1.1 Introduction
Office management is a vital area to understand and research upon, the reason being that in any kind of organization or an institution, the various functions with regards to management, administration, personnel, clerical, technical, finance, marketing, production, advertisement and so forth are carried out at a place, which is known as office. The purpose of the office is mainly to provide services of communication and of record; office is in fact a processing medium, it is responsible for directing and co-coordinating various activities and functions of the organization. An office in an organizational structure is just like the brain in the human body. Office directs and co-ordinates the activities of the various departments, the policies of the business are planned and their implementation is ensured within an office. All the records of the business are preserved; financial, client, employees, production, stock, inventory etc. All the internal and the external transactions and dealings, all kinds of correspondences are the major office functions.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
An Office was described as a place where all the official or paper work are done or performed. But in this era of information technology, office is no longer referred to a place but it as set of function for doing office work or activity (Nwoke: 2013). An office helps us to perform different task such as collecting the data, recording them, analyzing them, presenting them in an organized and scientific way, etc. All the functions of management like planning, organizing, directing, or controlling are controlled by office which also involves paper work. Office is the brain of an organization. Without a proper management, an organization will lack the ability to function properly (Peculiar: 2015). So, an organization needs someone to manage the organizational activities.
Management is a common process in all organized activities. Whenever there is certain number of people working together for a common goal, some kind of management becomes essential. The direct effort of a personnel toward the achievement of goals of organization is management.
Office management is known as a profession which includes the design, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of the process of work within an office or organization, in order to maintain and improve efficiency and productivity. This is concerned with the following elements:
Personnel: It is a person who is responsible to manage the organization or office. There should be sufficient number of trained personnel. The offices personnel must be selected properly, placed, trained, promote and controlled for the purpose of accomplishing desired goals.
Means: Are the tools with the help of which official activities are done or performed. This includes the materials, machines, and equipment required by the office personnel or for office work. If the office is not provided with the appropriate means, it is very difficult to manage the organization properly.
Environment: Environment plays an important role for managing the office and for efficient and effective office work. It means the surrounding where employees work. It includes the factor like layout, interior decoration, lighting, ventilation, cleanliness etc.
Purpose: An office has to set up definite purpose. The purpose of the office provides direction and guidelines to other activities. If the purpose of the office is cleared then efforts and activities can be directed in its achievement.
1.3 Statement of Problem
Manual office systems always put pressure on people to be correct in all aspect of their work especially the Admin. With manual systems the level of service is dependent on individuals and this puts a requirement on management to run training continuously for staff to keep them motivated and to ensure they are following the correct procedures. It can be all too easy to accidentally switch details and end up with inconsistency in data entry or in hand written orders. This has the effect of not just causing problems with customer service but also making information in available for reporting or finding trends with data discovery. Reporting and checking that data is also a problem and can be time consuming and expensive.
Other problems caused by the manual Office system are:
- Inconsistency in data entry, room for errors,
- Large ongoing staff training cost.
- System is dependent on good individuals.
- Reduction in sharing information and customer services.
- Time consuming and costly to produce reports.
- Lack of security of data.
- Duplication of data entry.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of the study is to Design and Implement a Computerized Office Management System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to design and implement an application software that will:
- Computerize a system for calculating basic salary and allowance of staff.
- Computerize a payment platform and print receipts to customer on demand.
- Accurately stores employee data and retrieves payment history when needed.
- Computerize a system that will take care of the daily sales of the company.
- Compute company’s revenue, admin expenses, tax, market expenses and financial expenses.
- Print a comprehensive account statement daily as well from time duration.
1.5 Significance of Study
The study will aid in reducing errors, fraud, increase speed and also aid growth in organizations if successfully implemented. Manual ways of carrying out accounting, payroll and receipt systems in organizations will be totally eliminated with this computerized system in place. The study will also serve as a guide to other student researchers who may want to conduct further research on the subject matter. Findings and recommendations from this system will aid in developing newer versions to serve optimally.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is centered on the design and implementation of an electronic office system that will takes care of staff payroll system, Account information system, day to day expenses in an organization and Receipts system.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
A payroll: Is a company’s list or records of its employees, which is often used to refer to the total amount of money that a company pays to its employees.
A payroll system: Is software which organizes and arranges all the tasks of employee payment and the filing of employee taxes.
Pay slips: A note given to an employee when they have been paid, detailing the amount of pay given and the tax and insurance deducted.
Employer: A person or organization that employs people.
Employee: A person employed for wages or salary, especially at nonexecutive level.
W-4 tax form: Is a form completed by an employee to indicate his or her tax situation (exemptions, status, etc.) to the employer. The W-4 form tells the employer the correct amount of tax to withhold from an employee’s paycheck.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS): A United States government agency that is responsible for the collection and enforcement of taxes.
Social Security Administration (SSA): Is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors’ benefits.
