04 Jun2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in International Business
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Lima, Peru for an MBA International Seminar class with approximately 35 UNLV students and faculty. This class wrapped up my Master’s of Accounting degree at UNLV. The trip had little to do with Accounting, though I did see condensed financial statements prepared using IFRS. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip – of course, I have many interests besides Accounting! The purpose of the trip was to develop familiarity with Peru’s economy by visiting various organizations and to experience the business etiquette and culture first-hand.
I didn’t experience any culture shock during the trip. I have lived in and spent a significant amount of time traveling in Latin America, so I speak Spanish somewhat fluently and am familiar with the culture. In fact, I had been to Peru nine years ago and seen many of the same places we visited during this trip. However, every trip brings new experiences. I met many great people and experienced new things. During this trip, I ate at more nice restaurants and tried a wider variety of food than I did in my first trip to Peru. I even found the courage to try the Peruvian dish of cuy (guinea pig)!
The trip was different from a typical vacation as a tourist in that we had the opportunity to meet with business leaders and tour company headquarters. I was impressed with the professional atmosphere that existed in each organization, as well as the clean and well-run manufacturing plants. I am grateful for the time each company took to prepare for and give informative presentations and tours.
Organization Visits
- It took an adventurous bus ride through a few narrow roads to arrive at El Sarcay de Azpitia, which was located about 80 kilometers southwest of our hotel in Lima. We toured the facilities where they produce Pisco, a strong, colorless grape brandy considered the flag beverage of Peru. At El Sarcay, there is also a restaurant with outdoor seating, where we enjoyed some delicious empanadas. All of the empanadas looked the same on the outside but had varying contents on the inside such as chicken and pork. The flavor ended up being a surprise with each empanada, but I enjoyed them all.
- At the US Embassy in Lima, we discussed political, cultural, and economic issues affecting Peru. The aspect of this visit that I found most interesting was an explanation of what the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) does since I was previously unfamiliar with it. One of the missions of USAID, according to its website, is to support long-term and equitable economic growth and advance U.S. foreign policy objectives. USAID helps businesses deal with the challenges of doing business in other countries.
- We toured Pesquera Diamante, a large fishery company, located near the Jorge Chavez airport in Lima. My first impression had to do with the strong odor that comes along with any company that processes fish products. It wasn’t too overpoweringly pungent, but I could smell it the entire time I was there. I asked one of the workers how long it took him to get used to the smell, and he responded with a smile, “el olor se convierte en dólares” (the smell turns into dollars). I was impressed with the positive attitude that all of the workers seemed to share regarding the smell. They provided us with a few samples of their canned fish products with crackers. They were quite good!
- Spectacular Holistic Circus, an advertising and publicity agency (formerly part of Leo Burnett), gave a presentation centered on creative advertising that touches consumers’ hearts. A few of the memorable commercials and ideas were:
- La Magia de la Solidaridad (The Magic of Giving) by Ponle Corazón, la Fundación Peruana de Cancer (Peruvian Cancer Foundation). This one touched my heart and is one of the best commercials I have ever seen.
- San Fernando – Uniendo a las Familias Auténticas (uniting authentic families). San Fernando is a Peruvian food company that mostly sells poultry products, but its advertising focuses on families. The commercial describes different types of families, lists their last names, and shows how they enjoy meals together. The company’s print advertising uses various last names, and their website rotates the last name used with its logo and phrase “la buena familia” (the good family). The company also has an effective and popular Facebook page that uses rhymes with different last names related to their products.
- El Cuy Mágico (the magical guinea pig) is part of the advertising used by Banco de Crédito del Perú, the largest bank in the country. The commercials are fun and make banking look easy. Plus, nothing makes a bank’s frequently asked questions web page more interesting than a life-sized guinea pig with glasses.
- Another commercial called “cabecitas” from Banco de Crédito del Perú shows two brothers with a dream to break the world record of heading a soccer ball non-stop for an entire week. During this time they are still able to complete banking activities such as making withdrawals and online banking.
- In this entertaining video, Peruvian celebrities travel to the small town of Peru, Nebraska, and share what it means to be Peruvian.
- Alicorp is a large food and household products company. We visited the headquarters in Callao and toured the cookie and pasta plants. I especially enjoyed their glacitas with the new mora (berry) flavor. This YouTube video will give you a virtual tour of the plant.
Sightseeing
In Lima, we visited the Cathedral and saw the tomb of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish conquistador of Peru. We then stopped by the Church of San Francisco, where we went through the catacombs, a set of underground tunnels where thousands of people were buried and we saw piles of old human bones. Lima is a coastal city with some amazing beaches and views of the ocean. We spent several nights at Larcomar, a shopping center near the beach and only a few blocks from our hotel.
After a few days in Lima, we took a short flight to the city of Cusco in the Andes mountain range at an elevation of about 11,000 feet. Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire, and near the city there are many ruins sites to visit. Most of the city of Cusco is dedicated to the tourism industry.
The highlight of the trip was seeing Machu Picchu. The view of the ancient city and ruins are enhanced by the beautiful green vegetation and mountain surroundings that made me feel isolated from the rest of the world. It is a very peaceful place. As I walked through the corridors of the ruins, I wondered what the life of an Incan would have been like. I imagine that it must have been very pleasant.
The Incan architecture is fascinating. I can only imagine the work that went into polishing the stone walls and making each rock fit together without mortar. We visited ruins near Cusco called Sacsayhuamán, which is particularly interesting because of the size of the boulders used there.
Food
I loved the food in Peru. Some of my favorites were:
- Chicha Morada, a non-alcoholic drink made from purple maize and spices.
- Lomo Saltado, sirloin strips stir fried with onions, tomatoes and other vegetables.
- Picarones, a doughnut-like desert made from squash and sweet potato, served with syrup.
- Causa, a mixture of tuna (or crab) and avocado, enveloped by a purée of yellow potatoes.
- Papa (potato) a la Huancaína, and spaghetti with huancaína sauce. Huancaína is a yellow sauce made from queso fresco, vegetable oil, yellow Peruvian pepper, evaporated milk and salt.
- Cuy (guinea pig). The picture says it all.
16 May2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Google Docs, Tech Tips
Recently, I had one of those “how did you do that?” moments with a tech-savvy client. This client, like me, set up his domain with Google Apps. During a meeting, he told me he wanted to show me a spreadsheet he created in Google Docs. In the web browser, he typed d.(his domain).com and the browser opened his Google Docs login page. Not long after that, as we were scheduling our next meeting, he typed c.(his domain).com in the browser, and his Google Calendar instantly appeared. I could not help but look with amazement and say “wow, that was fast! – how did you do that?”
I love finding faster and more efficient ways of doing things, so I also set up my domain this way for the quickest access to Google Apps. Like many of Google’s products, I found it was incredibly easy to set up.
- Go to your Google Apps domain management page and click on settings. Click on the product to the left that you want to change the URL for (Docs is shown below).
- Click on the “Change URL” link which will take you to the page you see below. Click on the second button and change the subdomain to whatever you like. My client prefers the one letter subdomains, for example, “d” for Docs and “c” for Calendar.
- I then had to go to my domain host’s DNS Management page and add a CNAME. Google has step-by-step instructions for this.
In a prior post, I wrote about how I set up a Gmail address with my domain. I also have a short URL for my e-mail. By typing mail.dustinwheelercpa.com, I go straight to my e-mail page.
09 May2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in IT Management
While doing research for my Information Technology Management (MBA) class at UNLV, I came across the article “The Risks of Outsourcing IT” by Michael J. Earl (Sloan Management Review, Spring 1996). Earl explains that the decision to outsource IT is often driven by the need to cut costs. However, outsourcing IT functions central to business strategy is risky. Earl lists eleven risks of outsourcing, of which the eighth, “loss of innovative capacity,” really caught my attention (see page 5).
Earl tells of a conversation between a company’s CIO and an executive of the company’s IT vendor. The CIO expresses his disappointment in the vendor’s lack of innovation. The vendor’s executive responds that he thought the deal was all about the cost and didn’t know that there were expectations to innovate.
I think that there are many IT service providers that innovate, generally speaking, in providing services to their customers. On the other hand, an IT vendor that innovates for an individual customer’s business strategy and adds value is much more rare. That is the type of innovation IT service providers (or any business service provider) should strive for.
21 Apr2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Social Media
Thanks to Google Webmaster Tools, I can find out what other CPA and tax bloggers link to me in their blogrolls. Below is part of a screenshot showing the blogs with the most links to my site.
If you are interested in tax or accounting, these blogs are worth following.
- Roth & Company, PC Tax Update Blog by Joe Kristan in Des Moines, Iowa. As you can tell by the number of links, this guy is a blogging machine. My only complaint is that he blogs so much I can’t keep up with every post. Joe explains tax law in a way that is easy for everyone to understand. He doesn’t use big words or refer to obscure sections of the Internal Revenue Code. He also has the uncanny ability to find humor in every tax court case he blogs about.
- Beancounter Ramblings by Chad and Donna Bordeaux in Charlotte, North Carolina. Chad and Donna effectively market their firm with their website and blog. They blog not only about Federal tax issues, but also state and local tax news. Like Joe, they have a good sense of humor and are fun to follow on Twitter.
- CPA Technology Blog by Brian Tankersley. Brian is the technical editor of the CPA Practice Advisor and teaches educational courses for K2 Enterprises and Becker CPA Review. Brian blogs about technology topics that impact the accounting profession. Brian’s blog, in part, inspired me to create mine.
- There are a countless number of blogs on blogspot. Google Webmaster Tools doesn’t identify which one links to me. I think that most, if not all of these links come from PRI Tax and Bookkeeping Services, which I became aware of thanks to a few kind comments on my blog with links to their site. This tax and bookkeeping firm is located in Elgin, Illinois, and on their blog, I am listed as one of only two “favorite blogs.” What an honor!
I appreciate being listed in these blogs’ sidebars. They provide me with quality inbound links that contribute to my PageRank in Google. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that after Roth & Company added a link to my blog, there was a dramatic increase in traffic from Google searches.
Check out the bottom of my right sidebar for more link love.
16 Mar2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in IT Management
Even though more than two decades have passed since it was written, the principles in the article “Reengineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate” by Michael Hammer are still relevant to business process reengineering today. It was published in the July-August 1990 edition of the Harvard Business Review. Like my last post about the article “IT Doesn’t Matter”, this is required reading in my MBA class at UNLV and I found it worth sharing (and I’ve found blogging to be an effective way of learning the material, so thanks for studying with me).
Accountants seem to have the reputation of sticking with the status quo and doing everything the same as last year, so there is a lot that I (and you, if you are an accountant) can take away from this article. Hammer explains that many companies apply new technology to “automate” old business processes, but in many cases, those processes should be reengineered or completely “obliterated.”
Hammer promotes the idea of discontinuous thinking – meaning that managers should challenge old rules and eliminate inefficient and obsolete processes. An interesting example that Hammer provides is Ford Motor Company’s implementation of an invoiceless processing system in the 1980s to eliminate paper matching and payment authorization procedures in its accounts payable department. This radical change resulted in big savings and efficiency improvements.
Fast forward twenty years. With today’s technologies, including mobile devices and cloud computing, there are more opportunities than ever before for reengineering. I hope to be able to break the accountant stereotype by thinking outside the box and seeking out innovative ways to use technology. One of these days, my conversation when I return home will go like this:
“Hi honey, I’m home!”
“How was your day?”
“It was great. I obliterated a few old processes today. How was yours?”
17 Feb2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in IT Management
In an MBA class I’m taking at UNLV this semester, one of my assignments was to read the article IT Doesn’t Matter by Nicholas G. Carr, which was published in the Harvard Business Review in May 2003. The title, which certainly provides some shock value, may be misleading without further explanation. Carr doesn’t imply that IT is unimportant in an organization, but rather that it should not be considered a strategic resource.
The most interesting part of the article is Carr’s argument that IT, as an infrastructural technology, is becoming a commodity just like the railways in the mid 1800s and electric power in the early 1900s. As a commodity, IT becomes something that every business has and provides no competitive advantage.
I’m not saying that Carr is wrong, but I have a hard time comparing IT to commodities like railroads and power plants. Unlike other commodities, IT continues to evolve rapidly. For example, the graph on page 10 of the article measures the number of host computers on the Internet as a means to compare it to other commodities. In the changing world of IT, would this be better measured by smartphones, tablets, or another new device in a few years?
The article made me ask myself, “does IT provide a competitive advantage to an accounting firm?” I think it does – perhaps not so much the hardware and software themselves, but more in the way that they are used.
02 Feb2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Social Media, Tech Tips
It’s frequently asked questions time on Diving into the Details! With this one, we’re not diving too deep.
Having your picture (a.k.a. avatar) appear in my blog comments takes only a couple of minutes. Go ahead, time yourself and let me know if I’m wrong.
- Go to the Gravatar website.
- Create an account.
- Verify your e-mail address.
- Upload a picture, and you’re done!
Gravatar associates your picture with your e-mail address whenever you leave a comment on a WordPress blog (and a few other blog platforms). If you have multiple e-mail addresses like I do, you’ll either want to confirm multiple e-mail accounts with Gravatar or make sure you are consistenly using the same e-mail address when you comment on blogs.
Ready to show off your avatar? Leave a comment below!
17 Jan2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Tech Tips
In addition to e-mail overload, I’ve been diagnosed with e-mail address overload syndrome. People usually say “whoa!” with their mouths wide open when I tell them that I have five e-mail addresses. Of the e-mail addresses I currently use, I created my first with Hotmail many years ago. Shortly afterwards, I tried Yahoo. A few years later, I created one with Gmail. After I add my work and school e-mail addresses to those, I’ve got five that I use somewhat regularly.
Recently, I created yet another e-mail address, adding to my misery. This one, though, is different.
When I bought my domain (dustinwheelercpa.com), I thought it would be really, really cool to have an e-mail address with that domain. I won’t type it out here for the spam bots to harvest, but for you humans out there, it’s (my first name) @ (my domain). That’s easy to remember, isn’t it? It’s definitely easier for other people to remember than my Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail addresses, which contained a cryptic combination of letters and numbers. Also, people might check out my blog out of curiosity when they see my domain at the end of my e-mail address.
The reason why I haven’t done this sooner is that I haven’t liked the webmail interfaces from a few web hosting providers I have tried. Gmail has been my favorite interface among the e-mail addresses that I use, so I set up my domain with Google Apps Standard. With Google Apps, I have my e-mail hosted by Google’s servers with the features of Gmail and also can use Google Calendar and Google Docs with my domain. Since Google Apps Standard is free, it can be a good alternative to an Exchange server for small bootstrapping business.
Google has an easy setup guide which took me less than an hour to complete. The guide kept referring to me setting up Google Apps for my “organization,” which seemed funny since my domain is just a blog, not an organization. In the process, though, I discovered how easy it would be for an organization such as a business or non-profit entity to get started with Google Apps. The only mildly brain-racking part was configuring the MX records on my webhost’s control panel, which I figured out thanks to Google’s instructions.
Now I have a professional-looking personal e-mail address with the Gmail interface and my data is where I like it – on the cloud.
10 Jan2011
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Tech Tips
Last week, I attended the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. It was tons of fun seeing and getting a hands-on experience with the latest technologies and gadgets. The hard part is that I’ve added about fifteen things to my wish list, but I’ll only be able to afford and have time to play with two or three.
During the show, I took notes of what I liked on Twitter. Below are my tweets (and some commentary):
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Checking out the 3D home video cameras at Intel’s displays… and I had thought an HD video camera was all I needed.
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Watching people play with Kinect for Xbox 360. Motions controls the characters- no joysticks required! Cool! (I got to play the obstacle course game which was also quite a workout)
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Motorola has a cool laptop device that connects to and runs off a Droid phone. Too bad they don’t have one that works with the X. (I’m referring to the
Motorola laptop dock)
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Samsung’s interactive whiteboards are really cool. I hope I can do a presentation on one someday.
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Fifty TVs in Samsung’s 3D arena. I put on the glasses and wow! Amazing experience!
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Checking out the Toshiba mobile monitor recommended by @
bftcpa. No external power required. Nice display!
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It is really fun watching teleconferences via Skype on big TVs. It may be a more common way to communicate in the near future. (I saw this on a Google TV, which is near the top of my wish list)
13 Dec2010
Written by Dustin Wheeler, CPA. Posted in Personal Finance, QuickBooks
I guess I’m an “old school” guy when it comes to accounting for my personal finances.
I enter transactions into QuickBooks in real time. Whenever I write a check or pay a bill online, they immediately go into QuickBooks. I save all of my receipts, put them in a folder, and enter them in batches at least once a week. These are important processes for me because I am always aware of the amount of cash I have available despite the balance that shows when I log into my bank’s online banking website.
Once a month, the bank statements come (electronically, of course). I reconcile the transactions I entered manually to the bank statements. Whenever there is either a discrepancy or an transaction on my bank statement that is not in QuickBooks, I investigate it. Usually, it is because a receipt is still at the bottom of a plastic bag from a grocery store. Sometimes, though, I have discovered errors or other things that resulted in me getting a refund during the process of reconciling bank statements.
Recently, I have been experimenting with a few SaaS (web-based) accounting software tools (go to fellow CPA blogger Shane Eloe’s blog for some useful reviews). Most of the SaaS accounting systems I have tested do not have the ability to reconcile bank accounts, but they do import and/or sync with bank transactions. So, are we near the time to say goodbye to the bank reconciliation as we know it?
I think the bank import and sync features can be big time-savers and eliminate much of the drudgery that goes along with redundant data entry. Data such as the date, payee, and amount are automatically imported, leaving it up to the user to classify the transactions. With some of the SaaS software packages, the program learns from past experience to automatically classify transactions and matches up the data being imported with what the user has already entered to eliminate duplicate entries. Awesome stuff.
My concern is that over-reliance on the online banking features and not reconciling bank accounts will lead to problems. A user that imports bank transactions instead of entering them as they happen will not have the same grip on cash flow. That user would probably also be more inclined to just accept what is on the bank statement rather than verifying that the bank activity is correct. For a user that uses one of these SaaS accounting software packages for a business, it raises all sorts of questions for the CPA or accountant who prepares the tax return:
- What if the cash balance on the balance sheet is significantly different than the ending balance on the bank statement? Without a bank reconciliation, determining the reason for the difference would be a nightmare.
- How does the tax preparer know that there were outstanding checks or online transactions that occurred and are deductible in a given year, but did not clear the bank (and therefore not imported) until the next year?
If you’ve discovered a solution to these problems and questions, I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.
