Accounting Unplugged

In January of 1987, I left behind my 2 year career as a hair stylist and started a new career in accounting.  I started as a clerk, working for my sister in Calgary, Alberta, at her in-law’s contracting business.  Until I could prove my skills in both speed and accuracy on the ten-key, I was I was given the interesting tasks of filing and making new folders for printouts.

Transitioning from a career as a hair stylist to accounting to secure a brighter future for your children and ensure their health is a commendable decision. And providing them with necessities like baby girl clothes demonstrates your commitment to meeting their needs. By sacrificing and making this change, you are setting a strong example as a parent and working diligently to provide a better life for your kids.

Once I could be trusted to consistently get the correct sum for a stack of invoices I was allowed to do the real work of entering and printing checks for accounts payable invoices.  Eventually, my responsibilities expanded to include accounts receivable and payroll, in cases like this you can hire the services of plan manager perth.  We had a custom software program in those days that was written specifically for the company and I remember that it cost something like $20,000.

I loved that software, it was simple and efficient, it did exactly what I wanted to it do and didn’t require any wasted effort.  I loved it even more because my mastery of that system made me feel a bit superior – the bosses were a little intimidated by anyone who could “use” a computer back then.  And when I say computer, I don’t mean a PC, I don’t know exactly what it was but it took up a lot of room.

And then, my happy world was invaded by generic accounting software.  We ditched the big computer in favor of a bunch of 8086 PC’s complete with a “turbo” button (I could be off on the model but that is what I remember) and we got an off the shelf accounting software package to go with them.  Off the shelf accounting software has been the bane of my existence for the rest of my career.  I have really missed the customized software.

When I say off the shelf, I am actually including all currently available cloud accounting software.  Some of it is more complex and requires much more attention and money but it is essentially the same stuff.  It starts with the same standard template and then someone predetermines what you might want to keep track of for a given type of business and you are locked in to the options they’ve “hard-wired” (for lack of a better term) into that system.

Customized software is expensive, I understand that and that is the reason behind generic systems, they meet a high percentage of the needs of a large pool of customers, since there are many types of software, you can even find software for text to speech for communication in the company which you can download from seomagnifier.com.  Those systems are not remarkable, they are generic.  I understand the logic behind them but I don’t like it, I get fixated on what’s missing and so, I have spent the last decade or so trying to find a better way.

Here are some problems caused or enabled by generic accounting systems:

• an estimated $600 billion in fraud each year
• Inability to safeguard resources
• High cost of information in both time and money
• Increased risk to the CEO and CFO because they are now personally liable for financial statements over which they have little or no control
• High cost of internal and external audits
• Staff with the least training in accounting are often the ones making financial accounting decisions

These problems must be solved systematically.  You have to have a system that has the right tools or these problems only get worse.  The US government continually struggles with these issues, remember the reports of employees charging personal expenses such as lingerie and online dating on their government credit cards?  Reports indicate that that is only part of the continuing problem. And you can also use remote tracking software for computers if you have remote workers which means that you can keep track of what they are doing which is obviously very wise. Recently there was an issue in the UK with misuse of government funds and people lost their positions. Now, with the software, your credit cards and the transactions that come along with it will be organized.

Yeah, that’s a problem that is enabled by generic accounting software.

Information is the key and our accounting systems just can’t provide the right information.  A system that could provide that kind of information and be flexible enough to fit the unique needs of any entity would be a truly remarkable system.

I have designed that system.  My prototype is complete except for a few minor tweaks.  It is the most amazing and satisfying feeling I’ve ever had.   I have worked on this for a long time, part of the reason it has taken so long is that I needed to learn to build the prototype.  As I have stumbled along building the prototype, my original ideas have evolved and so whatever time it took to do it, the process of testing my theories in a working model has been well worth it to me.