29 May2014
30 Apr2014
Siri figures she is good at math
People have different preferences for adding up a few numbers. Some seem to be born with the talent of doing difficult math in their heads. Some accountants love running a tape on a 10-key. Excel is the tool of choice for others. Lately, I have experimented with using Siri as my calculator. Siri is a personal assistant on Apple devices that uses natural language to communicate (in case you didn’t know). We are getting closer to the future depicted in Star Trek where a person can carry on a verbal conversation with a computer. Why is Siri a great calculator? For one, it’s hands-free. Second, Siri has a sense of humor: Me: “What is 2,587 plus 1,207?” Siri: “Let me think… the answer is 3,794.” Me: “Siri, you are good at math.” Siri: “I am?” Me: “Yes.” Siri: “That’s what I figured.”
27 Jan2014
Priorities
This month, I’ve pulled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey off my bookshelf. Though I’ve read it a few times, each time I re-read it, I discover something new that inspires me. This time, I’ve given a lot of thought to the time management matrix which classifies activities by urgency and importance. Like many people, my time is consumed by urgent tasks, though not all may be important. Often neglected are less urgent, but deeply important activities that move me toward accomplishing my long-term goals. In a deadline-driven profession like accounting, it is easy fall into the mode of “putting out fires” with tasks that require immediate attention. How do I make sure I get around to doing the less urgent, yet extremely important, activities of personal development and relationship building? I found the answer in the book:The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
11 Dec2013
An accountant’s favorite number
Someone recently told me that an accountant’s favorite number is zero. After spending approximately zero seconds pondering the statement, I asked why. Her response was that when reconciling an account in QuickBooks, if the difference line is $0.00, it is reconciled correctly and her work is done! I agree that it is a great feeling. (Just say “no” to reconciliation discrepancies, which is what happens if the difference line is not zero.) Come to think of it, zero is a solid number of choice for accountants. I can think of a few of my own reasons:- An accountant’s heaven is zero data entry nirvana (see Doug Sleeter’s comment in my post)
- An accountant can add, subtract, and multiply by the number zero without having to punch it into a calculator.
- Despite what you may have learned in elementary school, accountants are so good at math that they can divide by zero. Well, maybe not… but they know what #DIV/0! means.
- The easiest numbers to account for have zero decimal places, with the value being exactly as displayed.
- Zero is a great price. After all, an alternative acronym for CPA is “Cheapest Price Available.”
- A zero looks like a doughnut. Accountants love doughnuts.
- Bring a box of doughnuts to an accountant’s office and, like magic, there will be zero left by the end of the day.
19 Nov2013
Three time-saving banking features
Online and mobile banking offer quite a bit more than bill pay, PDF statements and a summary of recent activity. Some of the best time-saving features aren’t as well known, such as:- Alerts. It’s common knowledge that it’s a good idea to frequently monitor bank activity for errors and fraudulent activity. I have signed up for e-mail alerts whenever there are international, Internet, phone or mail order purchases made with my debit card, as well as when purchases and ATM withdrawals exceed a certain amount in a given day. For a credit card I use once a century, I get e-mails whenever charges exceed $0.01. Alerts don’t completely replace my manual monitoring, but are more effective than daily booting up my computer, mistyping my password, re-entering the correct password, entering my PIN, selecting the checking account, perusing the recent transactions, and trying to remember what that $100 charge at the electronics store was for.
- Mobile Deposit. Sign the check, open the mobile app, enter the amount, take a picture of the check, and it’s done! Wow! That was so much easier than finding a deposit slip, filling it out, driving ten minutes to the bank, waiting behind two cars in the drive-through teller line, and opening that pesky vacuum tube canister!
- Bank Feeds. Today’s personal finance and business accounting software can connect to bank accounts and import transactions on a daily basis, and that’s just the beginning. Xero, the software I use for my personal finances, easily creates and automatically classifies transactions based on a predetermined set of rules. It’s been a much better experience than the poke-your-eyes-out manual data entry that I used to do!
21 Sep2013
The origin of the name Wheeler (it isn’t what you think)
When I was a young boy, I asked my dad about the origin of our last name. He wasn’t sure and guessed that it must have come from someone long ago who made wheels. That is about as uninteresting as me saying I’m an accountant who does taxes. The actual origin is a little more exciting than what is often depicted as prehistoric man’s first invention. I did a Google* search for information about the Wheeler family and found “The Genealogical and Encyclopedic History of the Wheeler Family in America.” This book, published in 1914, gives a well-researched explanation:The third striking point is the meaning of the name “Wheeler” itself. For this, it is evident, determination must be made from the earliest form on record. How significant is this early appearance has been mentioned, a fact all the more remarkable when it is remembered that surnames do not appear in general use until the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This early spelling “Wielher” is evidently a compound of two Anglo-Saxon words “wel” or “wiel” meaning “prosperous” or “fortunate,” from which derivation the modern word “weal” and “wealth” may be traced; and the Anglo-Saxon word “hari” or “heri” a warrior, a root traceable in the modern word “hero.” The present spelling of the family name “Wheeler,” therefore, is a spelling of words which in their modern form would be “Weal-Hero” or in the Anglo-Saxon words “wel-hari.” The meaning of the family name therefore is clearly “the lucky warrior,” or “the prosperous hero.”I could use the origin of my name to more creatively explain what I strive to do as a CPA: I share my expertise to empower prosperous (successful) heroes (business owners). *I typed one of my ancestor’s names into Google and got 11,900 results in three-tenths of a second. Search technology is one that I’ve taken for granted, but my ancestor who lived 150 years ago would have been impressed.
16 Jul2013
The QuickBooks shortcut every accountant should know
Like many accountants, my mind thinks in debits and credits.* As a double entry accounting system, QuickBooks works in debits and credits, though it does a good job hiding it from non-accountant users with its use of items and user-friendly input screens such as a “write checks” window that looks like a paper check. Below is an example of an invoice entry screen. I might have a good guess about the debits and credits working behind the scenes of this invoice, but probably wouldn’t know the specific accounts affected.
Crtl + Y is the shortcut that displays the transaction journal (in other words, the debits and credits, as you can see in the screenshot below). The accounting entry that was abstract within the invoice entry screen now becomes clear in my mind.
*I recall several confused students in one of my college accounting classes asking, “what does debit and credit mean?” Our SrbijaFail: Sta je al culturismo calidad varios ingredientes a base de hierbas con el envio este chico perdió 165 libras y se convirtió en un campeón de culturismo wise accounting professor explained that debit meant left and credit meant right. That explanation oversimplifies it, but I got the point: don’t get caught up in the jargon. While my mind seems to differentiate left and right very well for accounting, I seem to have two left feet when I try to dance. Why is that?
15 May2013
Set amount thresholds in Xero bank rules so fixed assets aren’t expensed
One of my favorite things about Xero, an online accounting software, is its ability to automatically categorize transactions based on a customized set of rules. While other accounting software have some built-in automation features (such as pre-filling information from the last entered transaction for a payee), Xero is unique in that it categorizes transactions when they match certain conditions for payees, amounts, references, etc. While this automation can save a lot of time classifying transactions, it could also result in misclassifications if bank rules are applied carelessly. For example, if both office supplies and fixed assets are purchased from a payee, additional conditions may be required in the bank rules so that transactions are classified correctly. In the screenshot below, I created a bank rule so that amounts less than $500 spent at Best Buy are classified as office supplies expense (I’m using this amount as an example – consult your tax advisor to determine if a transaction should be expensed or capitalized).
On the reconcile screen, Xero prompts me to apply the rule for the amounts less than $500, but not for the $1,053.62 which may need to be categorized as a fixed asset. That transaction is left open, forcing me to investigate it further and properly classify it.
01 May2013
My Feelings about Feedly
In my last post, I shared the news of Google Reader’s retirement on July 1 and suggested Flipboard as a possible replacement. Feedly is next up at bat and it certainly doesn’t strike out.
Here are a few things I like about Feedly:
- It was easy to sync with my Google Reader account. I just entered my Google password and allowed Feedly access to it.
- In addition to the mobile apps, Feedly has a Chrome extension for reading from a desktop or laptop. The Chrome extension has a great interface for organizing feeds and has several viewing options.
- It looks and feels similar to Google Reader, so there is not much of a learning curve.
- The mobile app has day and night themes.
- The mobile app opens web pages within Feedly and there is a tool to “remove clutter” that cleans up much of the web page content except for the blog post text.
- The Android “back” button often closes the app, whereas it would return to the list of feeds in Google Reader. It’s just something I’ll have to get used to.
- The shortened URLs start with feedly.com, making them slightly longer than bit.ly and Flipboard’s flip.it.
24 Mar2013
Goodbye, Google Reader – Hello, Flipboard!
I felt a great disturbance throughout the Internet, as if millions of blog readers suddenly cried out in terror. I was shocked to read that Google Reader will be retired on July 1, 2013. I’ve used Google Reader nearly every day for the past several years to read the news, follow my favorite blogs, and subscribe to many helpful RSS feeds. It’s my most frequently used app on my phone and tablet. What will I do without it? Twitter conversations immediately commenced in search of a replacement reader app. Flipboard was highly recommended.
After I read that tweet, I decided to rethink my life. So, I went home and downloaded the Flipboard app.
I signed into my Google Reader account via Flipboard and was pleased to see all of my subscriptions there in a beautiful newspaper-like format. The app makes it easy to go from one article to another with a “flipping” motion similar to flipping the pages of a book.
The below screenshot shows what my blog looks like in Flipboard. On both my Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Note II, I’ve found it to be an impressive reader app. Most impressive.
Another reader app that I plan to test out is Feedly. If you have any other suggestions, please leave a comment.