At my company, we have several layers of accounting for progress. Weekly updates on Friday are the quick and dirty of the week, and each employee in my department sends it to a specific manager, who compiles them into an email for each region. Every Monday afternoon, we expand that Friday list with more specifics and turn it in, then we have a meeting every Tuesday morning to review each report--most employees don't read it verbatim, just highlight the important stuff. On a monthly basis, we have timesheets, which helps the finance side estimate how profitable clients are in terms of employee time.
Most of my coworkers hate having to do what feels like bureaucratic nonsense, but I can see the value to management. It not only forces us to review our progress and accounts, it allows management less of a micromanaging approach because they can easily check up on things. I actually enjoy the weekly meetings, it gives me a much better big-picture view of what the company as a whole is doing and how well we're performing. I think I might be in the minority on that opinion, though.
What kind of methods are best for financial accountability on a personal level? I'm very detailed in spending records, and of course reconcile, but I'm thinking more big picture. We have goals, but I don't think we've looked at them in about a month. I know I should have subsets of goals, breaking goals into smaller chunks, but it's easy to get caught up in life. Some days I feel lucky that I've even entered all the transactions in Quicken. What tools do you use? I've started to add goals, large and small, into my google calendar.
For bloggers out there, what methods are you using to make sure your site stays on track? Since I'm new to blogging, I don't have a system developed yet. I do have some habits from previous positions editing magazines and writing on a daily basis that are transferring well, but the publishing needs of a magazine are vastly different in some ways.
I'd love to hear what you think!
