Tool
Something has arrived. What now.
Pick the closest description of what turned up. You get where it sits on the ladder, what the clock is, what the first week should look like, and the thing that costs people the most at that stage.
Triage
General procedure, not adviceThree things that are true at every stage
Write down the date it arrived
Almost every period in this field runs from communication or from service. If there is a dispute later about when something reached you, the record you made on the day is what settles it.
Do not answer without the file
A statement or a reply given from memory is the hardest thing in this practice to correct. Reconstruct the transaction first, then answer.
Keep every proceeding in one view
The same facts often sit before more than one authority. What is conceded in the smallest of them is quoted in the largest.
Where a matter is best resolved
Compliance riskBefore anything is written downResolve here
Departmental queryThe first contactWe come in here
Show cause noticeReply
AdjudicationSubmissions
Demand and recoveryCostly
AppealAppellate
Earlier is cheaperCost and risk rise
Bring it in this week, not next month.
On most of these, the options that exist on day three do not exist on day forty.