The Binder

The Office Called Home – Part 4

Are you tired of having paperwork scattered all over the place and unable to find what you need when you need it?

Here’s what happened.  I was so tired of trying to find paperwork.  Imagine with me it’s tax time and your tax accountant, H&R Block, or whoever does your taxes ask for a particular document.  You say okay, I’ll produce that for you, but only to get home and can find everything but the one document you need. I’d had enough of this and that’s when Pamela and I created “The Binder”.   

The keepsakes from year to year.
“The Binder” is like the binder of binders.  It’s different than The Family Plan.  Where as The Family Plan is a plan for our life, our home, “The Binder” is a record for everything that’s accumulated in the home for the year.     

It’s another 3 ring binder, but used in the same fashion as you would a filing cabinet.  Instead of filing by categories, you file by year using sections in your binder. Like everyone, you receive tons of mail whether it’s snail mail, email or both; you often receive important paperwork that needs to be stored.   What do you do with yours? We have a system…I believe in systems.  For us, into the 3 ring binder this stuff goes.  There’s no need to search for anything. There’s no need to wonder where we placed it.  And when the time comes that we need any information we can simply go to the binder. Not only that, after you accumulate a few years of these binders, you can see what you and your family have achieved over the years.

What might you find within The Binder.
There are 8 sections that make up our binder.  These 8 sections have the same titles as found in our family plan binder.  If you were to open “The Binder” here’s what you’d find:

• Section 1 – Executive Administration.  In this section, we place all our giving records from our churches.
• Section 2 – Accounting and Fiscal.  In here, we have all our bank & credit card statements/documents, debt statements (i.e. student loans), investment statements, receipts and utilities (i.e. bills).
• Section 3 – Facilities.  If you think of your life, your home, like a business, all the physical processes would fall under the care of the facilities department.  In our records, this is where we have information that pertains to our automobiles, home repairs, renovations, maintenance, and other home-care items.
• Section 4 – Office Administration.  Turn to this section in “The Binder” and you’ll find stuff like our annual calendar for the family, vacation plans/information, and any miscellaneous items that don’t fall into any other category.
• Section 5 – Production and Development.  In here we keep anything that’s employment related and the information for our own organizations.   Any areas that produce and help us develop go here.
• Section 6 – Marketing.  This section has information that defines who we are and how we present ourselves to the world around us.  We define how we can be contributors, not just consumers. One of the important documents we keep here is our annual focus statement (more on this later).
• Section 7 – Human Resources (H.R.).  From dependant care to medical and dental records, it’s found here.  Anything that helps us care for our family will go here.
• Section 8 –  Legal and Political.  This section houses our giving records (outside of our church), tax documents (such as tax returns), political research, and items to support election activities.  

With these 8 categories every area of our home, life, business, is covered.  

Today is Friday!
“The Binder” is the one place we can find everything and all the information we have on our family.  All we need to do is select the year and visit it’s respective binder and we have all our records in hand.  What a relief it is to have your information nice, neat, orderly, and easily accessible, all at your fingertips.  When will you begin yours? Start to today and (oh) by-the-way share this web-post with someone you know could benefit from this content.

The Family Plan Binder is available now!

Our team has worked very hard putting it together. We designed it to help you and your family move the needle forward in making your life your business. Find out more about the Family plan here.