THE BUSINESS OFFICE

THE BUSINESS OFFICE

DFN

-An office is a place or room where clerical and administrative duties are being performed.

-  An office is a place  or a room or a building where the money clerical activities of the business are carried out to provide control, directions, and the management of enterprises

Most of the information dealt with by office are on Accounts, prices, orders, complaints, and personal matters etc

THE MAIN PURPOSES OF AN OFFICE

1.       To preserve all the records of the business

2.       To handle incoming correspondences

3.       To plan the policy of the business and to ensure their implementation.

4.       To direct and coordinate  the activities of the various departments

5.       To maintain accounts, statutory and non-statutory books of the business.

THE FUNCTIONS OF BUSINESS OFFICE

The efficiency of an office should be judged by the degree of promptness in supplying correct information

The following are some functions of an office

1.       To receive information

This function includes obtaining other information from different sources required by the management. They may be inform of letter s, telephone calls, report from various business concerned etc.

2.       To record information

The received information needs to be kept to enable management to make decision when required

3.       Arranging of information

The information must be in the form in which it must be valuable to the management.  It should be carried out properly by trained staff. It includes preparation of reports, personnel records, invoices and statistical statements

4.       Giving information

The office normally sends out information from its records.

The information intended to be given out should be carefully prepared out and checked.

Written information is preferable as it preserves a permanent record to both parties the sender and the receivers.

5.       Control information

The office acts as a centric, from where all of the activities are controlled thus involves organizing, inspecting, checking, comparing and auditing of various office systems.

6.       Classifying information

Information gathered by the office has to be classified for easy access. It involves indexing coding sorting and collecting them in such a way that it can be supplied to the management when required as well as to be preserved as long as required.

7.       Keeping information records

The office has to make sure that it maintains record very carefully. Whatever information is received in the office it should be kept safely for present and future use in decision making.

8.       Administrative functions

The office has to make sure that it maintains the activities of the business such as purchase of the goods, discharge of the staff payroll and running expenses, sales income etc.

9.       Personnel function

It is performed by the personnel department which entails analyzing personnel requirements, recruits, select and places them in different jobs for efficiency performance of the office provision of adequate and trained staff is necessary.

TYPES OF BUSINESS OFFICE

OFFICE PLANS

This refers to how the office premises are to be divided up for the purpose of carrying out the different functions of an office.

1.      THE OPEN OFFICES

They consist of large hall or room where in the entire clerical staff of the department or organization or firm are seated.

The staffs of the different functions are brought to work together from the same room or hall example;- administrative, supervisor, typist.

ADVANTAGES.

a.       Better space utilization is possible because space has not been lost by potions

b.      The section head s feel easy to watch the office and it is also possible to reduce the member supervisors.

c.       The layout of the office can be changed without any expenses and it is uniform

d.      There is more economy in heating and lighting

e.      It facilitates easy communication from section to section.

f.        Cleaning, decoration and maintenance can be done  in expensively

g.       There is feeling of togetherness  among the office staff

h.      There is competition among employee for improved work performance

i.         It reduces the movement of staff in case difficult of reference

DIS ADVANTAGES

I.     There is too much noise made by workers and office machines as the result there is no thoroughly concentration on one work.

II.   The work will be affected by visitors and movement of staff themselves.

III. There is neither feeling of respect nor identity and in some cases there is gossiping

IV. Actually the documents are not safe there is no privacy and secrecy

V.   Infection and diseases  may spread quickly  

VI. A big hall may not be efficiently supervised as it appears crowded place.

VII.   Staffs who are top executives may not feel comfortable in the open office.

2.      CELL/TRADITIONAL/PARTITIONED

These offices are small rooms which are separated from one another by partitions or walls where by one or two employees occupy one room.

Such rooms are allotted considering the nature of the confidential matters to be dealt in.

ADVANTAGES.

a.    It gives prestige and importance to the top executive in the organization

b.   Confidential work and discussion is possible. General privacy is ensured

c.    There is concentration of mind on one’s work as there is no noise which leads to increase in efficiency of their work.

d.   Better ventilation is possible and increases better health of the workers

e.   There is the feeling of the respect and little identity

f.     The documents of the business firm are more secured safe and secrecy.

g.    There is no informal talk or stories about other people’s private lives(gossiping)  among employees.

DIS ADVANTAGES

i.  Much space is wasted for partitions.

ii. Cleaning of the office becomes a tedious work.

iii. It is expensive to build separate offices.

iv. It affects the flow of work.

v. Supervision is costly as more supervisors are needed to watch the work done in offices

vi. the absentees of the employees from the place of work  can be easily created

vii. Cleaning of the office  becomes tedious work

viii. The communication process is costly and sometimes takes a long time.

ix. there is un economical use of office equipment  as they cannot be shared

THE OFFICE PREMISES AND SITE.

It refers to the physical place where an office should be located.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER ON THE LOCATING AN OFFICE.

a.       Good location-to choose a location which creates good impression among workers, customers and other persons.

b.      Availability of basic services-the office to be located in places where there are such services as  water, electricity, communication

c.       Availability of customers-the office should be located in areas where there are suitable customers of business.

d.      Expansion-the site should allow the expansion of office in the future.

e.      Suitable atmosphere-the office should be sited in areas which have access to natural lighting, temperature, cleanliness etc.

f.        Acquiring cost-the cost of acquiring the office site should correspond with the true financial position of the business.

g.       It should be possible for creation of room separate for chief executives and special purposes such as product display.

OFFICE LAYOUT

Office layout refers to decision on the arrangement of furniture and equipment within each office.

For the proper office layout, the following should be taken into considerations:-

a.       Smooth flow of work: the arrangement should allow for a smooth flow of work with minimum of staff movement.

b.      Free movement: the arrangement should allow free space to permit free movement of workers and customers.

c.       Standard plan: The arrangement of the desk should be standard to enable easy supervision and acquiring good appearance of office.

d.      Easy access-the arrangement should allow anyone who wants to use office equipment to be within his reach to reduce work disturbance and staff movements.

e.      Allowing natural light and ventilation: arrangement of furniture and equipment should not obstruct natural light and ventilation.

OBJECTIVES OF OFFICE LAYOUT.

Office layout has the following objectives:

(i)                  To facilitate the best possible utilization of available space without wastage.

(ii)                To ensure smooth of work without interruption.

(iii)               To provide good working condition to office staffs;

(iv)               To achieve co-ordination among different departments;

(v)                 To facilitate control and supervision;