Tax Prep-Work...

The tax season is once again upon us. This year we're supposed to have the raw data for the tax guys in both sub-companies ready by the middle of June. At least that's currently the timeframe we're shooting for. It will all depend how much changes will have to be made during prep-work and that all depends on how correct the accounting entry has been during the year. But this very narrow timeframe means also that I can't be doing the prep-work in both sub-companies and that the junior accountant has to do the prep-work for the one sub-company he's partially resüonsible for.
Well, when it comes to the performance of our junior accountant it's always a hit and miss. He's still very confused at times and doesn't think his strategy quite through. So I know there have been a lot of mistakes during the year. And he regularly asks me one and the same questions over and over again. After 8 month you would think he would have finally figured that out. But I guess he hasn't. He is especially confused when it comes to dealing with the inter-company transfer accounts. I have to admit that this is something that isn't quite easy and requires a great deal of thinking things through to figure out on which side the expense has to go during what stage of the transaction. And there have been a lot of other circumstances when I realized that our junior accountant had at least 3 years accounting in school and that he only learned the stuff he needed to learn for tests. The one thing that he never really got a good understanding of accounting and the greater picture involved. It just shows that accounting has nothing to do with intelligence. You either understand it or you don't. If you don't quite understand it, accounting can be one of the most frustrating things in life. I do understand it and I'm really having fun at work.
On Friday I told our junior accoutant to start with the prep-work. About 1/2 hour later he comes to me and it was quite apparent that he didn't have a clue. So I told him print out the laedge sheets for the business year we'll be giving to the tax guys. For me it was completely logical that he was going to control the starting balance first. Well, he didn't quite do that. So I asked him if he had checked if the ending blanace of last year, the starting blanace on the year-end sum overview and the starting blance on the ledger sheets did matcht up. Well they didn't. So I explained to him that he has to figure out why that is the case. I thought as accountant it can't be that difficult for him the figure that out. Couple of hours later he comes again to me just to tell me he can't find anything wrong. So I explain to him to calculate the difference between the ending balance of the last tax year and the opening blanace of the current tax year and look if it some point during the prep-work for last tax season we had entered changed in the opening balance of the last tax year. He finally figures out that those changes are exactly the difference. His solution would have been to enter the missing parts of the opening blance into the current tax year. This solution couldn't be more wrong. Doing that just means tha I have the correction twice. What our junir accountant just couldn't comprehend is the fact that the changes to the opening blance of the last tax year have not been carried over into the new tax year. So fianlly I tell him that he manually needs to carry the balance forward into the new year. That's a very simple procedure...it's just one mouse click.
With that done he could start with the first stage of the prep-work. I'm still convinced that he hasn't comprehended the opending blanace, ending blance, and day to day accounting relate to each other. And that was actually the really easy part. We haven't even began to split expenses between 2 tax years or moves expenses around. That's the fun part and shows who's an accountant and who is only pretending to. So I wasn't at all surprised when the junior accountant called in sick this morning. Apparently he's completely overwhelmed with that task. And hopes that someone else will be doing it.

An Appointment with my Bank...

Today I had scheduled an appointment with my bank. They wanted to clear some things up and I wanted to talk to them about the fees the charge for the checking account as well. Lately it just seems as the fees are getting up and up and I do have also offers for other banks as well. But it isn't easy to compare those offers since you have have to have a detailed list of the cost and not only the final sum per quarter. The easiest way to get those list ist during a conversation with th bank.
I got to my apppointment quite early, so I went to have coffee at a local Cafe. The reason that the bank wanted to talk to me was mainly for the reason of my salary. Since my salary differs greatly from month to month. So they weren't quite sure if I'm working for a company as employee or if I'm selfemployed. The reason for my fluctuating salary depends on how much overtime I make per month. Once we had cleared that up we talked a little about the cost of the checking account. There are some cost postions that we could elimante right away. Like the cost for the print of the checking account statement, since I check on that through the Netbanking App anyways. Another cost factor that we eliminated right away ist the mailing fee for the account statement. That does bring down the cost a little bit. Still not sure If I'm entirely happy with that, but it's a beginning. Certain other costs I have to calculate through before being able to make a decision like e.g. the fee for taking cash out of the ATM. But haven't gotten around to calculationg that completely throught quite yet. Here you can cleary see that I am truly an accountant. I really like figuring stuff like that out and I'm fairly good at it. So you could say it's something of an occupational hazard.
By the end of that appointment my bank even offered me a credit card. Looked over the terms and conditions and it's a fairly good deal. So in a couple of weeks I will be having once again a credit card. Haven't been haven one since I moved back to Austria. So it looks like my bank does appreciate customers with a postive cash flow.

Crazy People on the Net...

This evening was really quite entertaining. After I was done painting I just planned to relax on the couch and watch a couple of episodes DS9, when suddenly this one guy started a chat with me. Since I didn't have anything to do I figured I might do some chatting, Although I'm having a boyfriend currently, but that's not quite an exclusive thing yet. At the beginning it was an OK chat. Didn't expect anything from it, since I had a ton of chats like that and of course there was the geographical distance what would make anything happen any time soon rather unlikely. But for me that is a here and there a fun way of killing a couple of hours.
The that guy moved to things that are in his opinion kinky. Well I didn't think so, but we all have different views on that subject. That went on for quite a while and was actually quite entertaining. Since I consider completely different things kinky. As the chat went on it dawned on me that this guy either doesn't remember what he is saying to whom or he's high on something. He kept asking me the same things over and over again. He just would have to look a few chat lines higer and he could have seen that he already aksed the question and got an answer for that. He than started something up, that can only be described as dangerous sexual practices. I'm not judgmental whenit comes to that, but I do have my own views on that. The chat progressed to that point where that guy asked me that what I was thinking about it and I told the guy exactly my opinion. And what happened next, well that's something that I haven't experienced in quite a long time. The guy went off like a nuke. Telling me something about he doesn't need attitude, he's super intelligent and a member of Mensa. And a lot of other stuff that just doesn't have any place in this blog...wouldn't be very appropriate. I kept thinking how intelligent can you be if you don't realize that you're talking to a guy a couple of thousand miles away.
But besides that it actually was quite entertaing. If I had to venture guess I would say that this guy had to be high on something...crystal meth would be my guess. But it just prooves once more that finding "quality" guys with a good head on their shoulders is quite some task these days, as they are difficult to find.

Temporary movie into the Living Room...

Since I didn't get entirely finished with the painting and due to the smell of the fresh paint, I decided it might be a good idea to move for a couple of days into the living room. This way Daisy and I would be out of the paint fumes and I wouldn't have to put everything away at night.
This was also the first time, that I spent an entire night sleeping on my living room couch. And I have to say that it really isn't that bad at all. Got a really good and restful sleep. The experience somehow reminded me of my first apartment, since the useable living space had been reduced to pretty much 300 sqf and that's about the size of my first apartment. But actually it really didn't bother me that much. Apparently my current place is set up way better and the sandy yellow of the living room actually makes for a quite cozy feeling. Not saying that I plan on reduzing my apartment size, but it doesn't feel that bad at all. Sure I'm looking forward to the time when I will have my bedroom back again. But it just shows you that the size of the aparment doesn't matter that much, as long as you have set it up in a way that works for you and it long as it makes you feel comfy and cozy.
Couch, Coutch Tabe, TV, Laptop and CowDog...that are the basics of what I call living...and Daisy didn't seem to mind the smaller living space either.

Home Remodel continues...

Since this was a 3 day-weekind in Austria and I had taken additionally Tuesday off as well it seemed like a good idea to get on with the remodel of the bedroom. Have been putting that off for about 6 month. At the time I had orignially planned to do it, well it just didn't happen because of the shorter days in November. The second reason was the smell of the fresh paint and the fact that you just can't keep the windows open all day long. And during the nice spring weekends I just couldn't get myself motived enough to do it.
So this Saturday I just relaxed and spend some quality time with Daisy, but on Sunday after getting some housold chores done I started with the bedroom. Got it all taped off and painten all the corners. With only 2 hours of good daylight left I just didn't think it was a good idea to start. So I moved ot to Monday. Turned out to be a good choice since the weather wasn't really stable to do anything outdoors with Daisy but good enough to keep the windows open while painting. Actually I mad quite very good progress and got done way quicker than I thought I would. Apparently the color I chose for the bedroom covers the salmon color than was left ther by the previous renter way better than the sandy yellow in the living room.The bedroom needed only one coat of paint and it was good to go. It is quite an interesting color. It's a lilac color with a heavy blue tint. Depending on the time of the day on of the light source it's either more lilac or more blue. It certainly makes the room way darker than it was before. At first I just wasn't sure about the color, but the longer it is on the wall the more I do like it. There's one thing for certain it looks nothing like the actual paint chip. And I did look at the paint chip at different times of the day and with different light sources. Guess having the color on 2 walls is quite different than having only 1 tiny square to look at.
With this color it's pretty much the same thing than with the apple green guest room when I lived in Aqua Dulce in US: you either love the color or you're gonna hate it.
There are still some minor touch ups left to do, but hopefully by the end of the week the smell of fresh paint will be gone and I can start setting up the bedroom the way I want it to be. Have been putting that off as well, since I wasn't going to get all the furniture for the bedroom and have to paint after that.

Star Trek: Into Darkness...my Review

Today I finally got around to watching the newest addition to the Star Trek Franchise. Well, were do I even start. As a big Star Trek Fan I can only say that this movie was very disapointing. I would even go so far to say it was absolutely terrible. Besides a few minor bright spots there is nothing good about this movie. Of all the movies of the Star Trek Franschise this is the second worst. There is only one movie that is worse and every Star Trek fan knows exactly the I'm talking about.
If that really is the best J.J. Abrams can do, well than he has no business directing any Star Trek movie. Right from the get go we get action sequence after action sequence. That's te only thing that moves it forward. If I want to see a movie that is only one action clip after the next than I go an see a Michael Bay movie. But for a Star Trek movie just doesn't work. The SFX although interesting are way too CGI and nobdoy spent any time trying to make it look less CGI. This might work in a video game, but for a Star Trek movie this is absolutely terrible.
The dialog is rather dull and boring. Who ever wrote it has apparently no idea what a dialog worth of a Star Trek movie has to be. Giving Uhura and Sulu a little more screen time is one of the few bright spots. So is the chemistry between Kirk and Spock. Not giving Scotty and Bones the necessary screen time and appropriate amount of dialog is another big let down.
My beef with this movie starts already with the last movie and the fact that it is bases on Kirk and the original crew. That's a huge mistake as that's a leagaycy that they could never ever live up to. And it makes them come off a cheesy. Stop using established characters and feed of them like a bunch of vultures. Go out and create your own characters with it's own stories. That's the way it is supposded to be done. TNG didn't try to be a TOS, neither did DS9, Star Trek Enterprise or Voyager. Once the TNG crew started taking over in the Star Trek movies, did they try to feed of the TOS characters ? No of course they didn't. They told their own stories. And that's what I loved about it. Character development takes effort and time.
What we got in this movie are stories that have already been told. The Kirk "wanabe" court martial comes off as completly fake, when compared to the real deal of the TOS crew. The Khan story is even worse. This story has been told twice. As episode in TOS in Star Trek 2. That what we got here was pretty much a bad joke. If I want to watch the Khan story I watch Star Trek 2. And that was a great movie and fun to watch. In every movie they're supposed to tell a new story and not rehatch something that has already been told 1000 times better before.
By the time this movie was over, I was happy about 1 thing: that the movie finally had ended. That are 2 hours I will never ever get back again. As a Star Trek fan I was very disapointed and as a consumer I felt cheated for the amount of 12 bucks. If I had wanted to watch Star Trek 2 I could have stayed at home watched it and save 12 bucks, and would have had a way more enjoyable movie experience. If that thing comes out on DVD I'm certainly not going to by.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best and 1 being the worst, I would give this movie a 2. And that's being very generous.

Ditching Norton...

Since switching back to a PC from a Mac, I've been having a 2 month trial version of Norton Internet Security. I've talked about switchting back to a PC in an earlier Blog Post. If you want toknow more about that, check out my Blog Post "Picking a new Computer...". I haven't been a fon of Norton for a couple of years. Mostly it's the fact because Norton hooks itself way to deep into your system and a lot of the features just slow down your system and don't provide any additional security. Norten used to be top notch program, but these days a lot of it has become basically "bloatware". Recently there also been instances when systems that Norton were supposed to protect had become infected. So that's just not a good sales agrument for Norton.
So I dug a little deeper into the entire issue and it seems that all people on the forums agree that Norton isn't that what it used to be. There are a lot of people out ther who have sucessfully gone completely freeware. But since my PC is a computer that I use mostly for work...well I wasn't going to take that risk. If you take your time to dig through the forums it's a toss up between McAfee and Kapersky. I've dealt with both programs in the past and I never had a problem with either one.
In the end I went with Kapersky Internetsecurity 2013, since it seemed to be a bit a better fit for my needs.
Removing Norton from my system was easy, you just have to download Norton Removal Tool... and it's pretty much a piece of cake. So I popped in the CD I had gotten at a local Computer Store and didn't expect any problems, expecially since the package explicitly stated it was ready for Windows 8. Well never trust advertising. It came up with the message, that it didn't support Windows 8. But I wasn't ready to give up that quickly. So I run the install routine twice with Administrator Rights. The first time it came up with the same error message. The second time it advised me that I had to download the updated version from the Kapersky server. So I did exactly that. Since the file was only 200 MB I expected it to be done within 5 minutes since I have a 100 MBit connection. Turns out that it was only downloading with about 300 KB/sec and it took almost 20 minutes. After that the install routing worked exactly the way you expect. Once finished I ran a full system check and the system was clean. The only vulnerabilites were Internet Explorer. I applied the necessary changes, although I don't even use IE. Made some custom changes to the settings to better fit my needs and now everything is ready to go.

Choosing an Accounting Porgram for Personal Use...

When it comes to Accounting Programs you definitely have a wide variety to choose from. To make a long story short I am just not happy the way Quicken and QuickBooks are handling things. Let's just say that much that both programs are actually sloppy and somewhat inaccurate. And that's something that has been bothering me for quite some time. I'm not going into all the details here as that would be too much for a Blog Post. I might explain my exact reasons at a later point in time and the best way to do that would be with a couple of videos.
Of course being a Accountant by profession I would love to have a BMD or an SAP Acounting Software, but considering the price tag of about 1500 bucks, well that's just too steep for a personal use. That was the reason to look into alternatives.

Alternative number 1 was a program called EuroFibu, that is actually an Austrian software. While it is not a bad program for my taste it orients itself way to much on the way Accounting is being taught in schools. Nobody actually works that way these days anymore. The second problem I have with that particular software is the fact that it is an adapation from a MS-DOS bases piece of software. And you find many hints of it's origin in the Windows version. That again is somewhat bothersome and doesn't really help as it makes working and adapting the program to your needs somewhat of an really ackward task.

Alternative number 2 was a programm call EAR19. It's a program from Germany and it's a real Windows program. That much is evident. The problem I had with that thing right from the beginning is the fact that it es been written for companies that only record after the income/expense principle. For me as a prfessional accountant that makes working somewhat ackward, since I loose quite a number of possibilities and a number of control mechanisms. But they also offer a version that simulates the accounting blanace model. But they didn't rewrite the software but split it up into different categories, what again makes the workflow for an accountant quite ackward. As an accountant you're useed to the fact that you can record all business events from your main screen. EAR19 devides that into severl categories, forcing you to open upen the appropriate menus in order to enter certain accounting tasks. When looking at the data evaluation tool it clearly showed that they were written for the income/expense model. That's not exactly the way it's being done in the balance model. And it doesn't give you required information right away.

Alternative number 3 was a program called easy2000. It's another true Windows Program and mostly targets users with very little accounting experience. But it gives you the option to work in a true accounting mode. That means that you can actually enter the accounting data as a prefessional accountant does it in real live. I'm not particularly happy with the layout of the recording dialog as it's somewhat cluttered and the color scheme is anything but a happy choice. But it gets the job done. You can enter all transactions as you would in real live. It has its own dilalog to record payments. In my opinion this dialog is pretty much not necessary since there are better ways to record a payment. It even allows for Split-Recording of your expenses. While that is a necessary task the solution in this program makes recording Splits somehwhat of a quite ackward task. You better know exactly what you're doing and in wich direction the split has to work or you're likely to end up with wrong entries. The Data Evaluation Tools are the big let down. While you do have all the tools an accounting program is supposed to have the layout on the screen makes it a somewhat daunting task. Not being an accountant might make it not that easy to get the necessary information out of those lists. Those lists remind me of the time when all accounting programs were run under MS-DOS and it is quite apparent that nobody really took the time to give those lists the appropriate layout.

Alternative number 4 was the Syska Euro Fibu. I've worked with the REWE SQL and from some of the parts it's similar to the EuroFibu. The EuroFibu is a full fletched Accounting Program that works after the Banlance Principal. That's something I really did aprriceate a lot. There are certaion additional features like the entire cash register feature, that comes in quite handy when doing your own accounting. It does Split entries on the income and the expense side. Although I have to say that the way it does Splits is a litte different than the REWE SQL does it. So it takes a little getting used to. The Main Screen is at first a little cluttered for my taste. They put way too much options on there. But since this is a program written for Windows it's quite easy to set it up the way it works for your needs. Playing a little around with the settings will let you get the most out of the program very quickly. But it means you have to know what you're doing or be able to call someone with a good knowledge of accounting. Of coiurse it comes with all the basic data evaluation tools. On top of that you get your advanced data analysis tools. This includes a toll for all the invoices due. An export feature af all data sets into Excel for further data evaluation. It comes with a professional cash register feature, that lets you record your cash expenses in a correct manner. And it generates all the necessary reports for you to profesionally perpare all the paperwork when doing your taxes to get the most back from the state. All in all it's a good program. For doing your personal finances it might be a little over the top...I admit that.

I'm still not entirely sure which program I'm going to go with. Yes I do have a favorite, but it will all depend on the costs for the license.

Season Finale Amazing Race 22

My thoughts on the Season Finale (Episode 11 + 12) of Amazing Race 22.

A Spring Thunderstrom...

Last night we had a big spring thunderstrom. Not tha this would be anything special during that time of the year in Austria. But this was really a big one. Usually I don't even wake up unless Daisy decideds that it is time to pay attention to her. But during this thunderstorm the rain was really pouring down hard. Way harder than during your average thunderstorm. And living in an penthouse apartment means that you can hear the rain particularly well.
Dasy was sitting right next to my bed, whimpering a little and waiting for me to pay attention to her. So I got up and checked if in fact all windows were closed. Temps in Vienna have been in the 80's during the past couple of weeks, so there was a destinct possibility of an open window. But no window was open. We had quite an impressive ligthening show going on out there and some thunder as well. Daisy is no fan of the thunder, but she dislikes ligthening even more.
Being a good doggy daddy I invited her into the bed and she spent the worst part of the thunderstorm right next to me. When things eased off a little she moved down to the foot area and the rest of the night there. Under normal circumstances she would never do that. Even invited into the bed she might spend 5 minutes with you at the most if you don't pay attention to her. What a difference such a thunderstorm makes.
By 5 am Daisy had taken over pretty much 1/2 of the bed. And this being a 1-man bed, let's just say it was not the most relaxing night. By 5 am Daisy got up and went to sleep on her doggy bed and I got to have the bed all for myself for another 45 minutes before having to get up.
The things we do for our furry family members...

Daisy's 16th Birthday...

Dasiy's 16th Birthday was kind of a 2 day event. Bought a whole Knackwurst for her and give it to her all at once would probably make her sick. So I divided it over her entire bithday weekend. And boy, did she love that Knackwurst.
Saturday was pretty much a day of pampering spent lots of quality time together with her. And of course lots of attention and petting...and she loved all that extra attention. We took a long stroll in the neighborhood as well. Weather was just not good enough to take her for an outing at Danube Island. The evening was pretty much low key. Ordered Burgers from a local Burger delivery place and we did have a quiet evening in front of the TV.
On Sunday the weather had improved a little. So it seemed like a good time for an outing at the park. We did have our usual Sunday Brunch and then headed out to the local park. We made 2 of the larger rounds through the park and then settled down for some time in the doggy off leash area for Daisy to chill out a little, since she seemed the get a bit tired. We hung out there for about 1/2 hour. Daisy got a good burshing and she looked really very nice, but she didn't care too much about the other dogs. She did socialize with 2 of them for a moment, but other than that she really wasn't interested in them at all. We did take a short final round through the park and then we headed home.
Getting home Daisy went straigt to her doggy bed and was pretty much out for the rest of the afternoon.
That's life with a 16-yeare old senior dog. In the last couple of month the stuff Daisy really wants to do has deteriorated somewhat. But that's just the way things are. Later in the evening Daisy got another serving of Knackwurst and of course she loved it.

Happy Birthday, old Girl!!

Troubles with Hosting Accounts...

WebSite Hosting Accounts should make it easy on you to install the Apps required to run your WebSite. At least that's how their sales pitch works. For it's certainly not the first time that I own a website and it's not the first hosting provider I have to deal with. So I know it can be quite a hassle at time. There are 2 things that I've never experienced before: A support team that only works Monday to Friday and a so called "Easy Install Script" that is anything but easy and doesn't quite work as planned.
That Easy Install Script asks you to install the the software into a subdirectory. But doing so doesn't display anthing when going to your website. However if you navigate directly to the subdirectroy your website displays properly. As far as I understand it the redirect of those scripts doesn't really work.
With all my previous hosting accounts stuff like that never used to be a problem. But with Typo3 it was way worse than just that. If you run the installer script nothing it installed the software properly at least looking at it from the backend. But it never displayed the anthing when navigating to the site. Because the installer script doesn't overwrite the index.html file. Even installing Typo3 into the root directory solved to problem somewhat, but it doesn't let install the introductory package. So I uninstalled it. Took me a little to figure out that uninstalling does not remove MYSql Database. That was also a first to me. You have to delete the MySql database manually.
So after playing around a couple of hours with the thing a getting quite frustrated actully I sent that support team a rather spicy email. But I wasn't willing to give up quite yet. I manually deleted all MySql entries and then went to the Typo3 Site and downloaded the current Typo3 and uploaded it to the webserver. Here the server actually unpacked all the files. But it did put it into another subdirectory. So I moved all the files back to the root directory. Then I created the MySql Database manully and with doing so I got all the infos I needed to run the Typo3 installer script manually. That's actually the way it should have been right from the beginning on. So a task that should have taken 15 minutes at the most took over 2 1/2 hours. And if I hadn't known something about webservers and how to help myself I would have been completely out of luck.
So let's just say that I'm not particularly fond of that hosting account so far...at least the way they've set up those Easy Scripts is actually a bad joke.

Accounting can be hilarious at times...

Well, there are definitely those times when accounting can be hilarious at times. I know for Non-Accountants that's not that easy to imagine.
Well today I had a conversation with one of our suppliers, that certain invoices appear to be unpaid. So I told the guy to send me a list what according to their accounting department is undpaid. As soon as I got the list I got started with it right away. Not only was there a difference between the invoices that have been paid and that didn't appear on their list but also the amount of certain incoices didn't quite match up. That the payments and open invoices don't necessarily macht up is nothing unusual. That's something that happens on a daily basis. But the amount of the invoices has to match. So I took out the originals of the incoices just to check if we had entered them correctly...and we had done just that- Next I checked with the original banking statements and the money we had transfered was OK as well.
That meant I had something of a riddle at my hand. And I'm just the right guy for that...since I love to figure out stuff like that and I'm quite good at it. Didn't take me long to figure out where the problem was. Apparently our supplier had changed the amount on one of the invoices after he had sent it to us. That's a big NO NO  in accounting. Actually doing so makes you criminally responsible for that.
So I talked to those guys and it turned out quite quickly that the didn't have any clues about the GoB (General Rules for correct Accounting). I talked with this guys for almost 40 minutes and pointed the out how GoB works. And that changing invoices in any form after the fact is something that must never ever be allowed to happen. That guy I was talking to gave some explanation about that the software had done that. But I know better than to buy that story, since no accounting software is going to allow something like that. In the end I sent him a list how we had entered the invoices they sent to us and which invoices we had already paid for. He promised he would use to list the check with his head of finance and clear up the differences.
Being an accountant for over 20 years I know what that statement acutally means. They know that they've screwed up royally, but they're afraid to say so. If they had said so I could have told them the way ti reconsiliate the differences. Having to explain to someone the basic rules of accounting and realizing at the same time that you tell someone something completely new to them...well that provided entertainment for me for a couple of hours. That set the basis for the joke in our accoutning department...that I should send in my resume to them as their possible new head of finance. So all in all we got a really good laugh out of it!

Amazing Race 22, Episode 10...

My thoughts on Episode 10 of Amazing Race Season 22

"Working our Barrels off".