Survey for book & seminar

Kudos for all that you're trying to accomplish. I wish you luck & success!

-- Tara

I can provide examples of me, a non-bookkeeper, had to undo the messes of a bookkeeper, and several CPAs.

Please forward them offline.

Yes, forward them offline. Don't share this information with the others on the group. They are not worthy.

I don't want to bog down the group. If people want to post their horror stories, by all means.

I'd appreciate a CC to my home email so I can keep a record of my research.

Stephanie

Allan Mart> >> I can provide examples of me, a non-bookkeeper, had to undo the messes of > >> a

Tara, have anything to contribute?

Stephanie

scfundogs wrote:

maybe she is afraid of somebody on the group making boorish comments. Ya think?

"Gil Faver" >>> >

No the thought never occured to me.

I believe you.

I'm just a bookkeeper who still learns something new here and there. I'm taking online accounting classes to brush up on my foundation skills because I've found that years of using bookkeeping software have mostly eliminated the need to think a transaction through vs just tabbing through a screen.

That situation may be worth a mention regarding the way programs like QB, MYOB, Peachtree can create a false sense of bookkeeping know-how. People with no bookkeeping background, who get their start in bookkeeping via software, probably don't have a solid understanding of accounting fundamentals because the software thinks for them.

-- Tara

One of the chapters is on exactly that subject. I called the section: "Does having accounting mean you know what you're doing?

Frankly, it doesn't. I've seen tons of messes which have required a great deal of time and effort on the part of myself and others to clean up and correct.

Like a woman who was the "bookkeeper" for a local home improvement company that "trained" my client on MYOB. She said that my client did not need to post the invoices she was given by her husband (client invoices created in MS Word) until they were paid. Some as long as 5 months later. She was effectively running her hubby's 1/4 million dollar a year drywalling firm like it was a cash-based enterprise.

No, just because you have software doesn't make you the least bit knowledgeable about what you're doing.

Stephanie

scfundogs wrote:

Says he of the perpetually boorish comments. Allan, sometimes you're a bloody waste of bandwidth. If you have nothing positive to contribute (or say for that matter) say nothing.

Stephanie

Then I guess my only option is to cease contributing to this group.

Good bye cruel world.

I have heard that some people who do that because they do not want to have to pay GST on a $ 100,000 invoice for a machine for which they will only get paid N30/60/90.

Had a customer complaining to me that he just had his second GST audit in just as many years because of another $ 6,000 ITC check received. He is working on a large job machining job which will take 3 -4 months to complete. No progress payments but he has to pay his vendor for the titanium billets used for it.

Although it is beneficial to the latter's cash flow, the interruption a GST audit causes does not make up for it, as far as he is concerned.

Pardon me for butting in, but in the future please abbreviate the word "bandwidth" as "bndwdth" thereby saving precious bndwdth.

Thnk you.

Y cld hv svd bndwdth hd y dltd th blnk ln. rn

The drywalling jobs did not warrant any kind of special GAAP treatment. In a contstruction environment, you issue invoices on a progress basis and you are paid accordingly.

The woman who "trained" my client made a number of other major errors in the "training". I spoke several times to my client's CA explaining what I found and he instructed me to make the corrections and to keep putting the client on the right path.

Stephanie

I just gave you additional information for your book, particularly as you want to point out errors that are being made.

So have I. When I'm not creating books for a bookless entity that's been in existence for years (it happens more than people think) I'm often inheriting books that were strangely setup and/or kept.

While I'm not trying to start a blame game, I do think its worth noting that most of these messy-book companies had accountants who did their taxes each year but never bothered to fix the CoA, issue AJEs (or do them him/herself) or so much as say "boo" to the person in charge of the bookkeeping. IMO they contributed to the problem.

-- Tara