Your virtual office

Your Virtual OfficeI am Kim Ovel and I am the Director of Your Virtual Office.We are a small back office support company and we offer multiple services to small and large companies all over Essex.

Here are some of the services we offer:• Bookkeeping• Payroll• Personalised Call Answering• Diary Management• CIS and Tax returns• Credit Control

Client Scenarios

Many of our clients require multiple services.Jerry, JB DomesticsJB Domestics use our PA and business admin services; for our call answering, invoicing, printing paperwork and managing their diaries. They also uses our bookkeeping services and have found that outsourcing has helped the business grow.

“I feel more confident when I am out on the road knowing that the organisation of my days are being taken care of… …My contractors have just rated me with five stars and I know that that is due to the fact that the office side runs efficiently alongside myself at Your Virtual Office Ltd.”

Bookkeeping and PayrollWe have a team of professional Bookkeeping and payroll staff with many years of experience.They deal with Payroll, CIS, PAYE, Tax and VAT returns.We can deal with all their needs, manage your accounts and contact HMRC for you to save them unneeded stress!

Top Ten Time Management Tips1. Identify your goals and values. You will know what is really important, so you can prioritize and decide which activities merit your time and attention.For Instance – on the 05th of the month I know I have to raise invoices for all Payroll clients – this is something that is engrained into my mind, the reason – to pull in money!

2. Plan your day. Figuring out what you need to do during the day is a waste of time. Jot down the things you need to do before going to bed so when you wake up in the morning, you can do the tasks you need to accomplish straight away.

3. Do the hardest and less-appealing tasks first. If you have already done the most difficult tasks for the day, you will breeze through the less difficult ones. Also, you will gain momentum to do other tasks because you the burden of anticipation has been taken off you. This will also make you less inclined to procrastinate.I know myself and I’m at my most proactive first thing in the morning, so I will complete the most challenging task first and then I don’t have to ask so much of myself later on in the day

4. Create a schedule Something that is relevant to you!!! A timetable or a daily schedule, on the Ipad, Calendar and put it where you are most likely to see it. For Me - I write posit notes! It helps me to remember what I have to do within my day.You do not have to rigidly follow your schedule. Your timetable will serve as a reminder of all the things you need to do every day. It will help you track your progress, determine if you are moving toward your goal and keep you on the right track.

Top Ten Time Management Tips

5. Be organizedMisplacing your car keys, your pen and other important personal items can be very annoying and frustrating. Looking for them can waste a big chunk of your time. Don’t be afraid to use reminder prompts!For me - I put everything in my Blackberry that I need to do outside of the office, it prompts me if I need to go to a meeting or leave for an appointment. I have my own system and it works well.

6. Give yourself mini deadlines.If you have a big task with a long deadline people have a tendency to ignore it ! YOU can give yourself a deadline. To do this, break it down into smaller pieces. For instances I have a project at the moment and I’m going through the bank statements year by year. I have three years to do, I give myself a 2 hour time frame and have a break and do that again, once I have pushed through that I access how far I have got.You can time yourself, shut the door, and put some headphones on. Do not allow yourself to feel stressed or pressured. Treat this activity like a game.



7. Develop a system for doing things. A system is a series of repetitive actions that you can do without thinking a lot. I treat it like being at the gym 3 reps of 10 same difference!!!So I write my posit notes and I put them into priority order on my desk so I don’t have to think too hard about what I need to do next, I think the less you have to think about something the quicker you can complete the task and make time for other things.

8. Delegate or Outsource You may find yourself complaining, “So many things to do; so little time.” Why not let others do some of the work for you? I delegate to my team this is so can concentrate ON my business NOT IN the business, two very different things.Just like you ask your children or spouse to help with the chores at home. If you are running a business, and you need more time to concentrate on the things that you are good at you can outsource some of the tasks, 9 times out of 10 this is going to be more cost effective to your business.

9. Focus. Distractions Do not get side tracked – emails, social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and linked in are all distractions, I will delegate these allocate my time to these things as priorities. Try not to Multitask as this can cause you to lose focus and forget important task. Remember your brain can only focus on one thing at a time, unless you’re a women! Multitasking!

10. Get enough sleep. - Not getting enough sleep can make you less productive. - Lack of sleep is a killer and it does affect the brain function - Good and important decisions and harder to make when you are tired.- More mistakes are likely to be made when you are tired.- Alot of time is wasted when your brain does not function to the best of its ability.


Time management requires discipline; it’s not hard to do once you get the hang of it. When you manage your time well, you will be less overwhelmed by your responsibilities at home and at work. If you can manage your time, you can manage your life.And if there’s not enough hours in the day to do anything… give us a call and we’ll help with the dull, mundane office work.


Our day starts at 9:00 am.The phones will start to ring.This is when the multi tasking begins!Between 9:00am – 3:00pm the phones will be at their busiest. (Especially on a Monday!)During this time we will take between 30-60 calls.When we start our day we will clear down the voicemail messages left overnight/weekend sothat no one gets missed.We take calls for a number of different clients andby using our Voip phones we can answer each call personally by reading the display which shows what company the person is calling for.“Good Morning/Afternoon (Insert company name) How may I help?”

YVO’s Admin Day

YVO’s Admin DayOur most busy phone client is JB Domestics. When a customer calls we will need to book them an appointment.We will need to firstly take all their details:Name, Address, Phone Number, Appliance, Fault, Insurance Policy Numbers e.t.c.Then we will allocate them an appointment.Not all customers will be happy and polite, and may be grumpy at times.(If your fridge has broken, you wouldn’t be very happy!)

Keeping calm and in control of the conversation will keep the customer calm. If they are not happy, we will apologise and try to help them to the best of our ability. We all have bad days!Most are pleasant but you can get the odd one!Appointments are booked with logistics and time frames. This is so the engineer knows where he is going and what he is going for!After the customer is booked in we will print off their paper work for the Engineers to collect for the following day. Along with a sheet that displays the whole days work.

YVO’s Admin DayLike JB Domestics, Essex Oven Cleaners also require call answering and diary management. For these calls we take the customers details;Name, address, phone number, type of oven and then we quote them a price for it to be cleaned.

We plan their diary through Google Calendar. This way they can access their diary on their phones/internet without having to come in daily. Also It can be updated instantly. We log these calls through a call log and any queries we have we will use this to email our questions to the cleaners.

Other companies that we take calls for will require us to take a message to be emailed to the client.For these we will need to politely explain the person they want to speak to is unavailable (in a meeting/with a client/on the other line), ask if you can help, if not then we will take their details so they can be called back.We will need their Name, Phone Number, Company and what they are calling in regards to. We will then email it to the required person.

YVO’s Admin DayWe also carry out other simple admin tasks; filling, printing, invoicing, checking and replying to emails etc.We are always on the go!

Also we will require the admin staff to complete projects/bigger jobs that need to be done such as money laundering, mail merges or event days.

Being a small team we are very personable with our clients and it is important for us to establish professional relations with our clients. It’s nice to know you are dealing with the same person/people each time you call and it is agreat way to keep track of everything that is going on.

YVO Bookkeeping & Payroll Day

PayrollOur Payroll staff start their day reading their emails.This is where they get all the information they need to complete clients payroll. Usually, each payroll is the same, but amendments always need to be made; holidays, sick days, new employees, leavers e.t.c.Weekly payrolls are done throughout the week and then sent over to the client, email and hard copies, on the day they require it. (Usually Friday)Monthly payrolls will be completed the last week of the month and again sent over to the client on the day they require it.


The landline phone will ring throughout the day for the payroll staff who we will then pass the phone to.These callers are usually clients getting information on payroll, updating us or letting us know if anything needs to be changed. i.e. new employees. They may also be employees calling to get information from us.We have lots of payroll clients, we currently have 3 staff dealing with payroll, who each have a list of payroll clients, to which they complete payroll for.

This way, when a client calls or emails. They speak to the same person each time and they know exactly what is going on. It also gives our clients satisfaction that they know they’re being dealt with personally.


The payroll staff also deal with HMRC on behalf of our clients in order to get information, to and from, to complete all payroll correctly and efficiently.

Bookkeeping

Business

Your virtual office