Even though most business property must be depreciated over a period of time, you can still speed up write-offs if you’re armed with tax knowledge. That’s because your not-so-secret weapon—the Section 179 expensing allowance—lets you write off most or all of the cost of most business assets in the very first year of ownership! Here are the ground rules.

A comprehensive document management system can help your business boost productivity, improve the bottom line and stay out of legal trouble. Here are three ways to organize files for easy retrieval, establish a record retention schedule and tame your wild email inbox.

Disputes between employees are common and inevitable. But if left unresolved, they can disrupt your department’s productivity, sap morale and even cause some good employees to quit. Supervisors and managers don’t need to become certified mediators to settle disputes. They just need to understand some basics about human behavior, practice the fine art of paying attention and serve as a neutral party who wants to resolve the problem.

For managers, reviewing employee performance is a daunting yet critical function of their job. Yet you need not look upon it with dread. Instead, approach the performance appraisal process as a golden opportunity to give your staff feedback, listen to employee comments, review the job description, and discuss and correct performance problems.

When an employee announces she’s pregnant, her employer had better be aware of the federal pregnancy discrimination law, state maternity leave laws and the employee’s right to FMLA and pregnancy disability leave.

Demonstrating best-practices leadership means finding new ways to reinvigorate your team and boost their performance. Here are four techniques for boosting your team management skills and maximizing your team’s performance.

Employers and HR professionals should make it their policy never to hire a candidate without a comprehensive background check. But, they also must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which regulates how employers perform employment background checks on job applicants. Contrary to popular belief, this federal law doesn’t cover just credit checks.

Think you deserve a raise, but are afraid to walk into your boss’s office and ask? Don’t let ineffective negotiation skills hold you back. Know how to negotiate your pay from a position of strength, armed with documentation of your accomplishments, your value to your organization and market research on salary comparisons in your industry. Here are four pointers on how to ask for a raise—and what to do if the boss says no.