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Avoid Paying Insurance for Individuals that have Never Been on Your Payroll

September 7, 2012

Q: We recently lost an unemployment insurance claim made by a 1099/independent contractor. This person has never been on our payroll. We had two appeals to the hearing and we still lost. Have other NSCA members experienced anything similar? A:…

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Company Cars Vs Mileage Reimbursement

August 24, 2012

Q: Do most of our members provide company- owned cars for sales people or do a mileage reimbursement? A: The last time we surveyed the membership about 72% paid mileage and 21% provided company owned vehicles. With sales managers it…

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How Much Financial Sharing Should Be Done?

August 10, 2012

Q: How much of the financial information should we share with our employees? A: Many have argued this point both ways at our management conferences. I personally believe you should share only the information they need to do their job,…

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Avoid Signing a Bad Contract with Responsibility and Procedures

July 28, 2012

Q: We’ve had problems recently with managing responsibility over contracts and discovered we have signed some bad contracts. How do most members set up a contract signing procedure? A: Great question and a major source of trouble with everyone lately….

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How to Handle Trip Charges for Service Calls

July 5, 2012

Q: I’m going back and forth with our customers and accounting department over trip charges for service calls. How do other NSCA members handle this? A: There are several common methods and practices used. Some work better in larger markets,…

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Difference Between a VAR and an Integrator

June 29, 2012

Q: What is the difference between a VAR and an Integrator. A: The closer we get to the IT world the more we hear the term VAR or Value Added Reseller. In my opinion that term was developed in order…

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Job Candidates and Simulated Work?

June 6, 2012

Q: We want to have our final job interview candidates do actual simulated job site and technical work for a couple days prior to making an offer. Can we do that? A: I just had a great conversation with a…

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Design Work for Owners and Engineers

May 24, 2012

Q: Does doing system design drawings to the specific system/product level put us at risk if there were ever any issue with the design? Have you ever seen a contractor provide any kind of disclaimer with their drawings? Should we…

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New Rates on Workers Comp

May 16, 2012

Q: Our local insurance broker said to brace yourself for the new rates on workers comp insurance. Is everyone seeing this? A: I did some investigating and apparently so. The experts we use said several things are occurring that have…

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Managing Receivables

May 4, 2012

Q: Our A/R is getting worse each day, yet we try harder than ever to manage this. What is the average collection time and what can we be doing differently? A: Receivables should be looked at in two parts. One…