BerthaBlog – Page 26 – Not like other chicks.

Tax Season Almost Over!

Accounting Stuff, General Comments Off

Apr 132014

And I’m just about caught up with the work backlog, as well. Maybe next week I’ll be doing something other than working, eating, and sleeping.

Been searching the job boards for jobs using some kind of ERP, like Dynamics GP or SAS or NetSuite. Unfortunately the only jobs that seem to be advertised are for high-level consultants who are experts with the software and can set it up for a company and train people to use it.

Considering taking a class or something. Maybe if I can at least put “Took Intro to Dynamics GP” it’ll help get my foot in a door somewhere. ERP software looks a lot more interesting than Quickbooks, and it’s the kind of thing used by larger companies with more room for me to move up.

In the workplace, I suspect Queenie won’t be with us much longer. The beginning of the year, she took a course in tax preparation. When she sent around an e-mail to let us know she had completed the course (for which most of us sincerely congratulated her), The Boss sent a rather curt reply that it was great, and she was free to use her new knowledge on her own time, but she was not to offer or provide tax services for our company.

Nothing else was said about her tax prep skills. But I’m connected with her on LinkedIn, and a few weeks ago got a notice to congratulate her on her new job at H&R Block. (I did not mention this to anyone at work.) And she took all of last week off—the last full week before the big tax deadline here in the States. I strongly suspect that she spent last week working at H&R Block doing taxes, and if she’s smart she was also laying the groundwork to work there permanently.

So I’m curious to see what next week brings; I’m half expecting that she’s going to give two weeks’ notice, the Boss will take it personally and tell her to just go ahead and leave immediately, and New Girl will be suddenly responsible for all of Queenie’s payroll clients. In other words, I’m predicting another drama tsunami.

Popcorn, anyone?

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Mar 152014

Last couple of weeks have been a little busy.

The majority of our clients are either restaurants, or construction companies. Up until a few weeks ago, our procedure over on our side of the office has been that Freda decided which client we’d work on, and passed the work along to myself and New Girl. Freda tends to prioritize the construction companies, mostly because they use subcontractors that have withholding taxes which must be paid every month.

The system worked well before I started doing the books for SecondCo; I would do whatever Freda assigned me, then work on restaurants. Now, however, I work on SecondCo, then do the work Freda assigns me, then there’s no time left to work on anything else. The restaurants have been getting neglected.

So a few weeks ago, the Boss declared that henceforth I shall be responsible for making sure the restaurants are taken care of, and Freda will be in charge of construction companies and other accounts.

Overall I think this policy will work better; it allows me to prioritize the restaurants and make sure they’re getting done, and it if they’re still falling behind we’ll know it’s because we need more staff, not because they were just being put off. But for the moment, it feels like one day I was doing my job just fine, and the next day I was suddenly vastly behind. And I hate being behind.

After plugging away at them for a couple of weeks, I’m seeing some progress. But it still bugs me knowing I’m behind, even if I’m not the cause.

The Drama Continues

Geek Wannabe Comments Off

Mar 142014

Speaking of drama with Queenie (she is often the source of drama in the office), part of the reason she is so touchy with Freda is that Freda really does know more about accounting, and when Queenie makes mistakes Freda will tell her.

It’s not that Freda picks on Queenie particularly; she tells everyone if she sees them making mistakes. I personally love that—I certainly made mistakes when I first started, being a newbie with little practical experience, and I welcomed feedback that helped me improve. But Queenie seems to feel threatened by it.

Last week Freda gave me a bank statement to reconcile. Five minutes later I brought it back. “The beginning balance is wrong,” I said apologetically. “I think Queenie’s deleted something.”

It’s been a problem for years. We simply cannot seem to get Queenie to understand that she must not delete transactions that have been reconciled. It’s not like you can do this accidentally; if you try to change or delete a reconciled transaction, Quickbooks will pop up a warning saying “That’s a really bad idea, ARE YOU SURE?” But she continues to do it, because she makes mistakes and doesn’t know how else to fix them. Then Freda and I have to go back and re-do whatever she fucked up, so she’s making more work for us as well as herself.

So Freda tried (again) to explain to Queenie that she shouldn’t delete reconciled checks. I don’t know what all was said, but for a little while Queenie was definitely raising her voice—to the extent that the Boss came out to ask what she was yelling about—and afterwards was muttering in Spanish for some time. She really doesn’t like it that Freda knows more about accounting than she does, it undermines her status.

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