Working From Home: Here’s How to Make it ‘Work’

With the outbreak of COVID-19 internationally, and a lockdown ensuing March, 25^th 2020, businesses around New Zealand, will have no option but to work from home. It’s key at this point in time to activate the social distancing measures laid out by the government to keep the spread of the virus in check.

It’s also 2020, and technology has moved leaps and bounds. This means that working from home or remotely is now easier than ever. There are certain challenges associated with remote working like the not being able to meet with clients face to face or getting your employees aligned and ensuring their productivity levels aren’t dropping, but all these issues are easily addressable in 2020 with the right tools and technology.

As an accounting and consultancy firm, our approach towards our practice is a 100% cloud based. This allows us to be more efficient in completing core accounting tasks and thus drives us with more capacity towards spending time on doing things which actually add value to your business.

We’ve outlined some great tools which your business can use or implement during this period to ensure that nothing much really changes apart from the act of physically commuting.

Cradle for Communication

Cradle is a great VOIP tool your business can use to keep your call records tracked and up to date. Cradle lets you skip the voice menu or receptionist when your customers call you. At JZR, we also use the system to prioritise and setup a call hierarchy system, which ensures when a call is made to the number, you can select who’d receive the call first before it comes to you.

Cradle is also a great indicator of your employee’s presence. It lets you know who’s online at their workstations and available to take calls.

Dropbox for Business

Having a file system sharing in place while working remotely is crucial for any business during this period to function normally. Whether its documents, videos, PDFs, images or videos, it’s a secure way of sharing files with the rest of your team. At JZR, we use Dropbox to ensure that files can be shared and accessed easily by all team members, wherever they are.

Xero for Accounting

Xero is an easy to use accounting software used by a lot of small and medium sized businesses, and a popular tool we use at JZR as well. Xero makes tracking payments and financial information a whole lot easier. Xero gives you a clear financial overview with its unique dashboard display feature which allows business owners to see how much money is coming in and going out. The software is easily accessible at anytime and from anywhere, and lets you easily create and track invoices.

Slack for Internal Communication

Communication is one major element that always seems to take a hit while working remotely. But not anymore. Slack lets you create channels where you can add all your team members, and then create smaller groups within the channel which can be departmentally specialised. You can chat, send photos, files and tag specific members when you need a response ASAP.

Slack is easy to use and a great way of keeping in touch with your team members throughout the day.

Google Hangouts, Skype or Zoom for Video Meetings

Communication with clients is a vital aspect of maintaining a positive relationship and ensuring that all tasks are up to date. With the outbreak, face to face meetings are definitely off the radar, but there’s a simple solution to this- video calls. Google Hangouts, Skype and Zoom are all great video communication tools you or your business can use to constantly keep in touch with clients or even for the purpose of any internal meetings or catch-up sessions.

Video conferencing is always a great way to reduce the number of back and forth email communication or any confusion that it may bring along with it. It’s a great and simple way to keep in touch with your clients as well as your team mates.

Asana or Trello for Task & Project Management

If you’ve got a project you’re working on, or trying to stay updated with team members on tasks within that project, Asana or Trello are the right tools for you. Both the applications let you create tasks, assign users to those tasks and organise them in priority of which they need to be completed.

This helps the entire team, stay up-to-date with the proceedings on particular task or project.

In conclusion, whether you’re forced to work at home or simply enjoy the freedom that comes with working remotely, these tools will help you get by your day-today tasks, just like any normal work day in the office.

If you’re business is facing any other issues or problems in the wake of this outbreak, please feel free to get in touch with us by contacting us on +64-9-972-2236 or email us info@jzr.co.nz.