has enough time.  That’s why I created a set of Power Policies and Procedures templates containing many of the most common policies and procedures every business needs.  You get best practices from Accounting & Finance, Computer & Network, Personnel & Human Resources, Sales & Marketing, ISO & Quality, and Disaster & Security.

Now I realize your next question may be, “Is this product really any good?”  And that’s a fair question.  Let me put it this way – if it wasn’t any good, do you think I’d be willing to offer you a full money-back guarantee?

I wouldn’t unless I knew that you’ll love it.  I’m totally confident this product will work for you.

“With Power Policies and Procedures, writing business process is much easier than you think…”

Why am I 100% confident this product will turn you into a power policies and procedures writer?  Because it makes learning fun and easy with its unique learning format. Anyone can do it.

This product is filled with powerful prewritten samples, reports, forms, job descriptions and a whole lot more…

“Since receiving these Policies and Procedures my business has picked up 50% to 75%, The time factor, the money saved and the decreasing of the work load is fantastic. Once again thanks to you and your staff for this insight and for the price it was excellent.”
– Donald Malone, Circle of Life Inc.

Why Should You purchase power policies and procedures?

This product is jam-packed with information you need to be more profitable in any business.

In fact, Bizmanualz, Inc. is so confidant that this product will do for you what it has done for so many others that you also receive a full money back guarantee.  If after 30 days you are not 100% confident that this product will turn your policies and procedures writing into pure gold, we will cheerfully give you a full refund.  And you may cancel at any time.

This means you have nothing to lose and a completely new world of profit potential to gain.

I urge you to take advantage of this opportunity today.  This isn’t just a product – it’s an experience.  And one that will make your business a whole lot more valuable.  Imagine what you will do with all the new money you will make after you learn the secret to power policies and procedures.

Well, if you’re like me then you’re watching your budget and you hate paying a lot of money to consultants for delivering templates.  After all, what you really need are the templates themselves.  Right?

Fortunately, there’s a better way…

Now you can own the same policy and procedure templates that consultants use for their clients and better yet you can try it risk-free using our Money Back Guarantee.  Bizmanualz, Inc. has developed the CEO Policies and Procedures Manuals designed to increase the productivity of your organization.  It contains over 300 prewritten policies and procedures along with 200 sample reports, forms, checklists, exhibits, and job descriptions covering all major departments:

Accounting, Finance, Computer & IT, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, Security Planning, Disaster Recovery, Quality Management.

Consultants large and small use these same Policies and Procedures to increase the productivity of their clients and we all know how “time is money“.  Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG Peat Marwick, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Arthur Andersen have purchased and referred these systems.

Use the CEO Policies and Procedures Manuals to clearly and effectively communicate management’s expectations for specific job tasks thereby eliminating some of your workers major complaints.  With Policies and Procedures in place, our company just hums along and yours will too.  Imagine reducing employee confusion, increasing accountability, simplifying training, standardizing quality and even satisfying auditors!  And the best part is you won’t have to write everything yourself.  Hundreds of editable MS-WORD documents are included eliminating the need to re-invent common business processes and saving your organization a lot of money in the process.

“…a procedures manual pays for itself.  Without it, there would be capricious application of the law, and that’s the basis for most (if not all) injustices.”

Marsha Finley, President, Empyrean Services

Four ways Policies and Procedures  produce immediate results.

1. Something in writing to refer to when someone is ill, you need to train a new employee or temporarily fill his or her position.
2. A tool that can enable your employees to do more than just the job they’re in now.
3. A tool that will free employees up to take vacation (and not be stressed when others in their department do the same).
4. The assurance that every task at every position is being covered (or can be covered) consistently with clear quality standards.

Sometimes you have to look at the cost of NOT doing something to justify the cost of doing it.

• How much would your company have to pay its lawyers to defend itself when policies and procedures are unclear, someone is hurt or injured, and people sue?
• How much does it cost in lost customers or sales because of policy-procedure issues?
• How much time is spent explaining unclear policies and procedures instead of doing other work?

The CEO Policies and Procedures System saves thousands of hours of research, writing, design and development.  In fact, for the same cost of publishing 1 or 2 procedures you will now have an entire manual of over 360 procedures and 200 supporting documents saving your company $200,000 or more in writing them yourself, from scratch.  Use just one or two procedures and you’ve paid for the product.  And I know you will find more than one that you can use.  Now you can stop worrying over:

• How to write your policy manual, on time and under budget.
• Where to find accurate wording to ensure that your procedures are written well.
• How to increase company efficiency while reducing common worker complaints.
• How to please your auditors or regulators with proper documentation.
• How to create an Employee Handbook covering all of your health insurance, benefit programs, disciplinary actions, interview questions, hiring and firing policies and more.
• How to protect your assets, information, and employees from disasters or physical harm.

Order The CEO Policies and Procedures System today and start increasing the productivity of your organization!  Act now you will also receive the Employee Handbook FREE, a $59 value.  The Employee Handbook includes required federal policies for sexual harassment, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and other bonuses such as an HR legal Guide with proper interview questions.  There is simply no better way to increase the productivity of your business than by ordering this complete set of Policies and Procedures.

Writing Policies and Procedures

I know it may sound obvious, but the truth is you know how you want your organization to run.  You have standards.  You have expectations, organizational goals, and specific outcomes that are required to make your business successful.  But, unless you write them down and document your expectations in clearly written policies, procedures and forms, how will your employees know how to achieve your goals?

Writing policies and procedures is a lot easier using Microsoft Word templates.  Start from a proven model that is used by over 20,000 companies around the world.  Each policy, procedure and form has been written by technical writers, reviewed by experts, and is now used by thousands of companies to make their employees better.

Don’t leave your employees hanging with unclear direction.  Write it down!  Write a policy explaining what you want them to do.  Write a procedure explaining how you want your employees to do it.  And develop clear checklists, forms, job aids, job descriptions, and metrics based dashboards to communicate your expectations.  No company can effectively add more employees and scale their business without policies and procedures.

Free Sample Procedures

Make your people the best they can be with policies and procedures from Bizmanualz.  Review free sample procedures now.  Need more than a single manual?  Then take advantage of our special bundle offers to save even more.

For Your Consideration

That said, there are some things you must consider before you write your first policy and procedure manual:

• The documented policy/procedure is reviewed, typically by someone in middle or upper management;
• The document is revised, if necessary;
• After the document is adequately reviewed, it is given final approval; and
• It is released (internally and/or externally) as a corporate policy statement or procedure.

The approval process generally consists of a review for (a) consistency and accuracy, (b) agreement/conflict with existing corporate policy or other statements, and (c) general readability, or usability.

The policy and procedure review-and-approval process may vary from company to company but it is recommended you keep procedure approvals to a minimum. That is, you need to avoid “paralysis by analysis“, or the “perfection trap“. If too many people are required to authorize a document, policy/procedure development becomes a bureaucratic nightmare, considerably slowing — if not preventing — the release of policies and procedures and adding little to no value to the final version.

“Too many cooks in the kitchen.“
(Anonymous)

One way to gain others’ input while streamlining the process — keeping authority at the functional or departmental level — is to release draft copies of proposed procedures to a select number of individuals for comment. Make clear to these individuals that it’s important for them to confine their suggestions to what’s essential to the document’s accuracy, readability, and usefulness.

Who these “select individuals” are depends primarily on the nature, or content, of the document. Sensitive issues — for example, corporate exposure issues having to do with personnel, intellectual property, or trade secrets — should be reviewed by top management, including the company’s president or chief executive. They may also require the advice of legal counsel.

“He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help.“
Abraham Lincoln

Rudimentary procedures affecting only a small unit within the company (and likely to have little, if any, impact on other areas) should be subjected to a minimal review process. It is advisable in this case to have someone familiar with the area — but separate or outside of it — review the proposed statement (e.g., the company Finance officer may review a proposed accounting SOP). This type of review serves three purposes:

1. What makes sense to the preparer directly involved in enforcing the policy or conformance to a procedure may not be understood when read for the first time by someone not as closely involved;
2. A review by managers of other areas may prevent a conflict with a policy and procedure statement still in the formative or discussion stages elsewhere in the company (of which the original preparer may have little or no knowledge); and
3. Third, it allows for input from multiple individuals while allowing the department manager to maintain control of the integrity of the policy/procedure and to drive its completion and release in a timely manner.

Writing policies and procedures usually begins at the unit level, while review and approval is handled by management, legal counsel, or compliance management.  For a faster, easier process, use  OnPolicy Procedure Management Software — it automates document workflow and greatly simplifies the review, approval, and release of policy and procedure documents to your employees.

One reason for this might be that your procedures are too long. If you have 35-page-long procedures — especially if that’s all text — it’s probably not fair to expect your employees to understand, let alone use, them. At that length, there’s the very real risk that your procedures are unclear, overly complicated, and just plain boring.

Another reason procedures may not be up to date is that they’re not followed.  If your people were using the procedures as written and taught, they’d be more likely to notice when things are out of date or out of sync with other company practices. Revisions are a healthy indicator of ongoing use and revisions help to create effective procedures.

Why Don’t My Employees Follow Procedures?

Perhaps your people can’t find your procedures, or possibly they’re unaware that you have a procedure for this or that activity. Maybe because it’s not right in front of them¹, they’re assuming you don’t have a formal procedure. Nonexistent or uncontrolled procedures imply that your quality management system is out of control.

There’s also the possibility that your procedures are too simple; that is, they’re too broad and general to suit a specific situation. If your procedures aren’t directly to the point and don’t offer information specific to the process your employees are working on, they won’t be used.

Poorly written procedures are as bad as generic procedures.  If your procedures are incorrect or confusing, your employees will not use them, either.

Sometimes, procedures are not designed for ease of use. Either they’re hard to navigate in themselves, or their formats are inconsistent. Formats that are inconsistent across departments and work areas are a frequent source of confusion.

It helps to think about who procedures are written for when designing your procedures. Procedures are primarily designed to be training aids: Frequent, experienced users don’t need procedures often, if at all. They should periodically review procedures to be sure they’re current but on a day-by-day basis, they’re not your target.

Occasional users need reminding, but it’s novice users who need procedures the most. They’ll need the guidance of a procedure until the process has become ingrained.

How to Make Your Procedures Work for You

To understand how to make your procedures work for your employees, you need to pay careful attention to the following:

1. Develop a system that keeps your procedures current using intranets, social media constructs (blogs, wikis, etc.), document management systems, software, or new knowledge management systems.
2. Keep your procedures concise, clear, and to the point — no tangents or extraneous material.
3. Use pictures, graphics, and examples to illustrate objectives.
4. Make your procedures available where they’re needed most.
5. Develop a system with easy access (see point #1, above), make them searchable online, or make them part of the job (see #4).
6. Revision control is required for ISO and must be part of the job (see #1 & 4).
7. Eliminate generic procedures entirely.
8. Keep procedures updated and useful (also see #1 & 4).
9. Create and maintain a common, easy-to-navigate format for your documents.
10. Instill the discipline to follow procedures in your organization by making the process “owners” part of the procedure development.

Now that you know the secret to writing effective (i.e., useful) policies and procedures, what are you waiting for?

NOTES

¹ISO 9001, for one, requires that you have documents available at the point of use.