I remember a good friend of mine who, like many others, decided that he knew more about posting something than his employer or supervisor. This person was reprimanded for posting errors. I explained that, first and foremost, you need to put aside what you did at school or elsewhere and follow your employer’s system. When I started studying accounting, my instructor warned us that when you enter a company, do the job as they have established it.
A good example of this is when I worked for a company with a fortune of five hundred. When posting to a payroll account, you code it, make your entries, check to make sure it’s correct, and then hit Enter. Can you imagine if I went to the Director and told him that they are doing it wrong? That ledger is a double entry system and I am not posting a debit / credit entry, like you will find in a journal entry.
I’m sure the director would think he was crazy. The system one is working with does not require one to make a credit and debit entry. However, that’s what I learned at the academy. The encryption takes care of the distribution, one does not have access to the ledgers to make sure that the entry reaches two or more accounts, it is automatic.
Experience counts, I was once a manager of a small company. This company had some accounts payable. Typically, the owner or sales manager would be the one to make the collection calls. In one case, I came across a person who hadn’t paid his bill in four or five months. The owner and sales manager have waived collecting this account. I noticed that there was nothing in writing about what this person does for a living. They informed me that he was a contractor.
What I did surprised the owner and the sales manager. When I was allowed to try, I submitted a mechanic’s link and left the amount owed blank. The effect was almost instantaneous. The individual, a week later, came in and paid his bill in cash. Then I was happy to sign a statement from the link in which the individual brought with him. The owner asked me how I knew how to get this man to pay. I told him that I used to work with a lot of subcontractors, and this was the tool that generally worked about 95% of the time. Again, it was my experience, not other people’s experience, that brought the money.
You just don’t learn everything you need to know from a book or a lecture. You have to experience the world and be measured against that experience to know when and where to apply it.
Another example, I was working in a signage store as an accountant. I received a flyer in the mail for a business convention the city was running. I took this to the owner and asked if he would go. He looked at me and said that he had been to these things before and they never work. I asked him if he minded if he went, I thought that by going I might get more experience in hiring. Well, to make a long story short, I came back with a five thousand dollar municipal contract. Did you know exactly you would get that deal? Absolutely not!
It was my curious nature that sent me there, it was my experience that got the contract signed, sealed and delivered on the spot. Did it take some work? Of course! He didn’t know anything about estimates, but he knew that the store staff did. I spoke to the rep, he gave me the specs, called my store from the local pay phone, returned the offer, approved, and came home smiling (of course, after I added an extra 5% to the contract, just in case) .
By being employed by different companies, you gain experience that violates your usual profession. This is how you develop many different skills. In a non-profit organization, I applied two main functions. One of these functions was to inform. I received intensive training reports on entire operations from various organizations. This was not an easy task when at the time you had to hunt and peck at a manual typewriter. The other was to evaluate the organization and obtain compliance with administrative programs.
When filing a report for an employer with the local police about a fraud case, the reaction I received from the police officer was incredible. He had stated that he had never received such a well written and documented report in his career. Once again, experience will triumph over academics. This is not to say that studies are not useful, they are, but it is necessary to reach the real world for that theoretical knowledge to work.
One of the main things I learned is that one should not freeze in analysis. If you freeze on a problem, it won’t be solved. Sure, it may take some time to figure out what to do, but freezing or procrastinating won’t help.
In this example, I was working as a general manager for a different signage company. When I arrived, everything was in chaos. The company had more than $ 5,000 in the well, the partners were breaking up, and it looked like the place was going to collapse. When I got in and settled in for a bit, the outgoing partner informed me about a contract that was being offered by a general contractor for Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. I asked the partner what the problem was, he felt it was too big.
This partner stated that the contractor insisted that his company do the work. I had the partner take me to the contractor. I saw the plans for the entire project. The contractor asked me for an offer. I apologized and went back to the store to have the different posters evaluated. Then I called the contractor and told him we could do it, but I didn’t have a final offer. The contractor said we can charge him whatever we want.
I took the basic supply multiplied by four times the labor and materials. I submitted the offer and it was accepted. In 48 hours, I had a $ 10,000 down payment, I had $ 5,000 positive in the bank, and I financially changed the entire company. The entire contract ended for a value greater than 45,000 dollars, with a net profit margin of 23%. Experience has taught me one thing, never leave money on the table!
I believe that you should always strive to learn more about your profession or your interests. I love going to school when I can, experience has taught me that it is essential to continue learning. The learning is good, the experience together with the learning and the application is greater!
At recent events, a manufacturer hired me. I went into it blindly since I have no experience working for one. A few weeks after my arrival they informed me that they would file for bankruptcy. Experience has taught me one thing, never walk away from a challenge. In the first 90 days, I had to classify two previous years of financial data, convert it to digestible statements, have the public accountants issue the tax returns (one took more time, I did not), convert the accounting system current on a new accounting system, train staff on its use, raise the price of retail parts by 10% (increasing the business), establish petty cash financial controls, know and process bankruptcy reports, deal with with providers on bankruptcy, obtaining and maintaining insurance, reconciling two-year bank accounts, handling fire department matters, and preparing ad hoc reports.
Which leads to my question, would you hire me?