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*skip the following paragraphs if accounting talk makes you want to open a vein*
I have been swamped at work. Literally, from the time I get there until the time I leave, I do not stop working. Our budget starts over on July 1rst and we have until then to close out all our accounts. Right now we are trying to account for about $10,000 dollars worth of stuff.
The way it work is, there is hard money and soft money. Every year the provost (president's office/ money people) give each department or school a certain amount of money for the year based on the size of their department and the amount of money they used the previous year. This money is called hard money and it must be spent within the fiscal year which is June 30, 2006 - July 1, 2007. Whatever money has not been spent is taken back.
Soft money is easy because it can be transfered to the next fiscal year. So say your department is given $10,000 for the 06/07 year to recruit potential faculty members, if you only spend $7,000, you get to keep that extra $3,000 in the recruitment account.
With hard money, if you were given $10,000 and your only spent $7,000, then provost with take back the extra $3,000 and only give you $7,000 for the 07-08 year. $10,000 is just an example though. With soft money you usually only get a couple grand but with hard money, that comes out of our 2101 account and is hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The reason why things are so hectic right now is we are trying to account for everything that was purchased and hasn't been paid yet because 1) we never received an invoice 2) we did receive an invoice and we didn't do anything with it or 3) we did do something with it but somehow it got lost over at Disbursements, Purchasing, Provost, or in the mail center.
If we don't account for these things and do the proper paperwork a couple things will happen. 1) It looks like we didn't spend all of our money. For example, we have a $7,000 dollar bill from some medical supply companies that hasn't been paid because we haven't been invoiced. We have already received the equipment and it has been installed. Technically, we have already spent the $7,000 but we haven't been able to properly document it. We need the $7,000 in the account but to Provost, it looks like we have $7,000 left over. So that tells Provost that we need 7,000 less next year. So say they were going to give up $900,000 for 07/08. Instead they will give us $893,000. 2) If we don't close this PO (purchase order) in 06/07, we will have to pay for it out of 07/08. So we will be losing $7,000 from 06/07 (because Provost takes it) and lose another $7,000 in 07/08 (because we have to pay for it then).
It's all very stressful. A lot of it has to do with the fact that we are trying to track down paperwork from months ago. I don't blame the girls downstairs because if someone came up to me and asked, "Hey do you remember that payment voucher you did last September?" ... I wouldn't. It is frustrating though when it's the same people over and over who don't have all their paperwork. I can go up to Elizabeth Gardner (the AA IV - Boss of downstairs) and say, "Hey do you have blah blah blah" and she gets it to me within a few minutes. That's how on top of her paperwork she is. But say I go to Jill and ask, "Do you have the RX for your Xerox corporate account?" and I get a bunch of "Well I um, and then I, so I sent, and then I called, and well I umm" and it's like that all freaking day.
Plus, I think it pisses some of the women in the office off that they are answering to a 21 year old. I am not their boss but if I go down there and say, "Sybil needs this, this, and this right now" they have to stop what they are doing to get her, her stuff. Even though it's Sybil asking, because I'm the one handing out the orders, I get the glares and under the breath comments. Not fun.
That's enough accounting talk for now.
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