Seriously?

I did it! You can too!

OK, that sounds too much like one of those “Available only on TV” offers.

But reality is that in the Small Business space, technology spending is often an ad hoc an affair. I saved quite a bit of money just cleaning up the entire purchasing process of IT OPEX and CAPEX expenses.

1) If your chart of accounts does not already break out technology expenses, you should do it. At the very least an accurate addendum of fiscal costs should be kept.

2) Get rid of ad hoc purchases - ensure that written requests (electronic or paper does not matter) for all purchases exist and are signed or approved. Approval levels may be different depending on dollar value.

3) Ban credit card or retail account purchases. Utilize distributors and re-sellers.

These simple steps can save money in multiple ways. Direct costs are lower through the channels, plus accounts of Net 30 with a a few points is a lot less than credit card rates. And ensuring that proper sign off is made gets rid of the requests for some “cool” thing that is “only” 300 bucks.

Longer term, it provides visibility into which parts of the organization are generating the most IT spend requests, and helps identify services or components that can be reduced in price or utilized better, leading to lest wasted spending.

And finally, it provides excellent detail into operational expenses that can be tied into improving future budgets.