To achieve any level of success in life and business you first have to have peace of mind. Without peace of mind it’s nearly impossible to give the necessary commitment, time, and attention to your career or business plan. There are many elements that make up peace of mind but the two most common area of mismanagement that take down the best of careers and/or businesses is the lack of time and financial management systems. Time and financial management systems amazingly have much in common with each other. Never forget that Time = Money, and managing these two area of your life is essential to achieve life and business success. I want to share with you three steps that you can take to design, develop, and put these systems in place for your life and/or business:

Step One – Setting Up Time and Financial
Management Departments

Financial Management Departments: The accounting equation already establishes your basic structure of departments to initiate a financial management system. The accounting equation is universal and it establishes the format for all aspects of financial management. Understanding the fundamental structure and concept of the accounting equation is essential before you can work with an accounting program to thus do the majority of your accounting work:

Assets (-) Liabilities = Equity (+) Revenue (-) Cost of Sales (-) Overhead

Assets = All that you own including cash, fixed, and real property. It does not matter if you paid for an asset with cash or a credit card. Assets = your total worth in cash and property.

Liabilities = All of your short and long term debt

Equity = Your Book Value worth + the profit you have earned annually to date

Revenue = Income from the sales of goods and services

Cost of Sales = The cost to buy and produce products and services for sale

Overhead = The cost to operate the business

By mastering and memorizing the Accounting Equation you will initiate the process of understanding the General Ledger Chart of Accounts, the Balance Sheet, the Income Statement, Depreciation, Inventory, and Retained Earning. Having a minimum understanding in these subjects is essential and it all starts by understand the Accounting Equation.

Time Management Departments: You still need to develop an organizational structure to track tasks, contacts, and calendar date commitments. Over the years I have developed the following seven categories or major department to manage my life. I believe that just like a business has departments and the body has organs, your life has departments also. If one area of your business or body goes down, the whole business or body may fail. Your life is no different. Developing life departments and managing the amount of time you put into nourishing, supporting, and improving these departments is essential to achieve happiness in life. These Life Management Departments are also the same departments you will use to set up your time management systems:

1. Career & Financial Management: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into your career and your finances.

2. Inner Personal Relationships: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into the person who you share your personal life with.

3. Friends and Family: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into our inner circle friends and family.

4. Spiritual Reflection & Connection: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into maintaining a relationship with a hirer souse for validation, forgiveness, and guidance.

5. Continuing Education: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into gathering knowledge and exercising your brain.

6. Health & Fitness: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into maintaining your health with diet and exercise.

7. Hobbies & Recreation: Scheduling and managing the time that goes into your hobbies and recreation to distract your mind from the other categories of life.

Step Two – Setting Up Time and Financial Management
Computer Programs

Financial Management Computer Programs: Once you have a general understand of the accounting equation, the general ledger chart of accounts, the accounting cycle, depreciation, retained earning, and inventory you are ready to setup and start using an accounting program. There are many programs on the market today but the one that 100% of all CPAs are able to work with is Quicken QuickBooks. QuickBooks also has a version for Windows and Mac. The problem with many specialty accounting programs is that it is hard to find consultants and CPAs who are trained with specialties programs. They exist, but you may not have much of a selection and distance between you and the consultant may be a factor that makes the relationship more costly. If you are not already up and running on a fully functioning accounting program, I recommend the acquisition of Quicken QuickBooks along with any needed modules that your practices requires. In addition, I also recommend the purchase of their annual support package. The cost of this annual support package in comparison to a three hours minimum visit from a consultant or a CPA make the cost of the annual support a real deal.

Once you acquire QuickBooks you need to spend some time getting familiar with the program. Fortunately, because QuickBooks is the most popular accounting programs on the market there are hundreds of training programs and tutorials available. The programs ships with a training DVD and I recommend that one of the first thing you do is watch this DVD. In addition, your CPA will also be a valuable resource for training but also for assistance with the initial setup of your General Ledger Accounts and establishing your bookkeeping systems.

Task, Contact, and Calendar Management Computer Programs: Now that you have a comprehensive framework of time management categories, you are now ready for a computer program to tacking all the information that comes into you via mail, phone, meeting, and the Internet. In this area I recommend ACT for Windows and Daylite for Macs.

In this day and age of information technology you have to have computer management system that track your time, contacts, and appointments just as effectively as an accounting program tacks your financial transactions. ACT for Windows and Daylite for Macs are amazing programs that will automatically collect, store, and database all of our emails. Both program also have amazing project management and sales applications that push you to get jobs done and closed sales deals.

Step Three – Activating Time and Financial Management
Computer Programs

Data Loading and Day-To-Day Operations Activation: For both a financial management accounting program or a time management program, it take about two days of focused concentration to load and activate each of these programs with your start up data and depending how much data you have, it could take much longer. However, once in the computer, it then becomes much easer to manipulate and manage. If you have not worked with either a financial or time management program in the past, you will soon realize that you can’t live without them. No matter how great the learning curve, mastering a financial management and a time management computer program is essential to succeed in the high technology world we live.

If you get bogged down with distractions and/or get frustrated with the initial learning of the software, their are certified consultant and trainers who will assist you in setting up and activating QuckBooks, ACT, or DayLite. Sometimes is worth the investment in a trained professional to speed up the learning process so your time can be better spent on the business.

Now that you have completed the above three steps in setting up and activating your financial and time management systems, you will be very impressed with the level of peace of mind that you will be able to achieve.