1.      Coordination Tools

§      Much or the communication that take place in an office revolves around scheduled activities such as meeting, appointment and luncheons.

§      Coordinating these activities is a very important administrative support function, which requires a great amount of organizational skill on the part of the administrative assistant.

§      Its also involve receiving and scheduling visitors and keeping individuals within the office informed of activities that pertain to them.

§      If you work for more than one person you have developed a way in which they feel comfortable dealing with their daily routine.

§      Its required organization communication skills, and the knowledge of the best calendaring tools the most effective of those scheduling tools is electronic scheduling system.

2.      Electronic Scheduling System

§      The two types of events that you will schedule most often are meeting and appointments. A meeting usually consists of a group of people discussing a common goal. This is different from an appointment, which is a time set aside for two people to discuss an issue.

§      The advantage of using the electronic scheduling system is that you can complete this scheduling task in only few minutes.

§      By using manual methods, you might expect to spend a good part of your workdays determines a day and time.

3.      Electronic Calendars.

§      Its make easy to organize items and manage office resource. With such a system, you can record appointments, reserve office resources, and update and modify calendar events electronically. Some system even has reminder facilities that can remind the user of upcoming events automatically.

§      By using electronic system, you indicate to the system the meeting’s participants and the date, time and length of the meeting. The system automatically surveys the electronic calendar of each individual, whether there are two or twenty. If a participant or resource is not available for the stated date and time, you are notified.

4.      Modifying Calendar Events.

§      Electronic calendaring and scheduling system make it easy not only to schedule events but to modify and update those events as well

§      All information pertaining to each event is stored electronically in the calendar, and so it is easy to make changes.

§      Many of the meetings that take place in the office involve the planning and monitoring of projects. Projects management software, sometimes also called groupware, can be used to schedule projects as well as keep daily and monthly calendars.

§      Project management software keeps:

1. Keeps track of ongoing project and allows you to integrate project management information into your calendar
2. Determining the beginning and ending point of a project and all the steps in between
3. Can keep track of who is responsible for specific project functions and tasks, procedures or documentation that accompany each phase of the project, notes on the progress of the project, and new information that may have an effect on the outcome of the project.
4. It also can notify each team member when his or her component of the project is due and create reports on the status of the entire project any time a team member accesses the project file.

§      In a non-electronic scheduling system, it is more likely that project management records are kept separately from daily or weekly calendaring systems.

§      The team may schedule weekly meeting at which they will update printed forms used for scheduling and monitoring progress on project.

§      The team also discusses responsibilities and makes schedule change. As administrative assistant in this type of situation, you may responsible for updating and reissuing new schedule to the project team.

1.      Used of Petty Cash

+            The word Petty Cash means small or minor. In most of office there is a pool of money called petty cash.

+            This money is used to pay for minor items of expenditure where the use of a check is in particular or it is used for payment of expenses where the supplier would be unwilling to submit on invoice & wait for payment.

E.g. of petty cash expenditure:

+            The person responsible for petty cash is called the petty cashier. He wills often be doing this work in additional to some other job.

+            The petty cash float has to be kept in a safe place to protect it. Usually it is kept in lockable metal cash box with a removable tray of compartments for coins and space below the tray for bank notes and copies of bills or receipts.

+            If it not being used, the cash box will be deposited in a lockable drawer or in the safe.

+            Regardless of the petty cash system used, the petty cashier must adhere to the highest ethical behavior.

2.      The Imprest system

1. Making Payment

·        To ensure control of funds, record must be maintained for all disbursement for petty cash.

·        The petty cash cashier keeps a complete and accurate record for every payment made from the cash box

·        Petty cash receipt forms are filled out each time cash is given out.

Procedure commonly followed in office.

i.         Ask each person who seeks reimbursement (payment for an outlay of cash already made) to submit a sales slip statement, or receipt that indicates what was purchase, what price and purpose the payment was made.

·        Reimbursement should not be made without some kind of document.

·        Occasionally, cash payment are made even though no sales slip, statement or receipt is provided

·        Sometime, the employee being reimbursed should present a brief memo describing what was spent & the purpose of the expenditures.

ii.       Prepare a petty cash receipt for each reimbursement & ask the person who will receive the cash to sign the receipt

iii.      Attach the sales slip or other document to the receipt & place these paper in the cash box.

2. Keeping a record.

·        In office where many transactions require petty cash, an organized record is justified. A petty cash book is maintained for recording receipts & disbursements.

·        By classifying the expenses, the task of preparing a report at the end of the month or at the point when the fund must be replenished (restored to original level) will be simplified.

3. Replenishing the Fund

·        You will need to note the amount of cash in your cash box & to replenish your find according to established company procedures.

·        In some office, the fund is replenished when a certain balance is reached or the fund is restored to its original amount at the end of each month regardless of the level of fund.

Process of replenishing the fund

1.            Count the money in the cash box

2.            Total the columns in the petty cash book

3.            Total the receipt in the petty cash box

4.            Compare the petty cash box total to the petty cash receipts total. They should be the same.

5.            Add the amount of petty cash receipt to the amount of petty cash remaining in the cash box.

6.            Investigate any discrepancy. You will indicate the shortage.

7.            Prepare a report of the activity in the petty cash fund for the period beginning with the last replenishment or the last time you balanced the records.

8.            Prepare a request for a check for the amount of the receipts plus any shortages.

9.            Submit your report, the accompanying receipts & your request for a replacement check for approval.

10.        Once approved, follow up by sending a copy of the report to the accounting department.

11.        Exchange the check for cash in the local Bank immediately place the cash in the cash box.

3.      Computer Petty Cash Record.

• By using computerized petty cash record (used financial software package) you have to enter the beginning balance when fund is established, fund paid out, explanation of expenditures and petty cash receipt numbers.
• When summary report is needed, you will be able to generate one by using the appropriate software commands.

Your calendar and your supervisor's calendar should always be up to date. It is your responsibility to:

a.        Keep up with all schedule change and make sure they are recorded

b.       Inform your immediate supervisor about the change or mention it as soon as possible so that your supervisor can take further action about it.

If you used an electronic calendar, you can help yourself and your supervisor:

a.       To be organizes by printing out a copy of the day's appointments and activities, including all notes and the necessary materials for the meeting.

b.      It also can then glance quickly at the schedule for the day when moving from appointment to appointment.

If not working with an electronic calendar, keep a copy of your supervisor's schedule for the day as well as yours own calendar. Together with the calendar you should:

a.       have all necessary materials gathered

b.      label them for the proper meetings and appointment

c.       place them on your supervisor's desk

By having a proper scheduling it can be:

a.       The most effective ways to manage time and stay organized.

b.      alleviates stress and makes you an invaluable members of the workplace team.

a.        Coordinating office schedule is a very important task and requires a great amount of organizational skill on the part of the administration assistant.

b.       Electronic calendaring systems save time by checking schedules of individuals and calculating the earliest available date and time for all parties automatically

c.        In addition to setting schedules, electronic calendaring systems have features that allow the user to send messages to all participants, and request answers, as well as attach notes and information to dates as reminders.

d.       Project management software offers the ability to manage project and integrated project scheduling with daily, weekly or monthly schedules of meeting and appointments.

e.        Project management software can be used to schedule long term projects including deadlines and interim deadlines. Team responsibilities as well as materials and information necessary for each task are recorded electronically. Changes to the schedule are made easily because the software adjusts the rest of the schedule.

f.         Greeting clients, salesperson, community representatives and customers requires tact and a pleasant attitude