Accounting from Home (#83)
/In this podcast episode, we discuss how to have your accounting staff work from home. Key points made are noted below.
Reasons to Work from Home
In my company, we have a number of locations, and the corporate staff mostly houses out of the office of one of the subsidiaries. About six months ago, we physically merged that subsidiary with another one, and then subleased the space. This left the corporate staff with nowhere to go. So, we decided to try working from home. This is not a common event for a public company, which usually has a bunch of extra accounting staff. I’ve let a half a year go by before reporting on the outcome, just to accumulate a list of everything that’s both good and bad about it.
How to Make it Work
First, the logistics: We set up an expense allowance of $2,000 for everyone who was going to work from home. This may sound like a fair amount of money, but I really didn’t want anyone working from their kitchen table. I also encouraged people to set up shop in a dedicated room, though that’s not always possible.
Also, everyone has a scanner. The multifunction ones work surprisingly well. I didn’t think that would be the case, so I bought a separate scanner and printer. But, in something of a surprise, the HP ScanJet N6010 that I bought, which is a vertical sheet feeder, really doesn’t work that well – it pulls through multiple pages at the same time. For reliable scanning, you need a horizontal sheet feed, which hardly ever jams pages together. For that, I use a Canon multifunction printer, copier, and scanner. It’s very inexpensive and it never jams. Just an excellent device.
The scanners have turned out to be critical. We store everything on a central server, so all incoming mail is scanned and stored centrally in the accounting server. This also means that we don’t store much paperwork at our homes at all.
And speaking of server storage, we’re all linked through a virtual private network to the company’s accounting software, which is stored in an offsite server farm that’s run by a third party. The VPN is extremely useful for the assistant controller who deals with accounting transactions, so she pretty much logs in and stays there all day.
Those of us who don’t need continual access to the accounting software don’t log in as much, since it can be difficult to print locally from the VPN.
We also have a check scanner, so that we can deposit checks on line. This is now located at one person’s house, and works just fine through their home network.
There’s also the issue of paper storage. Even though most everything is electronic, there are still some documents. What we did for this was to rent indoor storage space at a local public storage facility. We located it fairly close to the homes of those people most likely to use it. Stopping by about once every two weeks seems to be typical. And this is a very inexpensive solution.
Now, what about mail deliveries. We didn’t want company materials being delivered to anyone’s house, so instead we rented a mail box at a local United Parcel Service store. The nice thing about this setup is that they also sign for any overnight deliveries that come in. And they even call me when there’s a delivery. This gives us a street address for deliveries, which we’ve also put on our business cards, letterhead, and envelopes. And again, we’ve centrally located the mailbox, so that several people have ready access to it.
The main question I get from people is whether we miss the daily interaction. In short, kind of. It’s very easy to hide in your own personal cave, though it’s great for an introvert. What we do is a weekly lunch at a deli for those of us who live close enough. Also, we have a monthly lunch for everyone in the area that’s next to one of our local subsidiaries. On top of that, I’ve issued a Blackberry to everyone who’s OK with becoming addicted to one – which is nearly everyone. I also recommend that people install a second phone line in their homes, so they get better reception than on their Blackberries. The reason is that some of us work in our basements – I do – and cell phone reception just isn’t as good down there.
So, with the lunches and phones, I think we do OK. And because of the Blackberries, we’re much more likely to stay in touch way outside of normal working hours.
We’ve also have some discussion about introducing webcams. Those were very short discussions, because of the next item, which is the dress code. Obviously, there isn’t one.
Nearly everyone wears jeans and T-shirts, and one person prefers a bathrobe. OK, we don’t need to see that, so webcams are not going to happen.
The dress code also brings up the issue of employee savings from working at home. First, the cost of dry cleaning absolutely vanishes. Also, there’s no commuting cost. Also, there are no snow days. If the weather is bad, you don’t even notice. Also, as one person pointed out to me recently, she was sick, but was not only still working, but also presented no risk of infecting anyone else.
Working at home also played a large role in a recent hire. I needed a part time person to work on our SEC filings, so I specifically looked for someone with an SEC background, who was also a stay at home parent. The job was virtually perfect for her, and now I have very good expertise available whenever I need it.
Now, we still have people in other parts of the company who still work in offices. How does this impact them? Obviously, if there’s a meeting, we go to their office. We do not have meetings at anyone’s house. When there’s an annual audit or a quarterly review, the auditors go to the nearest subsidiary, and we go there for meetings when they need us.
And there’s also the issue of people goofing off at home – or at least that’s what someone might say who’s dubious about the idea. The reverse is the case. People tend to work longer hours from home. I very frequently get e-mails from people who’re working way past their normal quitting times. Also, it gives people more freedom to shift their work hours around. One person likes to go to the gym at 4 pm, and then comes home and works some more. But, keep in mind that these are all senior people who know what they have to do, and who require very little supervision.
As for very junior people, I really don’t know if it would work. They need more hands on training, so maybe you start them in an office until they’re fully trained, and then give them the option to work from home.
We’re not encouraging work from home throughout the company, but there is a trickle of activity in that direction. Our corporate counsel and VP of human resources just switched to working from home, and I’ve also received an inquiry from our CEO on the same topic.