Having top Oregon home insurance companies reviewed is a great asset for those from the Beaver State who are looking for homeowners insurance. You will learn who the best Oregon homeowners insurance companies are in regards to their independent insurance ratings and confirmed customer complaints, which tend to be a good indicator of service. By using this information, you can be assured of choosing one of the companies that reviewed well.SF Homeowners Insurance Of OregonSF Fire and Casualty Company is the biggest home insurance company in the state of Oregon. Compared to its portion of the market, it had a complaint index of only 0.59. Out of 23 companies, it was rated number 9 in 2007, with all the companies who had better rankings being tiny in comparison. A.M. Best, one of the leading independent insurance rating companies, gives SF an A+ ranking, which means that it is considered financially stable.Farmers Oregon Homeowners Insurance CompanyFarmers Insurance Company of Oregon had a complaint index of 1.30 and ranked 18th in Oregon. The financial strength rating of the company was A with A.M. Best, meaning that it is stable.Allstate Oregon Homeowners Insurance CompanyAllstate Insurance Company had a complaint index of 1.54 and ranked 20th. In regards to financial stability, A.M. Best rates Allstate as A+, which indicates that it is also stable.American Family Auto Insurance Company Of OregonAmerican Family Mutual Insurance Company had a complaint index of 0.79 and ranked 11th in 2007 in Oregon’s listing of insurance companies according to their complaint index. A.M. Best also rated American Family an A in financial stability.Compare The Best Oregon Homeowners Insurance CompaniesNow that you are familiar with how top Oregon home insurance companies reviewed in terms of different factors, you are ready to shop around for quotes. You can get a variety of quotes from top Oregon insurers quickly and easily by using a free online quote tool. Compare at least 5 different insurance companies in order to find the best Oregon homeowners insurance for your particular needs. No one insurer is right for every person so shopping around is crucial.You could travel all around town and meet with different agents and representatives in person one after another or you could even begin a marathon phone calling session to gather quotes from many different companies but who wants to go through all of that? Let the Internet speed along the process and you can relax and maybe even enjoy the shopping process. Why not see how much money you can save today?
Top Oregon Home Insurance Companies Reviewed
How Well Does Your Payroll Software Get the Job Done?
For contractors, calculating payroll can be more challenging than completing a job on time and under budget. Union reporting, multiple pay rates, diverse deductions and tracking an assortment of taxes are just some of the variables incurred during each pay period.Construction-specific payroll software simplifies paying your employees. But not all software is created equal. Some systems provide little more than the basics, requiring additional computing using spreadsheets. Others deliver more complexity than you really need, which can slow down data entry.Whether you are currently evaluating software to manage your business or are interested in sizing up your current payroll system, here are 10 capabilities that automate and streamline payroll. Although your software may handle these tasks already, ask yourself how accurately – and easily – they get the job done.Costing Time to Multiple JobsDoes your software allow you to distribute an employee’s time to multiple jobs and phases?For accurate job costing you must track all related expenses, including labor. Having the ability to enter payroll time line-by-line to specific job and phase cost codes will result in a better understanding of where your labor dollars are being spent.The Cost of BurdensHow easy is it for you to calculate and track burden costs such as worker’s compensation, union benefits, FICA and various state and federal tax requirements?Knowing what burden costs you owe is a key element of cash flow management. Understanding the true burden costs associated with your labor will not only provide more accurate job costing, it will allow you to plan for these burden expenses so you won’t be caught off-guard when the payment is due.Single Paycheck PrintingDoes your software print a single paycheck for an employee that works in multiple states, for multiple unions, on multiple jobs and with multiple pay rates – during the same pay period?Automated, single paycheck printing ability – regardless of the variables – is a necessity for busy construction payroll departments.Direct DepositCan your employee paychecks be electronically deposited into their bank accounts, eliminating the need to deposit paper checks?If your software supports direct deposit, you can offer a significant benefit to your employees: the convenience of having immediate access to their payroll funds without a trip to the bank. This is especially helpful for field or service staff working on remote job sites or locations that can’t get to the office to pick up their checks.Multi-State DeductionsIf you perform work in multiple states, do you have an automated method for managing the various deductions for each job location?The ability to set up local deductions for city, county or school district taxes – and assign them to jobs – is a huge time-saver. As employees work on various job locations, tax amounts are automatically calculated. This feature is also useful for handling other types of payroll deductions such as tax levies, child support and benefit plans.User-Defined DeductionsDoes your payroll software allow you to set up multiple user-defined deductions such as employee advancements, garnishments, 401K contributions and employee purchases?Managing the many workforce pay deductions can be a paperwork nightmare unless your software handles these items with a flexible, user-defined format.Certified Payroll Can you easily produce the reports needed for jobs that require certified payroll, such as Prevailing Wage and Statement of Compliance reports?Your software should be able to generate these reports on demand for any payroll period in any payroll year. In addition, this capability should be available for both union and non-union jobs.Union ReportingIf you employ union labor, how much time do you spend each month creating the required reports?If your payroll software needs to handle the many requirements of union labor, look for features such as detailed burden and benefits tracking and the ability to generate required reports on demand. Union burden amounts should automatically accrue during each payroll run for inclusion on monthly reports to the union administrator.EEO ReportingAre you manually generating the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) reports needed to remain in compliance or bid on government-funded projects?Some construction payroll systems offer the tools to track the ethnic diversity of your workforce on a job-by-job basis. The ability to generate a utilization report that details the total number of employees on a job, the number of minority workers on that job and the number of minority hours worked within a specific pay period will save you many hours of manual labor.Date-Sensitive ReportingDoes your software support date-sensitive reporting?The ability to print date-sensitive reports is critical in the event of an audit. For example, union and prevailing wage rates change on a regular basis. If your software stores historical rates by date, reconstructing a report for any specified time period is fast and easy.The Bottom LineOther important payroll features to consider are the automatic reversal of associated entries when voiding a check and the ability to issue multiple paychecks within the same payroll period to deal with situations such as union layoffs.The bottom line is this: If you’re still manually calculating any part of payroll or manually creating associated reports, you aren’t working as efficiently as you could. Perhaps it’s time to investigate your options.Source: AccuBuild Construction Software
Top Business Management Skill – Managing Up
One area of management skill that is not talked about at the level of importance it deserves is “managing-up.” What is this concept about and why is it so important to career development?For the vast majority of managers and executives, there is at least one or more management levels above their current position. A new manager will have multiple levels above them, and even the CEO has a Board of Directors to answer to let alone powerful shareholders. So, building your credibility by managing your reputation, credibility, visibility and influence with your direct manager and key people several layers above is managing up. It is a career advancement, must have, skill set.Any manager who aspires to move up in their company, or even in their industry, must take charge of their career development. Managing up is one of the most important keys to affect a managers career. It needs to be purposeful, credible and skill based. You need a regular and consistent plan. You can move in and out of it. You must manage-up as a regular part of who you are within your organization.It is important not to confuse blatant self promotion with managing up. When effectively managing-up, you will very often get others above your level to do the promoting for you. This result is almost a natural outcome of managing-up correctly. It can be compared to positioning yourself successfully. Managing how you are looked. It is about managing and controlling how you are perceived by people in positions of importance at management levels above yours. This positioning is at the center of managing your advancement.When promotions are available, when another division or line of business needs a manager, you want to be among the first considered. The higher the level of management, say executive vice presidents for example, the fewer the number of managers exist at that level. These managers know each other to varying degrees. They likely see each other at senior manager meetings or company functions. It is almost like a “club” in a positive sense. If you are at that level, you have peers that are known to you at the same level.When positions come available in one area, other managers will know about. The may even be consulted about the opening. Who do you want them to talk about when they are thinking about potential candidates? That won’t happen unless you have managed up with people at that level. Most aspiring managers do not take absolute charge of their own career development. They miss the advancement boat often times, not because they are not qualified, but because they are not known as “someone of interest.”There are a number of techniques for managing up. For the purpose of this article there are three to consider.1. Build a Career Development Plan. Think about where you want to be within your company and industry. where are your best opportunities? What are the trends and strategic directions of your organization? Read everything you can written and communicated by senior management that will shed light on the future direction. Ask questions of those at higher levels.2. Pinpoint your Skill Set. What skills do you possess that could be value added to those above you. this is not about what you do now, necessarily. This skill assessment should be broader. Every manager has things that they bring to the table whether they use them now or not. We are looking for things that you could offer to do/share with senior people above you when the opportunity arises.3. Net work, net work, net work. You have to identify senior people above you that could be approached to build a sincere relationship with as part of your development. Perhaps there are senior people that you could visit with to discuss ‘how best to develop your career.’ You can usually spot those that are open and approachable. In other situations, you can find someone to be a “mentor.” Perhaps you career development plan calls for a certain skill set to be expanded. Find a senior person known for that skill and meet about mentoring. You will often be surprised how open they may be to the idea.In the end, your career depends greatly on managing-up. Every manager needs to build a plan and pro-actively pursue it.