A new year provides us with the opportunity to make some needed changes in our work lives. Those changes should make your home office run more smoothly. Some will be easier than others to execute and may take time before they become good work habits.

Daily Invoicing

My first change is to make sure that I invoice daily. I sometimes put invoicing on the back burner. That can cause problems if I put it off until the commission arrives from a booking.

This year I am setting aside one hour after my workday is done to invoice everything I have sold that day. I may not need the entire hour, but I will use the time to make sure that I have not missed anything.

Commission Monitoring

My next change will focus on making sure that commissions have arrived and have been properly credited to me. I am setting aside time once every two weeks to follow up on open commissions. I fell behind on this last year and found myself emailing a number of hotels at one time to follow up. Now I have blocked time on my calendar to contact suppliers every two weeks about outstanding commissions.

Some hotels require an invoice before paying commission. If a property requires the invoice, I prepare it when the hotel is confirmed and always ask if the commission is paid on the gross or the net amount before tax. I place a reminder on my calendar for the day after a client departs to send it. When the reminder pops up, I simply email the invoice.

Learning More

Another change this year will be increasing my participation in webinars and training meetings to enhance my knowledge. Learning is key in our profession. We need to know about new products—hotels, cruises, destinations—we can offer our clients. And we need to stay ahead of the Internet. The only way we can do that is through education.

Finally, I plan to take one vacation this year completely devoid of work. I will make exceptions for emergencies but will do my best to put work aside for one week and give myself the downtime I need.