If you've ever had an key employee absent for a period of time due to an accident or unexpected surgery, it is probably all to clear that written schedules and procedures are vital to the wellness of your business.  Even if the accounting or billing software has a manual - those should be considered as a good 'starting point', as best.  Every company has its own operating, accounting and billing quirks - so supplemental reports documenting additional tasks specific to your company that go along with a job are vital. For example, once you have completed processing payroll,  you still need instructions for filing and paying federal tax deposits.

Here are a few suggestions to help your essential employees create their own Task Manuals:

1. Ask your key employees to begin with tasks they do on a regular basis.  While actually working though paying bills or preparing a quote, write down step-by-step instructions. Encourage them to pay attention to the parts known so well that they might accidently skip over an important instruction.
2. To augment the written instructions, include screen shots as much as possible. It’s true - a picture is worth a thousand words.  For example, seeing the actual webpage helps confirm you are on the right page of the Department of Revenue website.
3.  Test the written procedues by having someone else follow those instructions to see if they make sense.
4. As quarter and year-end approach, allow extra time to document the many tasks that are done. This seems like extra work at a particularly busy time, but it only takes one angry gall bladder to disrupt what should have been a very smooth process.
5. Cross-train another employee so that someone else can help out as necessary.

Your key employees might know in their heads what all needs to be done - but now someone else can easily cover for unexpected interruptions to ensure timely processing and a smooth transitions.