How to keep the business from being audited

Abstract image about learning audit

How to keep the business from being audited

Tax is a concern of business owners. The dreaded audit notice from the Internal Revenue Service in the country you’re doing business in will keep you awake. Audits can be especially intimidating for small or midsize business owners as there is the potential to owe more in taxes on the business’s existing budget. Only about 1 in 100 businesses are audited each year. On top of that, there are a few simple things you can do to avoid the threatening eye of the Internal Revenue Service.

 

Abstract image about learning audit

As a business owner, your chances of getting audited will skyrocket if you:

  1. Earn large sums of money annually, for example, over $1 million per year.
  2. Do not report all income.
  3. Claim business deductions that are disproportionate to the income of the business.

As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” and we’re glad we’re here to offer tips that will help you avoid the audit surname.

Why are businesses audited?

In this article, we’ll take a look at six of the top reasons businesses fall for it, along with tips on how to stay out of an audit.

However, it should be noted that you may be audited for reasons beyond your control. The Internal Revenue Service uses a random selection to check some of your profits, and your profits could also be a target for testing because of something shady that one of your business partners or investors did.

How to avoid audited from the Internal Revenue Service

1. Limit entertainment events, business parties

You often organize parties, award ceremonies, or contests with large scale and extremely valuable prizes, then the advice is that you should limit it. Not for the expense, but it will get the attention of the Internal Revenue Service, which will then put you under their control. 

Under the act, “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017,” eliminated business-related entertainment deductions. So, if you’re trying to tweak the system to keep up with your annual customer appreciation night or parties, you’re raising a “red flag” for the Internal Revenue Service to notice you.

2. Don’t Overuse Deductions

As a hard-working business owner, you should only take the last deduction you’re entitled to. But you should also know that the Internal Revenue Service uses a computer program (Discriminate Income Function) to compare your deductions with other businesses that are in the same income bracket as you. So if the standard in your tax bracket has 12 deductions and you take 212 deductions, then you will get an audit notice from them. Or taking dozens of “miscellaneous” deductions isn’t a good idea either. You should only take deductions that are legal and you deserve. 

CPA Jeffrey Levine says, “one of the biggest mistakes he sees small business owners make is not deducting legitimate business expenses like a home office for fear of being audited.”

According to Hector Garcia, CPA and QuickBooks consultant Hector Garcia, home office, business travel, and car mileage deductions are the most abused business deductions. So use them when appropriate, but know that the IRS is keeping an eye on you.

3. Incorporating or Forming a Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Small businesses are more often audited than LLCs. Because the Internal Revenue Service believes that small businesses are unstable in terms of their organization and financial capacity.

Therefore, incorporating a limited liability company (LLC) is important. In addition to lower audit risk, there are other compelling reasons to consider combinations:

  1. For many small business owners, personal assets (home, vehicle, savings) must also be paid back. to creditors if their business is in trouble. As for LLC, the capital is the “heart” of the whole company.
  2. Limited liability companies can get bank loans easier and quicker than small/private businesses.
  3. LLCs can take more deductions than small businesses (such as retirement and care plans. employee health care).
4. Be proactive about the unusual

You are a small business, but earn a lucrative contract or other money, increasing the income of the business to a huge number. So your income multiplies from previous years and suddenly the amount of deductions you get is unusually high. At this point, you will receive the attention of the Internal Revenue Service, and what you should do is proactively collect receipts for those transactions, contracts with local authorities, even documents. about your expansion plan and attach your earnings. It may take a little longer, but it will give you the initiative and may prevent the audit.

5. Do not file an amended tax return (unless necessary)

Filing an amended return is subjecting your business to audits. According to the IRS – the US Internal Revenue Service: “The filing of an amended return does not affect the original return selection process. However, the revised declarations are also subject to a screening process and the revised declaration may be selected for audit.” 

In other words, your revised return will give the Internal Revenue Service an indication to check on you. 

If necessary, because you forgot to calculate your legal deductions, just file an amended return. But you’re better off spending an extra hour or two getting it right the first time.

6. Taxation Technology

Why? According to e-file, the website of the IRS electronic filing system – Internal Revenue Service of the United States. “The error rate when returning documents is 21%. However, electronically filed affidavits produce an error rate of only half a percent.

In other words: Paper returns have a higher risk of errors than returns filed electronically.

Other reasons to file electronically: 

  1. Tax return software helps you find information on tax deductions you’re more likely to miss when using pen and paper.
  2. Through technology, you can save time, people, and money.
  3. Most tax preparation software includes audit alerts for things like deductions.

It would be great to combine your management software with your tax return software UpDiagram management software has the right functions for note-taking, summarizing, summarizing and time – the time function will remind you when your tax is due and you won’t be confused when it is due. Use UpDiagram for tax management and tax preparation software for optimization and avoidance audit by the Internal Revenue Service.

Accounting Room

How to set up the structure Accounting Room?

At the beginning of a business/startup it will be easy for you to pursue and get things done quickly, but as things grow that quick and easy won’t still. Along with the company’s growth, there will certainly be departments born, and the point worth mentioning is that those departments need to be closely structured to operate smoothly. How to build Accounting Room?

 Pictures of beautiful desks

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

If you want your business to continue to grow, you need to set up an accounting department structure that can take care of a wide range of accounting tasks and expand your business.

 

What is the key to success? How to build Accounting Room?

The secret of success for small/medium businesses, and especially startups, is people as well as technology. These two factors need to appear together, complement each other.

 

While people are a must-have for any small business, HR isn’t everything. You need software to double-check numbers, analyze outputs, coordinate systems. That aren’t integrated, and make sure your business isn’t defrauded by vendors or employees fraud fraud. Currently on the market of management software there are many types: you can refer to free software such as: UpDiagram, trello, basecamp,…

 

At a minimum, you need someone to run the payroll. Someone to pay suppliers and send invoices and someone to handle the monthly books so they are balanced until tax time.

 

As an organizational leader, you’ll need to demonstrate assertiveness to figure out exactly what that combination looks like for your business and the resources you have.

 

5 essential accounting tasks and how to effectively tackle them

In the sections below, we’ll look at five essential business accounting tasks, the skills you should be looking for to handle them, and signs that you need help. In the end, we’ll look at some of the ways accounting software can help with each task, and give an example of a basic small business accounting department structure/Accounting Room.

1. Billing/invoicing

The US Small Business Administration reports that low sales/cash flow was the number one cause of small business closures in 2015. This is relevant. What about payment? The longer it takes to pay your customers, the longer it will take you to get paid. You need to be paid to be able to pay your employees and suppliers. If you are not paid correctly and on time, your business is at risk of failure because of low cash flow.

 

You don’t need a CPA to process your payments; Anyone who is good with numbers and has an eye for detail can handle the job. In addition to accuracy, timeliness is important for payments, so you need someone who is on time and meets deadlines.

 

Task telltale signs:

  1. Not receiving invoices on time
  2. The customer is being paid the wrong amount
  3. The partner is not paying the correct amount or is not on time

2. Payments /accounts payable

The Institute of Finance & Management reports that at top-tier institutions, it takes a professional full-time to process nearly 23,000 invoices each year. That’s about 85 bills per business day. If you’re only paying a few bills at once, you’re probably not keeping up. And if you don’t prioritize on-time payments to your partners, you’ll pay late fees or worse, lose business partners.

 

As with payments and invoicing, accuracy and timeliness are of the utmost importance. If your organization is small, you can let one person or a small team handle accounts payable and receivable (payments). This role should be played by someone who can double-check your suppliers to make sure you’re not overcharged, overcharged for something they don’t provide.

 

The telltale signs:

  1. Vendors are complaining that they are not being paid.
  2. Despite your best efforts, your account billing team can’t keep up and is paying late.
  3. Your Accounting Room payable specialist is working overtime to keep up.

3. Salary calculation (Payroll)

Salary is an important thing to decide the human factor in the company. If you don’t pay your employees on time and don’t pay them the right amount, you will start to lose employees.

 

When your business is small, it can be difficult for you to collect and pay fees, and to process payroll. However, once your company grows beyond that, you’ll need an experienced payroll professional or a third-party payroll service. What makes a well-paying professional? In addition to being punctual and meticulous. The person on your payroll also needs to work well with others to resolve the inevitable problems.

 

The telltale signs:

  1. Employees often get paid late.
  2. There is a change in personnel or overpaid wages
  3. The staff responsible for payroll are overloaded and work overtime to get paid on time.

4. Bookkeeping

Good bookkeeping means that all your bills are paid and paid. The books of accounts should show what your customers have paid you, what they owe, and vice versa. Although it is never easy to keep the books of account, it is absolutely vital to the financial health of the business. And if you want to save time; resources, you can use the management template UpDiagram to calculate payment – payment expenses with different partners.

 

In a way, every other task on this list involves bookkeeping, so you need someone who is fluent, precise with numbers, and works well with others. While invoicing is responsible for sending invoices and accounts payable is responsible for paying bills, your accountant is ultimately responsible for recording and keeping track of all transactions and balances there. Your bookkeeper will also be working with accounting software most of the time. So they’ll need to be proficient in whatever accounting program your business uses.

 

The telltale signs:

  1. Book Accountants yoke is not balance.
  2. You lack the necessary reports and receipts for the accounting of charges.
  3. There are unusual revenues and expenditures in the accounting books.

5. Tax preparation

You’ll need to pay the government the taxes that are requir by law where you do business. But you also need to know all the deductions so you don’t have to pay more than that. You also need to provide W2s to all your employees so they can pay their taxes on time. If you think this doesn’t matter, just wait until the IRS knocks on your door with a long list of questions you don’t have an answer to.

 

Ideally, an employee CPA or from an outside company who can represent your business before the IRS if necessary. Although the tax period only comes once per year. Keeping expenses and income up to date throughout the year, and recording them properly, creates a great deal of consistency and clarity when it comes time to calculate taxes. Your accountant should work side-by-side with whoever is responsible for tax returns to make sure. They have everything they need to prepare your company’s tax returns thoroughly and accurately.

 

The telltale signs:

  1. You’re trying to pay your business taxes at the end of the year and struggle to find the right reports and forms.
  2. You get a much higher refund or amount owed at the end of the year than the previous year and can’t explain why.
  3. After you file your taxes, you will receive an audit notice from the IRS and you will not be able to answer questions from them.

If you have grasped the above 5 accounting tasks, make a plan to build for the accounting department. Do not forget to choose a suitable management tool for your accounting department. Good luck in setting up your accounting department.

Things to save money for

Things to save money for business

Things to save money for business, the easiest way to save some money when it comes down to budgeting for accounting is by opting for free accounting software. But choosing one can be quite the problem considering how there are so many choices out there and not all of them are effective enough to do the job they’re meant to do. In order to streamline this process and still be able to find a feature-rich, affordable solution that will help you stay on top of your finances, we did all the research for you and came up with the following incredibly useful options that you’ll want to check out! 

 

Things to save money for

Your time and effort are valuable. If your free accounting software is requiring you to spend hours each month on learning how it operates, working out how to use the program`s features, or troubleshooting problems, is it really free? What you want in an accounting software package is easy to learn, easy to use, and doesn’t make you overcome a series of hurdles just to be able to manage your finances.

* GnuCash

GnuCash is an open-source accounting application that is run by GnuCash Enterprises. It has a plethora of features for small businesses and individuals to keep track of their finances and organize them properly. 

In terms of cost and features, GnuCash delivers a solid return on investment, particularly for small businesses that are more apt to notice cost savings in this arena. 

On the downside, anyone who chooses GnuCash must be willing to spend valuable time troubleshooting issues the first few times around. But the good news is there are plenty of helpful resources both on the internet and in communities that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon!

 

Things to save money for

(GnuCash)

* Manager

Manager is a free accounting software program so high-powered, it’s been used by big and small companies alike. It’s very easy to use and the basic desktop version is forever without paying a dime. More advanced features can be purchased for a small fee and are available in over 70 languages.

 

Updiagram Manage

(Manager)

* Sunrise by lendio

Sunrise was officially rebranded from Billy recently in 2019 after being acquired by Utah-based company Lendio. It’s the same free accounting software it used to be, but now with unlimited invoices and transactions. In other words, exactly what everyone liked in the first place.

 

Things to save money for

(Sunrise)

* ZipBooks

ZipBooks is a new cloud-based accounting solution and one of the newest products rolling out from Utah. ZipBooks relies on partners to generate cash by partnering with payment processing providers like Stripe (a partner company). This move essentially allows the company to offer its services for free so that customers can use the ZipBooks accounting tool without having to set up an online payment gateway and collect payments independently.

 

Things to save money for

(ZipBooks)

Have you chosen your one yet?

Free as in “free beer” is nice, but when you’re looking for a business tool to help move your company forward, such an offer is secondary to the most important trait of any software: does it have the functionality you need? This can encompass everything from remembering your password for the network to calculating your tax revenues. Free accounting software might suit simple bookkeeping needs, but what happens when occasional errors start popping up and things become more complicated than they are worth?

So the best way to know if you’re going to like a program and reap the full benefits of its features is by doing a free trial. Before you sign up and make any payment, you should go through a few trial periods of accounting software so that in case something isn’t quite right, there is plenty of time to look for something else.

Follow UpDiagram to discover more amazing software and useful project management tips!

Best project management programs and help your business succeed

The pandemic has forced many businesses, large and small, to operate remotely, which requires not only better project management but also a smooth collaboration between remote team members. Now, we will research the best project management programs. Above all help, your business succeed. 

 

project management

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

 

Project management software is blooming in the technology market, because it can fulfill the needs of collaboration, efficiency, and more. So, in a recent survey on management software review sites, it was found that 60% of managers can accurately estimate the progress of a project better when using a project management tool.

So whether you’re a small business owner or a project manager in a large enterprise, investing in a cloud-based tool like project manager, task manager, or project portfolio manager has become a daily necessity. 

The tools below are arranged at random, out of order, based on criteria:

  1. Key Features
  2. Edition 
  3. Starting Price
  4. Support Options

To sum up, the following are management software that is rated as effective for businesses today.

1. Monday.com

Monday.com is a project management tool for contractors, owners. So, suitable for real estate, construction,…

 – Key Features: Project Management, Inventory Tracking, Dashboards, Product Management, Task Management, Project Planning

 – Sessions version: trial/free

 – Starting price: $8/user/month

 – Support options: Knowledge Base, 24/7 customer support, help center

2. ClickUp

ClickUp is a free productivity app that provides a new way to be productive. In other words, more than just integrating notes, reminders, goal lists, calendars, timetables, and inboxes.

 – Key Features: Task Manager, Document Management, Resource Management, Task Management, Project Planning, Advanced Reporting

 – Version: trial/free

 – Starting price: $5/ users/month

 – Support options: 24/7 support, email, social platform community, knowledge base

3. UpDiagram

Managing groups with multiple people have never been easier. So, It takes more effort to track the progress of each team member and the productivity of the project. The need to give feedback or comments on tasks, delivery of tasks, project perspectives,… however is extremely necessary. So, UpDiagram was built. UpDiagram.com is a project management tool. So, that helps users to shorten the time and effort in the project management process. So, everybody call UpDiagram is best project management program.

 – Key features:  Task management, Document management, Resource management, Task management, Project planning, Advanced reporting, Multiple data fields, Email and In-app notification for project activities, Delegating tasks, and managing members,…

 – Version: trial / free

 – Starting price: $ 3 / user/month (in addition, every month there are promotions )

 – Support options: 24/7 support, email, social platforms, knowledge base

4. Hive

Hive is a data warehouse infrastructure tool for handling structured data in Hadoop. It sits on top of Hadoop to summarize Big Data and make querying and analysis easy. Hive was originally developed by Facebook, then the Apache Software Foundation took it and developed it into an open-source under the name Apache Hive. Companies use them for different purposes and projects.

 – Key Features: Time Management, Project Portfolio Management, Task Manager, Resource Management, Task Manager, Advanced Analytics

 – Version: trial/free

 – Starting price: $12 /user/month

 – Support options: Community, self-service knowledge base, 24/7 support, chat

5. Asana

Asana is best known as project and task management software online. Firstly, helping users to arrange jobs more efficiently and intelligently. Secondly, especially useful in the assignment of group work.

 – Key Features: Task Manager, Project Portfolio Manager, Dashboards, Time Tracking, Task Manager, Resource Management

 – Version: trial/free

 – Starting price: $ 10.99  /user /month

 – Support options: Help Center, community forum, online help, 24/7 support helps

6. Trello

Trello is an intuitive task management tool that teams brainstorm, create and create ideas. So, plan-manage and celebrate achievements together in a collaborative, efficient, and organized manner. 

– Key Features: Task Manager, Resource Management, Task Manager, Project Tracking, Goal Setting, Dashboards

– Version: trial/free

– Starting price: $ 5  /user/month

– Support options: Email, community forum, help center

To sum up, evaluate above are the best six project management tools for enterprises and most interested in the past year. The tools all have their strengths and weaknesses, but the price may vary, but that doesn’t mean cheap software doesn’t work. After that, please consider and choose the best project management programs for your project. 

Man working in front of computer

The three biggest challenges facing the accounting profession today

Accounting won’t just stop at numbers. Here are today’s biggest accounting challenges and how to tackle them. Since the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TJCA), which the American Enterprise Institute has called “the most significant change in our tax code in decades.” Read blog and know how to become the accounting profession.

 

Man working in front of computer

As of 2020, the IRS continues to work on tax code reform, and accountants and business leaders are still determining the impact of TCJA and the best strategies to maximize its benefits. TCJA.

But navigating “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” is the challenge the accounting industry will face. All businesses will face similar accounting challenges next year, and if you mishandle any of these, such as missing a deduction at tax time. If your data is vulnerable to hackers or not using the right accounting software will cost you money. And if your business is losing money, your business is going to fail. That is the general opinion of the accounting profession.

By educating yourself and recognizing the major challenges at hand, you can reduce the risk these challenges pose to your business and gain a competitive advantage. 

Challenges

1. Enforcement Act “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” continues

The “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” are treated as the “foundation” of tax reform, affecting everything from GMT food and entertainment expenses to depreciation. Here are some of the biggest lessons learned from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for businesses:

-Entertainment expenses are no longer deductible.

-A depreciation bonus allows businesses to immediately depreciate 100% of business assets such as vehicles, computers, and other equipment over the next three years.

-Using the cash method of accounting, this method is often simpler and cheaper than accrual accounting.

SOLUTION: 

Make sure you keep your accounting software up to date on a monthly basis. So the accounting software can do the heavy lifting for you when it comes to new TCJA deductions and rates. Or use estimating management templates, so that the numbers are tightly controlled. 

Carefully read “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act”. Think about ways your business can take advantage, such as cutting entertainment costs, investing in new business equipment before the end of the year, and providing paid medical and family leave to your employees.

 

2. Automation and AI are taking over more traditional accounting tasks than

Robots are not coming to take your job. But AI can, they are becoming increasingly intelligent and capable of handling complex accounting tasks like collecting transactions and aggregating them into financial statements and tax returns. Here’s the good news: Automation can take tedious tasks off your heavy to-do list.

In fact, it is estimated that by implementing robotic process automation. 40-person accounting team could save up to 25,000 avoidable rework hours per year, spending time on higher-value jobs such as analytics and forecasting, while increasing engagement and reducing employee turnover.

SOLUTION:

Treat the automation of repetitive tasks (e.g. payroll, tax form preparation) as an opportunity for growth rather than a challenge.

People still need to double-check the work done with automation. The best accounting professionals will make them invaluable by evolving into more consulting roles. Helping their businesses grow properly deploy new accounting automation technology as it becomes more capable and complex.

Accounting automation is here to help you do your work more efficiently. Think about all the ways it can save you time so you can focus instead on strategic, non-repetitive tasks, such as financial planning and analysis or management. financial risk management.

 

3. Software Technology Trends

The simple reason for using accounting management software is to join the digital age and not let human value lose to AI. The accounting profession always do that.

There are many management software use in the accounting industry, with many different features and capabilities. These software technologies allow users to estimate and calculate expenses,… and especially control the cash flow of your business. 

SOLUTION:

Select and use appropriate software, for example, UpDiagram, software with many special functions and dedicated to accounting:

– Various data fields: images, text, lists, checkboxes, date, progress, until the calculation formula

– Email and In-app notification for accounting activities

– And types of calculations and estimates are

UpDiagram is used to manage accounting projects, Excel is used to control data, especially now UpDiagram can export data to Excel files.

Challenges will make people develop, challenges in the field of accounting are lessons learn and later knowledge for the path to becoming The accounting professional.

Understanding the RFP Process and Its Benefits for Your Business

What is RFP Process? And how can it help your business?

RFP serves many different purposes and is usually utilized in several different fields for decision-making. This powerful process can help you to compare the current options that you have and thus choose the most potential one for your project.
Understanding the RFP Process and Its Benefits for Your Business

What is RFP?

According to Investopedia, a Request for Proposal (RFP) is a business document announcing and presenting the specifics of a project, as well as soliciting proposals from contractors that will help complete the project. Many organizations tend to use RFPs when making choices. A request for a particular program proposal will require the company to review the bids to evaluate their viability, the health of the bidding company, and the capacity of the bidder to do what is proposed.

 

How does it work?

       This process includes stages where buyers, for instance, calculate and compare prices, features, and functionalities between vendors and then choose the best vendors or retailers to sign a contract with. This process is a long period, it could take place for 3 months or more. However, once you go through the process, whichever contractors or vendors are left are the best of choice, since every aspect was taken into consideration and evaluated thoroughly. Therefore, however long it takes, it would be worth it.

 

RFPs are usually reserved for complex projects, where the are numerous bidders or many different criteria for evaluation. RFPs outline the bidding process and contract terms and provide guidance on how bids should be formatted and presented. Requirements are listed out and a timeline is provided for participants to stick with.

 

By launching an RPF, organizations or businesses raise the competition between bidders and also have multiple perspectives. As a result, ensuring that they get the most out of these bidders, the lowest cost with the most benefits.

 

This process contains multiple phases and steps. Therefore, in order not to miss out on any steps, an outline or a checklist should plan and given out. Using project management software for tracking the process is also a good idea. Since you can put literally anything in it: assignee, timeline, process, description, or note.

 

Hope this article helps you understand more about the RFP process. And if you intend to utilize this process for your business or organization. UpDiagram can totally help your team with starting out an RFP process project. There is also an RFP process template, which you can check out and start using immediately!

Optimize project efficiency with UpDiagram

What is UpDiagram?

What is UpDiagram? like other project management tools, UpDiagram is the project management tool which shortens users time and effort to manage their project.

 Optimize project efficiency with UpDiagram
Managing the team with many people has never been easy. Even worse, It takes more effort to keep track of the progress of each team member and the productivity of the project. The need for giving feedback or comment about the task may be complicated because of either various communication tools or unnecessary discussion meeting.

UpDiagram:

Convenience

Help you see all the progress and what steps should be taken at first glance. It simplifies your effort to follow up and estimate your project.
Grid View's UpDiagram

Grid View

Collaboration

No need to write email, inbox or book the meeting to share comment or feedback. You can communicate directly on UpDiagram.com.

 

 Collaborate seamlessly on UpDiagram

Comment and Feedback onboard

Clarity

Everything is accessible for all member to see what they need. The work will be more efficient if all members understand the progress and prepare what they should do to move forward.
 Transparent and efficient teamwork for progress

Let’s start to have a free trial.

If there is any question about a signup or set your account, and how to manage the account? 

Free to contact us via info@updiagram.com. Let do it!

man working with laptop has a headache because of work

How the IT department keeps track of their Bugs and Issues?

When It comes to the IT department, Bug and Issue are inevitable in every project. The team of IT need to determine the solution and tool to manage and minimize the potential Bugs and Issues. Therefore, a tool to help them manage and keep track of the whole progress is significantly compulsory. After using UpDiagram, a project management tool, we are not under tasks pressure and more enjoy our work.
  man working with laptop has a headache because of work

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

 

Our IT department has responsibility for thousands of bugs and issues every month. Unlike other departments, most of the issues require lots of time to resolve. Even worse, the whole team members have to collaborate to work with one issue whilst there are hundreds of tasks waiting for them.

 

For a large number of the workforce with a team of 200 people like IT department, the mission of managing the whole tasks and members is the big challenge.

 

To clarify, we need to define different columns as fields in Excel so that we can follow all tasks. We had to type every single sheet to update the data and we highlighted them to make them outstanding. However, we don’t have time to highlighted day by day and remember the color to define the same for each status. Therefore, we try to use a new tool for our specific purpose.

 

Indeed, UpDiagram which is the tool to simplify our management process provides us with the feature of Custom Fields. This is where we can set up our own fields including status, priority, assignee, due date and so on. Also, we can categorize the fields and update the status that can be reused in a project. Thanks to that, we can highlight the status and update the progress of team members.

 

For us, the special thing that we are well supported by UpDiagram is the timeline setting. It is very essential to set up the timeline of the tasks and follow up on the workflow. When using Excel, we could not see the timeline of the task. Instead, we had to check out ourselves by the calendar to estimate the progress. However, UpDiagram can show the timeline of the progress and that simplify our work to keep track of everything.

 

Moreover, when we want to focus on the status of our task to define the which ones are the most important, we choose the Board View, instead of the Grid View. In other words, I grouped the “priority” on Board View to illustrate the High, Normal and Low priority of the task. As you can see, High, Normal and Low are in different rows. For each row, there is all the status of every single task. This is very useful for us to manage the project in any different way. In fact, we tend to default this view for our member so that they can determine the most priority tasks to do first.

Bug fix icon in tech industry

Basically, UpDiagram has more function than we expect once deciding to have a trial. Right now, we are satisfied with all feature, but we also expect more enhancement, especially the personal or organizational features to meet the specific demand in case.

Managing Human Resources has become incredibly straightforward

UpDiagram base – The Human Resource has been so simple

The Human Resource Department has always faced pressure to do recruitment. For the large scale of the company, the labor force is the inevitable issue. The HR Department has to work with thousands of CVs and Applicants every month to satisfy the workforce requirement of the company from Intern to Superior position. The general tool is not completely suitable for our use of purpose. In fact, we expect more specific features for the individual of use to minimize our difficulties. There had been a doubt until we were assisted to get used to the UpDiagram by its customer service. “Thankfully, We are alive, after all”, our problem seemed to be disappeared.
 Managing Human Resources has become incredibly straightforward

Photo by Kevin Bhagat on Unsplash

 

Generally, we used Excel to manage our data. It was easy to use because we got used to it for a long time. However, when the company grew up, the number of employees acceleration which drags the pressure to manage the huge amount of labor force is considerable. Besides, the evaluation process and workforce distribution are obstacles to do well in managing human resources.

 

Our progress of recruitment is about 5 stages from the phone interview to the final interview. Every step is scheduled and all team members of The Human Resource need to update and follow up on the progress. In fact, Excel could contain a large number of our data, but it is not sharable.

 

We spent so much time recruitment. “How is your progress?”, “How many potential candidates for this position?”.

 

UpDiagram Grid View suitable for enterprises

 

To simplify our work, we have to try something new and UpDiagram is our option. At first, it was very difficult for us, because we didn’t know the all features, functions and its value for the project management. Nevertheless, their Customer Service was good at keeping track of new users. They actively contacted us to find out any difficulty that we had. We did not sure how good UpDiagram was but their service was the positive first impression.

 

UpDiagram Kanban Board tracking all tasks

 

Then, we shared our problems and they helped us set up a project with necessary features and fields. Other instruction was also share with us for future use.

 

We were into the “Grid View” where we can see and manage the whole project at first glance. Even better, the interface is more attractive because we can create some personal fields for our purpose. Additionally, we can define the users’ level in the project which can satisfy our requirement to easily follow up on the project.

 

We are very happy with UpDiagram so It could be very difficult for us to change our habit to learn new ones. Thus, we hope to see more enhancement to support more our individual purpose.

sticky notes on the whiteboard

Event Marketing: work smarter for efficiency

Event Marketing has always been considered as an opportunity to build relationships, earn the trust of partners or customers and generate reputation. However, it is not easy to run an event fluently. Besides internal communication, the external one requires even higher skills to well manage all attendees. If the event is not well organized, the trust which needs more time to build can be demolished in a second. Thus, there is no time to hesitate to try a new tool to simplify our work. We did play with UpDiagram for 3 hours and we are happy with it now.
  sticky notes on the whiteboard

Photo by Daniele Riggi on Unsplash

 

The team has responsibility for creating events for the company. As the team, we have to organize internal and external events such as team building, sharing, meetup, or even Food Event to connect the whole members of the company.

 

For each Event Marketing, we need to decide the hosts and attendees. However, we cannot see the progress and the number of response from the attendees. Also, with a large number of company members, It was a big challenge for us to hold the events. In some case, we had to cancel some events. However, there were some missing announcements which cause the disturbance to our colleagues and even worse our special guests.

 

The collaboration is what we don’t have in our event management.

UpDiagram is the alternatives we use to replace the general method. After using, there are many enhancements. Indeed, both team members and leaders can show their recognition of members tasks. They can actively keep in touch with ones who can support them. In other words, they will know who they should ask for help, or who communicate with the ones having the relevant tasks.

 

Moreover, categorizing the type of events in UpDiagram which requires us to set up only once simplify our time and effort. In addition, the date setting is more interesting because we don’t need to type every single character. The calendar is there for us to make a decision.

 

UpDiagram's task management software interface
The most interesting thing is the collaboration

Communication is a compulsory factor in event and project management. With UpDiagram, we can give comments directly to each task and that leads to the time-consuming reduction for a weekly or daily meeting. In fact, we don’t need to wait until the meeting to estimate and give feedback for the task. When we finish with the feedback immediately, we can fix the issues or plan for the next action in the progress.

 

On the contrary, UpDiagram can integrate with other communication tools such as Slack, Zalo, Gmail and so on so that we can communicate with the team easier. Thereby, following and communication in project management are not barriers to prevent the progress stagnancy.

 

As a matter of fact, it is not fast to learn how to use UpDiagram with the initial trial. Nonetheless, we can do more things than we expect when we are used to using it. Hopefully, there will be more personal features in the future from UpDiagram so that we can use for our further management purpose.