4 Tasks

that can steal time from your business

When considered all at once, the adverse effects that poor time management might have on a business are enough to make you want to hide somewhere and hope that it all sorts itself out in the end. If you feel that way, you’re not alone. One in ten small business owners have reported feeling continuously overwhelmed by their responsibilities. But all is not lost! Remember that the answer is to get smarter about how you spend your time. We’ve identified five basic tasks that steal the greatest amount of time from your day, and suggested ways that Clover can help you get that lost time back.

Inventory is the heartbeat of business operations. Managing it carefully affects everything from optimizing profits and preventing losses to offering products your customers will want to buy.

A paper-based inventory system may have been the simplest solution at the start of your business, but as your business evolves, what was once easy could now leave you overwhelmed. Spreadsheets barely improve on paper and they do little to protect the business from human error. The answer is to centralize, digitize, and streamline your inventory management so that it’s organized and transparent to your staff. How you achieve this depends on the type of business you run.

Inventory can be especially complicated for restaurants, where a single item on a menu may call for multiple ingredients–each of which requires the accurate recording of what’s still fresh and in stock. If you run a restaurant, Clover Station Solo can help you ditch the manual process and speed through inventory thanks to Clover’s enhanced Inventory app or other software integrations like SimpleOrder, a revolutionary app that automatically adjusts inventory levels for the ingredients of each dish ordered.

The time that these micro-adjustments save can really add up.

Offering flexible hours and scheduling can have one of the greatest impacts on a company’s culture. Any manager knows, however, that ensuring that the business is properly staffed can be challenging if you don’t have the right system in place. Business owners often find themselves wading through text messages, emails, scribbled notes, and their own memory to cobble together an employee schedule. An employee who is unexpectedly unavailable can throw managers into a last- minute scramble to find a replacement.

Transparency prevents headaches in the long run. Using a centralized system like Time Clock by Homebase– which comes preloaded on Clover devices–lets employees access a shared calendar in a cloud-based system and see who else is scheduled during particular shifts. Time Clock also standardizes how employees submit their availability, resulting in a streamlined scheduling process.

The theory of payroll is rather simple. Multiply the number of hours an employee works by his or her hourly rate and then cut a check. The reality of payroll is much more complex, requiring the navigation of highly technical rules enforced by federal and local laws. Since payroll is a non-core function of the business, owners often look for ways to cut costs and manage the task in house, not expecting the potential drain on precious hours. In one survey, 17% of small businesses spend 6-10 hours a month on payroll, with 11% spending over 10 hours a month.

Your payroll process should be airtight. Imagine the hours and money that could be lost responding to an investigation thanks to an unintentional error—not to mention the impact on the reputation of your business. With Clover, you have full access to the Clover App Market, where you’ll find payroll software like ADP®, Gusto, Homebase, and Paychex to automate, track, and guide you through payroll responsibilities.