Preparing your Business for Bad Winter Weather

Winter is upon us, and here in New England, that means snow and ice are just around the corner. Severe snow and ice storms, which can cut power for days, can wreak havoc on your business. In this month’s blog, we share tips on preparing your business for bad winter weather.

Plan Ahead

With a little advanced planning, you will ensure you stay in business, even during the worst winter weather.

To get started, take a little time to imagine a major snowstorm that completely shuts down your area. One day only? You and your business can probably just roll with it. But what if it’s for five days? 10 days? More? Think about what you and your employees will need if you have to work remotely and how you can mitigate the down time.

Consider the Cloud

You may want to consider the cloud for your document storage. If you move your documents to the cloud, you will have access to them anywhere, at anytime. Plus they are safe from whatever storm weather hits your region. There are dozens of cloud storage options available today. Some of the best know options include Microsoft OneDrive, Google Docs, and Dropbox. If you are planning to move sensitive or confidential information to the cloud, be sure to research your options carefully.

Back it up, Baby

Always have a backup of your important data. If you have moved your document storage to the cloud and are using QuickBooks Online or another cloud accounting platform, this may not be as critical. However, using a secondary backup can’t hurt.

Download Bookkeeping Data and Critical Documents

Consider downloading your important bookkeeping data, including your General Ledger, Trial Balance, and a copy of your registers, to an excel worksheet. Store it on a portable USB drive kept at a secondary location (e.g. home fire box, safety deposit box, or metal file cabinet). Doing this on a quarterly basis can go a long way in giving you peace of mind when disaster strikes. Take this a step further and add any documents that would take valuable time to recreate, including email contacts and important emails you may need to access in the future. This ensures that if you need to completely rebuild, your data is still accessible.

Prepare for the Unexpected

Remember, not all major storms come with a warning. By having a plan in place, and taking the appropriate steps outlined in your plan, you and your employees will have what you need to weather the storm.

What about our friends in the southern half of the country? No snow or ice, so no need to worry, right? Wrong! All businesses are faced with an occasional “storm” of some kind. Servers crash, laptops die, data is hacked or invaded by viruses, and injury and illness keep employees out of the office. By following the tips outlined in this blog, your business will be able to manage whatever kind of “storm” comes your way.

Accounting and Bookkeeping Services in NH and MA

Fournier Accounting and Bookkeeping Services helps small businesses by providing real time, 24/7 access to financial information from anywhere, on any device. Contact us today to learn how we can help you save time managing your bookkeeping and accounting so you can spend more time focusing on your business and the needs of your customers.