EAC Office Management & Organization 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An executive assistant discovers that the office petty cash fund is $45 short with no receipts. What is the correct first step?
- Quietly replenish the fund from personal funds
- Document the discrepancy and report it to the appropriate supervisor immediately (Correct answer)
- Accuse the most recent petty cash user of theft
- Close the petty cash fund permanently
Correct answer: Document the discrepancy and report it to the appropriate supervisor immediately
Proper financial controls require discrepancies to be documented and reported immediately to maintain accountability and prevent future losses.
Question 2: Which ergonomic arrangement is considered best practice for a computer workstation used by an executive assistant?
- Monitor positioned at eye level with keyboard at a slight downward angle (Correct answer)
- Monitor below eye level to reduce neck strain with keyboard on the desk surface
- Monitor above eye level to encourage upright posture
- Keyboard on the lap for maximum comfort
Correct answer: Monitor positioned at eye level with keyboard at a slight downward angle
A monitor at eye level prevents neck strain, and a slightly angled keyboard reduces wrist fatigue during extended computer use.
Question 3: When is it most appropriate to use a routing slip with internal documents?
- When a document needs to be reviewed or signed by multiple people in sequence (Correct answer)
- When sending a document to an external vendor
- When archiving documents that are no longer active
- When making personal copies of company documents
Correct answer: When a document needs to be reviewed or signed by multiple people in sequence
Routing slips track a document's path through multiple reviewers in a defined sequence, ensuring accountability and preventing documents from being lost.
Question 4: A company is transitioning from paper to digital document management. What is the most important factor to address first?
- Purchasing the most expensive software available
- Establishing clear digital file naming conventions and folder structure before migration (Correct answer)
- Scanning every document in the office immediately
- Eliminating all paper documents on day one
Correct answer: Establishing clear digital file naming conventions and folder structure before migration
Establishing naming and organizational conventions before migration ensures digital files are as accessible and organized as or better than the paper system.
Question 5: What does 'records retention schedule' refer to in office management?
- A daily schedule for filing new records
- A policy defining how long different types of documents must be kept before destruction (Correct answer)
- A log of all documents currently in active use
- A list of employees authorized to access confidential records
Correct answer: A policy defining how long different types of documents must be kept before destruction
A records retention schedule is a compliance tool that specifies legally required or organizationally determined timeframes for keeping specific document types.
Question 6: When the executive is traveling for two weeks, which office management task becomes MOST critical for the assistant?
- Redecorating the office in the executive's absence
- Maintaining communication flow, managing urgent items, and keeping the executive informed (Correct answer)
- Forwarding all decisions to the executive's manager without filtering
- Suspending all non-essential operations until the executive returns
Correct answer: Maintaining communication flow, managing urgent items, and keeping the executive informed
The EA must act as the executive's presence in the office, handling routine matters independently while escalating truly urgent issues appropriately.
Question 7: Which method is most effective for prioritizing a large backlog of tasks after returning from a week-long absence?
- Work through tasks in the order they were received
- Triage tasks by urgency and impact, addressing time-sensitive items first (Correct answer)
- Delegate all tasks to colleagues to catch up quickly
- Ask the executive to handle the backlog personally
Correct answer: Triage tasks by urgency and impact, addressing time-sensitive items first
Triaging by urgency and impact ensures that the most consequential tasks receive immediate attention while less critical work is scheduled appropriately.
EAC Office Management & Organization 3
An executive assistant discovers that the office petty cash fund is $45 short with no receipts.
What is the correct first step?