What Does Office Management Entail?

Office management is generally described as the organization and administration of the day to day, auxiliary chores in a front office. These chores are generally the responsibility of the office manager.

Responsibility

Some of these duties may include hiring and supervising the front office employees, approving the ordering and purchasing of office services and supplies, analyzing sales, managing the functions of accounting and much more, basically anything the company owner states is their responsibility.

There is no history, which is traceable, for office management. The job of office manager is usually only found in smaller companies in which the owner depends solely on one individual. In this case the business manager would handle the vast number of tasks required to keep an office functioning. This position is often referred to as as office administration or ‘Admin’

Manager or Admin

Office management positions seem to disappear once a company grows into a corporation. While often there’s an expansion of other departments such as human resources of purchasing, the manager is not generally considered to be part of the management team. They generally do not participate in sessions on management strategies such as ‘increasing sales’. They may, however, be part of the sessions in which cutting back on operating expenses would be discussed.

General Administration Decision Making

This may entail the purchasing of short term supplies such as envelopes, photocopy paper, and letter heads. As well, long term purchases such as telephone systems and any necessities that are ongoing. It may also mean the purchases of company services such as photocopier agreements, phone services etc.

Sales Authority

They may be ideally given the authority to negotiate contracts and accept bids so they oversee the decisions made with sales representatives. It is important for someone in office management to have knowledge on fraudulent business practices. It may also include staffing, this means recruiting, interviewing, hiring and training employees for the office they manage.

Managing Client Services

Office management may also mean that customer service must be monitored, this could entail listening to calls and even answering customer service calls themselves. They may even have to communicate with customers in regards to the services they are receiving from certain departments. Their findings will then regularly have to be reported to the company owner daily and particularly serious situations must be addressed as soon as possible.

Time accounting is another responsibility that may be associated with office management. Service companies that are small like a law firm or advertising agency depend on time billing as a form of revenue. The time sheets from billable employees would be collected and verified for specific jobs.

Compiling and analyzing sales information is often another aspect of office management. This may mean that the profitability of the company linked to certain projects must be calculated and various expenditures kept track of. This is very important to the performance of a company. These details are not something that a company owner will generally know right off the top of their head, therefore, it’s an important aspect of office management.

Although now it may not seem much of a glorious task, completing every task efficiently, no matter how small and mundane it may seem, can help being promoted. This is even true for someone with no business degree. Great administrators and managers are hard to find and good ones are invaluable.

The experience that is gained from successfully running a front office can provide an individual with a variety of skills that are highly transferable.