Bill Kennedy, CA.IT, PMP: Energized Accounting

Help a Young Career

Times read: 145

05/04/08

Energized Accounting Bill Kennedy CA.IT, PMP

By Bill Kennedy - "Here is what you should know if you want to get ahead . . . "

Did anyone ever take you aside and say those words to you? Me neither. Yet it used to happen all the time, back when people stayed in one company long enough that there was time to plan for the future. The older executive would take the new recruit aside and teach them the subjects that they never got in school: how to work within the system, how to form alliances, how to help one another other climb the corporate ladder.

So, what would you advise the bright young professional accountant who has just passed the exams?

I would advise them to join the Board of Directors of a charity. Why? It's not just that there is a crying need for professional accounting in the not-for-profit sector. It's also a fast way to get practical experience working with a Board of Directors. Charity Boards are welcoming. Board members have the patience to help you along. But you need to be strategic:

1. Choose a charity you believe in. Then it won't feel like work.
2. As a professional accountant, they will want you to be Treasurer. Accept the position for one term (usually 2 or 3 years) then actively recruit a replacement so you can move to another position and learn new skills.
3. Make sure you donate money as well as time to the cause. It increases your credibility.
4. Keep moving up, recruiting a replacement as you go. Always ensure you bring fresh blood into the organization.
5. Focus on how you can help others and keep relationships active. That's called networking.

Learning New Skills

The broader your skills, the farther you can go in your career. Professional accounting skills are a great base, but if you can add revenue generating experience, such as fundraising or grant proposals, you have a dynamite combination.

Networking

Networking is more than just passing your business card around at an event. It's about establishing and maintaining relationships. The best way to build a relationship is to help someone. The second best way is to ask for someone's help. Since there's no way to predict who will be able to help you in future, try to be helpful to a wide variety of people and see what emerges.

Dive In!

Some Board members take a passive role. They read what they are sent and respond. Others take a more active role. They research the organization's needs. They participate in planning. They take an active role in furthering the organization's objectives. That's the kind of Director you need to be.

Rewards

Charitable work is often called its own reward. That's true, but there is a practical side as well. The issues you face on a charity Board, such as prioritizing resources, dealing with personality conflicts, wading through government filing requirements and forecasting the political future, are exactly the same issues you face on the Board of a for-profit corporation.

So, go get 'em, Tiger! And remember to mention me in your memoirs.

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Systematize / Projectize - Which?

Times read: 155

04/27/08

By Bill Kennedy - Month end again. The normal processes kick into gear as we ensure there is a good sales cut off, the expense reports have been submitted, the banks reconciled and the overseas operations results are ready for consolidation. On the whole, month end is a well oiled machine where everyone knows what is expected of them. That's the mark of a good system, particularly if all of the processes have been documented and people check them off as they are completed.

Most of the work of the accounting department can be systematized, i.e. turned into a pattern of regularly recurring processes, but what about the surprises? You know, the President is looking at purchasing that little plant in Omaha, you need to have a Sarbanes Oxley review, the accounting software needs to be updated, the Chairman wants a five year forecast, etc. When the accounting staff have their hands full with the system, how do you handle these unpredictable requirements?

The answer is to projectize. Let's face it, even though nobody can predict what surprises lay in store for you next month or next year, you know for certain that they will be there. Why not include them in your planning?

Personal Goals

You know some of the projects that have to get done. In fact, some of them may have been waiting a long time for someone to have enough time to address them. At a recent client, I commented on how enthusiastically one of the staff had taken to the new reporting software. "That's because the new Controller included it in her personal goals for the year," the Assistant Controller said.

"Great," I replied. "What's your goal?"

"Clean up the GL," she said, with a sad smile. It was a big job.

Delegating projects to people is good, but that's only just the start.

Resources, Tools & Time

Of the three techniques available to a project manager, finding the time can be the hardest. Whatever else you do, the accounting system must be maintained. On the other hand, project work can be fun. It's a break from the routine. People get a chance to learn new skills and work independently. What better way to prepare someone for their next career step than to give them a project to manage?

In my experience, the best way to make room in the schedule for project work is to be open with the team about what you are doing. Then enlist their help in finding faster ways to do the normal work, such as automating or eliminating manual processes, getting transactions booked properly the first time rather than adjusting them at month end and reducing any duplications between separate systems. If the whole team is motivated to save time, the results will be much better than a solo effort by you. You might have to make it clear that your objective is only to save time, not to reduce headcount.

Resources and tools are other issues that you have to address. Your team members may need training to take on the projects, whether a formal course or coaching from someone more senior. An outside consultant may be necessary, but encourage your team to work independently. Have them create a project plan and come back to you with any additional resources they think they need. Finally, insist on regular updates and status reports. After all, as head of the department, you are still responsible for delivering the goods.

So, should you systematize or projectize the accounting department? The answer is: both.

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Spring Cleaning

Times read: 224

04/19/08

By Bill Kennedy - Okay, I was not cut out to be a gardener. How do I know? I was raking last year's leaves from the garden when I realized that this year's crocuses had already sprouted, flowered and died. I never saw them because they couldn't get through all the dead leaves. Time for spring cleaning!

Is there any dead wood in your accounting system? When the year end is done and the audit over is a good time to look at the system and decide if anything needs to be tweaked.

Lessons Learned

A great tip from the world of project management is to have a Lessons Learned session with the team where you go over a recently completed project (e.g. the audit) and ask what everyone would do differently in a similar future situation. This is not a finger pointing or blaming exercise, in fact great care should be taken to emphasize that the session is about the future rather than the past. If people are open about their experiences, a lot of good can come from these sessions. To get more value from the meeting, arrive with a few open ended questions to get people talking. To continue with the audit example you might ask:

1. Did anyone have to create a manual spreadsheet that we could have the system produce if a change was made to the chart of accounts?
2. Could any of the auditors' requests be combined so that two requirements could be completed at once?
3. What could the auditors have done that would have achieved the same results more effectively or efficiently? (They need feedback as well.)
4. Could the timing of any of the audit be improved?
5. Was anything else dropped as a result of the extra work required for the audit?

Another candidate for spring cleaning is financial reporting. Governments, regulatory authorities and operations managers often require more detailed information. Ask if it would be possible to produce this information more quickly or effectively with a change to procedures or to the accounting system setup. You would be amazed at how often issues like this go unexamined until someone comes along and stirs things up a little.

Just like the leaves in my garden.


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When Disaster Strikes ...

Times read: 233

04/17/08

By Bill Kennedy - We were just discussing how to apply credit notes to invoices when the lights went out. Everything was dark in the office except the computer screen. I knew I had 20 minutes until the UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) batteries ran out. I decided to use this as a teaching moment and explained to the client how it's better to power down the servers gracefully than just have them stop when the power is cut. On the way to the server room, I glanced out the window and saw the people across the street leaving their buildings. It didn't look like the power would be restored soon, so I told the client I'd see him tomorrow and left.

It wasn't until I turned on the radio that I realized the extent of the damage. Parts of the Northeastern United States and Canada had been knocked out. Far from the normal half hour interruption, it lasted several days. For some companies it was a real disaster.

How long can your business go without power? If you lost all of your computer systems right now, what would you do? If a fire ripped through your files, how would you recover? As my client found out there comes a time when the disaster plan is no longer a theoretical exercise.

Identify which systems are critical and which are not. Often accounting is not that critical. Things can wait a few days while you get a new computer set up. One client had a simple plan for his payroll system, just instruct the bank to pay the same thing as last month until the system was back up. There are lots of resources on the web to help you, for example go here.

Sometimes it pays just to ask your staff those what-if questions, e.g. what if the accounting system goes down? One of my clients was spitting mad. He had gone on vacation for a week and the head office computer system had been down for two days. Without the order entry system, his customer orders didn't get sent into the back for production. He lost two whole days. "The system may have been down, but the photocopier still worked. Why didn't they just slap a shop order number onto a copy of the customer purchase order and send it into the back?" he fumed. But he knew the answer: because nobody had thought about what to do when disaster strikes.

Bill Kennedy
Energized Accounting

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Going Bug Hunting

Times read: 219

04/13/08

By Bill Kennedy - Bugs are usually thought of as programming errors, but I would extend the concept to include all unexpected results, whether they are due to programming or due to the system being used for a purpose it wasn't designed for. Here are a few tips to help you in your hunt.

Document

The easier you make it for a programmer to isolate and correct the problem, the faster the problem will get solved and the more reliable the result. The very first step is to make a copy of the screen showing the error message. This may take some training because the typical response is just to click on OK without even reading the error message. Paste the screen shot into a Word document and email it to the support person.

Follow Up

Keep track of your support requests via a support log to be sure they are followed up and addressed in a timely manner. If a description of all the support requests is kept, then it can be used to point to a solution should the same issue crop up again.

Re-create

Should a solution not be immediately available, see if you can make the error happen again. Microsoft Dynamics, like most accounting systems, comes with a sample company. Re-creating the error in the sample company has the advantage that the programmer has access to the same system. It also rules out your data being the culprit.

Frustration

Let's say that the support representative looks at your issue and says that they are unable to re-create the problem. Furthermore, you can't either. But then it happens again. This is when you need to be rigorous and scientific in your approach. The worst kind of bug to find is the intermittent error. You need to comb through ever instance of the error looking for a common thread or a pattern.

Like everyone in systems work, I have lots of stories of obscure errors or the amount of hair I lost trying to sort out a problem. It comes down to patience and luck. In general, I would say that half the time it was the system's users who figured out where the actual problem was.

Hardware

When the answer is elusive, I try to eliminate sources of error. The first thing to eliminate is hardware. One defective router dropping or corrupting messages from one user's computer to the server can cause serious issues in the whole system. At one client we had printout going to (apparently) random printers. It turned out that new users were being set up with a copy from an existing user. The copy included the computer identification number, so there were duplicate identification numbers in the system simultaneously. When routing printed reports to printers, the server would choose the first computer to login with that identification number, causing an intermittent error.

Security and Set Up

Another source of error to eliminate is the user set up. The more flexible a security system is, the more complex the user set up. Watch to see if the error happens to more than one user. Also check whether it is tied to a particular time of day. At one client, the system slowed to a crawl every day around 12:00 pm. It turned out that the warehouse staff were playing internet radio stations during their lunch break.

Within the accounting system try to determine which modules are involved. For example, a transaction that works well in the local currency may cause problem in a foreign one. Pore through all of the set up to see if anything attached to the transaction causing the error message was unusual (e.g. the vendor, inventory item, general ledger account, etc.) If everything looks good, then document everything you can and wait for the situation to recur.

Patience

Patience is your best ally in this quest. Bugs are often a source of finger pointing between people who are convinced that the answer lies with someone else. The message you need to keep repeating is that we are all on the same side. We are all working towards the same goal: bug elimination.

Bill Kennedy
Energized Accounting


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Do It Yourself Reporting

Times read: 360

04/07/08

By Bill Kennedy - The spreadsheet report on my computer was refusing to balance, when the IT Manager dropped by. (I later found the problem. Someone had overridden one of the formulas with a number, so that line was not updating properly.)

"You should get one of my staff to write the report for you," she said brightly. "We're creating them for everyone. In fact, you could learn to make them yourself." She was proud of her new SQL Reporting Services and couldn't resist showing off a little.

After she left, I wandered over to the Accounting Manager's office and asked her about this reporting tool. It turns out she's using it too. I asked her how much training she had needed and she answered none. It was so much like doing reports from Microsoft Access that she just played with it until she had the answer she wanted. I asked her how to use it and she showed me how you access the tables from Excel. After that it's like any spreadsheet. That actually set off alarm bells for me, as I pictured anybody with a little Excel knowledge accessing our payroll records.

"Relax," she said. "You have to get the IT department to grant you access to the tables first. Just let them know which ones you need."

One thing I admire about Microsoft is their drive to make the way their different products look the same. It isn't just the savings in training time, it's also the confidence that people feel when they see something they recognize.

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Are you a Sensei (Teacher)?

Times read: 247

04/06/08

By Bill Kennedy - In Aikido, the teacher is always referred to as "Sensei" meaning literally, one who has gone before.

When he was 10, my son used to be quite good at Judo. Now that he's 15, we have been encouraging him to go back to it for physical fitness. We weren't getting anywhere, until my wife suggested that we all do it together as a family. So we signed up for Aikido (the choice being between Aikido and Kendo and I didn't feel like getting hit with a stick) at the Japanese Cultural Center. That is how I met Sensei Jim.

There we were, dressed in sweats in a room full of people outfitted in martial arts uniforms, made to stand at the front of the class, feeling something like a new member in the accounting department (ah, you see where I am going with this!) Anyway, as I was busy feeling like I'm too old for this kind of thing, and mixing up my left and right (although I must say that there is a satisfaction in throwing and being thrown by your son), I got a chance to observe Sensei Jim.

First, Jim led the class through some basic warm ups and stretches. Then he told the class to do a standard exercise and took us newbies (my son's term) aside and started us on rolls. As soon as he saw that we were getting it, he asked one of the other students to work with us while he taught the main class. Every ten minutes or so, he checked back looking not just at our form, but also helping the student leader with his / her teaching. In that way, he was able to teach the whole class, despite the radically different abilities of the students. At the same time he was able to improve the teaching skills of his better students. Finally, everyone received Jim's personal attention at some time during the lesson.

At that first class, I learned more than how to fall without hurting myself. It reminded me that I tend to jump in and fix things when I should really use the opportunity to teach my staff. I also tend to jump in personally when I could have delegated the task to someone who could use the opportunity to learn how to be a teacher.

How do you welcome new members to your team? How do you ensure they learn the skills they need? How do you help your team members become team leaders?

Arigato gozimashita (said to the Sensei at the end of the lesson)

Bill Kennedy
Energized Accounting
http://EnergizedAccounting.blogspot.com/

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Signs You Need a New Accounting System

Times read: 335

03/29/08

By Bill Kennedy - The top 10 signs you need a new accounting system are:

10. The service technician keeps threatening to retire
9. “Reconciliation” is your middle name
8. You ask for “proficiency in DOS” when hiring staff
7. When calling Support you hear laughter in the background
6. Salesmen no longer call you about upgrades
5. You have to go for coffee whenever you click on “Post”
4. Your system came on diskettes
3. The last person to know the setup password retired to Florida
2. Nobody understands the reports

and the top sign you need a new accounting system is . . .

1. Your subledgers need counseling for “irreconcilable differences”

Quickbooks is one of the most popular starting systems in North America. In fact, a March 23, 2008 PC Magazine article shows Quickbooks having over 4,000,000 users.

As a Quickbooks user, you won't have any of the signs mentioned above, but you still might have outgrown your system (which is a wonderful thing, when you think about it). Here's what to look for:

1. Performance - the number one reason why Quickbooks users switch is that Quickbooks slows down. Data entry windows, menus and reports take too long to run.

2. Features - as you add such things as warehouse locations or complex customer specific pricing you reach the limits of an entry level system. A sure sign you need to upgrade is the number of spreadsheets you need to maintain because the information is not available directly from the accounting system.

As one of 4,000,000 users you have a lot of clout. Look for a system that not only has the features you need, but also has a way to upload all the Quickbooks history you have worked so hard to build up. That way you can continue to spot trends in your reports. You don't have to start over or compare reports from different systems. One example is Microsoft Dynamics.

Now, let's talk about those irreconcilable differences, shall we?

Bill Kennedy,
Energized Accounting

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World's Worst Networker . . .

Times read: 176

03/19/08

By Bill Kennedy - Some people just have that knack. You ask them about anything from ball tickets to hotels in New York and they have someone they can put you in touch with.

Not me.

I mean I just don't have time for the whole "let's grab a bite" scene or "let's talk over a round of golf". Please! There are clients to serve and deadlines to meet, not to mention my commitments to my family. I really don't have time. And I'm not alone. Most of my accounting clients don't go out for lunch either. It's just a solitary sandwich at your desk as you review the financial statements.

I know, I know. It's something you just have to do.

Problem is, I didn't know how. I've been to those seminars about marketing yourself etc. etc. My Outlook Contacts List has a couple of hundred names (although not all the addresses are current). I just didn't know what to do with them.

Something changed this week.

I got an email from a friend looking to hire an accounting software implementation consultant. It turns out that they are quite rare these days. He asked me if I knew anyone. My first response was to say no, but then I thought -- it wouldn't do any harm to send out a few emails and see if anyone knows someone. It really only took a few minutes (since I sent the same email to everyone). The funny thing is that it benefited me as much as my friend. None of my contacts knew anyone immediately either, but several said they'd send out a few emails as well. But in the process, I found out that a friend had had a baby, that someone else had changed jobs and one even said, "Let's get together for lunch."

All of a sudden, networking sounds like fun.

If staying in touch with old friends sounds like fun to you too, I have just one suggestion: join a web site like LinkedIn or Plaxo. Find your contacts there. My Outlook contact list really is ancient. A lot of the email addresses are dead, but my friends on LinkedIn keep their information up to date as their circumstances change. That way I never lose touch.

Oh, if you do decide to join LinkedIn, look me up. I may not have time for lunch, but I'm always happy to email!

Bill Kennedy
http://EnergizedAccounting.blogspot.com

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Accountants can be People People

Times read: 360

03/17/08

By Bill Kennedy - In the March 14th edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail, Wallace Immen wrote the following under the title “Gaffes: Boneheaded ways to blow a job interview”:

“Other interview-snuffing gaffes included: . . . An accountant who insisted she was a ‘people person’ and not a ‘numbers person.’”

To that unfortunate fellow accountant held up to public ridicule, I can only say: take heart, you are not alone. Yes, I understand the problem. The interview was for a technical position and the candidate was apparently denying that she could do the job. But looked at from a broader perspective, the accounting profession needs more people people, i.e. accountants who focus on getting the message across to other people. I agree that getting the numbers right is our first priority, but what good are accurate financial statements if their message is not understood by the organization’s stakeholders?

People people make good educators and communicators and we need more of them. We need people who can report bad news in such a way that it is believed and acted upon. We need people who can decipher complicated or fraudulent transactions so that a jury can understand them. We need financial planners to help people cope with the regulations surrounding retirement savings. In my field of accounting systems, we need good trainers, planners, implementers and project managers, all of which require excellent communications skills.

Finally, we need people who can put a human face on our profession so that the public can understand and trust us. The stereotype of the green eye shade wearing accountant working in isolation, creating statements that nobody understands, has just got to go.


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One Page Memos

Times read: 328

03/08/08

By Bill Kennedy - When he was Prime Minister of England during the Second World War, Churchill was famous for demanding that all memos be only one page long. I always understood the need for clear writing and brevity. I just never appreciated how difficult one pagers are to write.

Earlier this year I started a night course on dramatic writing. (No jokes about being a creative accountant, OK? This is serious.) The instructor asked us to submit a one page outline of our plays. Mine turned out to be two pages, in my usual point form. He gave it back to me and said, no it had to be one page long and in full sentences.

That's when the real writing began. How do you condense two hours of presentation down to one page? This process forces you to be ruthless about cutting away the unimportant material and getting to the point quickly. Then, when the instructor handed it back he pointed out a couple of key points that I had missed. Geez! Now I had to cut even further to find room. But that's just the point. If you are going to ask people to spend two hours of their life with you, you'd better be spinning a lot of gold, not just the usual cotton.

The accounting systems business is full of RFI's (Requests for Information) and RFP's (Requests for Proposals). These documents often run 100 pages or more. They are typically 85% boilerplate and 15% fill-in-the-blank. Try this: when you are requesting suppliers to submit proposals, tell them you need a one page document detailing why you should go with them. If you like the one pager, you'll read the proposal. Then, when you get it, if there is any hint of boilerplate or jargon (e.g. "enterprise focused solution" instead of "software"), send it back saying it's not detailed enough and doesn't address your needs adequately. Offer to set up an appointment with your assistant if the supplier needs more information about your needs. Most of them won't take you seriously, but the ones who do really want your business and are willing to listen to you. In a world where there are all kinds of software packages that will do the job, isn't finding someone who will listen to you what the whole selection process is really about?


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Microsoft is Ready, Are You?

Times read: 303

03/06/08

By Bill Kennedy - held an Executive Briefing about Dynamics GP (Great Plains) in Toronto this week. The first speaker talked about the research Microsoft is doing and how they have shadowed actual people at their jobs to see how best to design their software tools. The second speaker presented a day-in-the-life of an executive using Dynamics. This wasn't a gee-whiz session talking breezily about a rosy future. All of the features are available today.

My question is: how many people are in a position to take advantage of the software?

Your accounting system can now identify unusual transactions (the example was a particularly large sale), shoot you off an email, let you see a report with more detail, then create a letter or email to customize before sending it to the customer. Cool, eh?

How do we get there from here?

"Hands off my data!" - Accounting departments need to be open about allowing staff from other departments access to the financial database (with all of the appropriate controls and security in place, of course).

"What's a Pivot Table?" - Accounting staff need more than just a nodding acquaintance with Excel. They need to be able to:

• Sort, filter and lookup data data so they can zero in on specific transactions
• Summarize data (pivot table) by any field (e.g. date, item, vendor, territory, etc.)
• Present data with readable charts, tables or graphs

"How many widgets did we sell in Ohio?" - Accounting staff need to be able to create ad hoc reports or download blocks of data quickly and easily. They need a good understanding about how information is organized in the database so they can find requested data.

Even if you have no plans to change your accounting system, the next time you see someone entering whole columns of data into a spreadsheet, challenge them to find a way to do it faster. When someone says that the system can't produce the information you're looking for, ask why not. The accounting system is a diamond mine of information. Let's give the miners the right tools and training!

Bill Kennedy, CA.IT, PMP

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The Passionate Accountant

Times read: 484

03/04/08

By Bill Kennedy - On Sunday I attended the annual meeting of a church in a well to do part of Toronto where I am not a member. The person in charge of fundraising got up and said that the central church had not reached its fundraising goal last year and was asking for a 3% increase in givings. A motion was immediately passed to increase the donations to the central church. Only two people voted against the motion, both (as I learned later) accountants.

The Treasurer then made a presentation about the financial statements and the budget for next year. He pointed to the large amounts transfered from the reserve fund into the operating fund. He said the church would not be receiving the investment income it was used to because the investments had been sold. He talked about the serious deficit and how the finance committee had a three year plan, which involved cutting some popular church events, to eliminate it. Suddenly I realized why the accountants voted against the increase to the central church: the local church couldn't afford it. They see this as a major issue. The church is living beyond its means. It was a call to action.

Unfortunately, as I surveyed the faces of the audience, I don't think the message got across. People are very good at tuning out the drone of accountants who talk about replacing the roof or repairs to the boiler. Accountants pride themselves on their objectivity and their lack of emotion.

This was the time to be passionate.

This was the time to say to the members that $800 per family average giving is just not good enough. The people in the room would think nothing of paying $200 per month for a family membership in a fitness centre, yet they do not give nearly that much money to the church that does so much for them. Accountants are not bible thumpers or sermonizers by nature, but the times have changed.

The church cannot cost-cut its way to prosperity.

People must be made to understand the seriousness of the situation and put all their weight behind the solution. We are like a people losing our culture and heritage in a new world. We must take extraordinary steps to maintain our way of life. The accountants in the room know the reality. They need to learn how to communicate their message effectively. They need passion.

Bill Kennedy
Energized Accounting

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The PMI is getting more Agile. Should you care?

Times read: 288

02/28/08

By Bill Kennedy - If you are having custom programming done on your accounting system then you should be aware of a new style of system development called Agile. The Project Management Institute has begun introducing elements of Agile development into its Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), the bible of project management. This is a good thing.

In the classic form of development projects, the users gather together and create the specifications, the design document that details exactly what the new system needs to do. The developers then create the system. The users then test it. Finally it is implemented and the system goes "live".

The problem is that accounting (and other) systems are too complex to get the specifications perfect the first time. Often system development projects devolve into a finger pointing exercise where the developers blame the users for constantly changing their minds and the users blame the programmers for not giving them what they asked for.

Agile development solves that problem by recognizing up front that programming is an iterative process. The goal then is not to get the design perfect in one document, but to put the developers and customers together so there is ongoing communication and knowledge transfer.

What does this mean for me?

If you are having custom development done on your accounting system, talk to the developers about their methodology. Don't be put off by acronyms or PowerPoint slides. Make sure you get concrete answers to the key questions:

• How will you learn our requirements?


• How will we check your understanding?


• How will we check the status/progress of the project?


• How are our people involved?


• How will the new system be implemented?


• How will it be tested?


• How will we work together to ensure the success of this project?

The last question is the key to a successful project. You need to be involved with the developers at all stages. As they design an input screen, for example, they should immediately show it to a knowledgeable user. As questions come up, they should be answered immediately, not relegated to a list of outstanding issues in a design document.

That's what it means to be Agile.

Bill Kennedy
Energized Accounting

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Mr. Mayor, Are You SURE You Want To Do That?

Times read: 308

02/23/08

By Bill Kennedy

Dear Mr. Mayor,

On Friday you were interviewed on our local radio about your plans to make our growing city more efficient. When asked for specifics, one of the examples you gave was the expense of outsourcing the Information Technology departments of the city, the public transit and the police force. "Why not combine them to save money?" you asked.

On the surface, this looks like a no-brainer and I agree that it makes sense, but please don't look to save money for at least the next 5 years.

Computer systems come with baggage Mr. Mayor. There are old systems that have to be maintained because of the expense of updating them or the lack of a more modern equivalent. There will be incompatible networks and hardware. There will be ongoing projects which have consumed millions of dollars to date. These challenges can't be swept away over night.

Then there is the question of which suppliers, hardware, software and systems to standardize on. This will not be an easy discussion or a quick implementation.

Next there is the question of converting the legacy systems to the new ones. I wish the conversion of old data were as cheap and easy as software salespeople would have you believe. It's not. Put simply, data structures are designed to match the logic of the software that works with them. Different packages use different logic. Converting data requires a bridge between the two approaches. It ain't easy, Mr. Mayor and it requires a lot of vigilance to be sure it is done right.

Now, I don't want to just sit here and criticize, Mr. Mayor. I want to offer some concrete advice. Work from the top down. You employed a blue ribbon team of volunteer business experts to report on the state of the city. Get a similar team of computer experts to look at the city's systems. Start to standardize your vendors and ensure that any systems slated for updating or replacement conform to the new plan. Focus on better information, better service and value for money, rather than cost cutting. Finally, break the project down into deliverables that make sense to the people implementing them. That way there won't be a mass exodus from your IT departments.

Your computer systems are your eyes and ears, Mr. Mayor. Make them the best you can and I guarantee they will help you define areas where real savings can be achieved.

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X-Treme Accounting

Times read: 381

02/22/08

By Bill Kennedy - My teenage son wanted Guitar Hero III for Christmas. I was one of those dads who went to the store too late, so all I could give him was an IOU. Anyway, that's why we were in the stores every day in January. As the salesclerk was giving me the normal spiel about having no Guitar Hero in stock, I asked "What about X-Treme Accounting?"

My son (bright boy!) picked up on what I was doing and said, "Yeah, isn't Microsoft going to bundle it in with the new Home Office edition?" The guy just looked at us blankly, mumbled something and moved to the next customer.

Unfortunately, there is no Accounting Hero or X-Treme Accounting game for the XBox to get the next generation interested in accounting, but why not?

A few years ago, I had the honor of running the business game at Camp Enterprise, which is a three day camp created by Rotary to introduce senior high school students to business. It's a game that pits virtual companies against each other. Every quarter, each company gets to make decisions about how many products to make as well as how much to spend on R&D, marketing, etc. As the instructor I could influence the overall economy as well as send messages to the players which showed up as news bulletins on their reports.

My tactic was to begin by giving my budding entrepreneurs a taste of the good life. The economy grew and interest rates stayed low. This encouraged them to spend lavishly and expand their plants. Then I would start sending messages about trade deficits, interest rate hikes and an impending recession. Finally I would put the economy into a period of negative growth. When the businesspeople reviewed their reports you could feel their shock and horror. That would spark a good discussion about how business owners are personally affected by the broader economy.

The point of this story is that accounting is exciting when it is tied to the roller coaster of business. It's no longer a boring computational exercise when it gives you insight into what's going on with your business and helps you make good decisions. There is no reason why there couldn't be an exciting, engaging and (dare I say it?) educational accounting game.

By the way, if there really is an accounting game for the XBox, please leave me a comment. I just HAVE to get it for my son.

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Quick Sales Analysis Using Pivot Charts

Times read: 299

02/18/08

By Bill Kennedy - Some people’s eyes glaze over when you present them with a table filled with numbers, but if you show the same information in graphic form, they “get” it instantly. Particularly in an organization where the sales data get analyzed more than pitching statistics in the World Series, you want people to get it fast.

Here’s a quick way to put some accounting power in the hands of the sales team with a Microsoft Excel Pivot Chart. Use your accounting system or report writer (e.g. Crystal Reports works well for this) to create a large unformatted table of your sales information. You want to include all the sales data you can, such as:

• Date


• Sales Amount


• Sales Quantity


• Sales Person


• Sales Territory


• Item Number


• Item Description


• Customer Number


• Customer Name


• Customer Country


• Customer Province / State


• Customer

If you have summary information such as Item or Customer groupings, throw that into the pot as well. When you have every possible statistic in the file, open it with Microsoft Excel. Now you’re ready to create the Pivot Chart.

If you’ve never seen a Pivot Chart, you’re in for a treat. It looks like a normal graph, but it isn’t. A Pivot Chart lets you drag and drop any combination of those statistics you just gathered and get an instant view of the results. You can see monthly sales by salesperson, sales by item or territory or my favorite: show me the people who bought last year but haven’t bought this year. For a primer about Pivot Charts, Jon Peltier has a nice tutorial in TechTrax.

Try it out. They are really simple to use and the best part is that you can save time by letting the sales team do their own analysis. Just create the spreadsheet and let them have it!

For other tips on energizing your accounting system, go to Energized Accounting.

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