[hutchinson29]

I am an accounting student and just finished my 4th year of school. I have 1 more year left to get 150 for the CPA.

I have 2 accounting related jobs right now. One is as a finance assistant where I assist the staff accountant and assistant director of finance with a variety of accounting tasks and I am learning a lot and like both my bosses and my job. I have taken the feedback positively and have seen it as an opportunity to improve.

My other job is as a bookkeeper at a very small business. The owner is only successful in keeping the business alive because she puts out a product that people like, however aside from that, she is not a good business person. The bookkeeping system they have in place is a disaster to say the least. When she hired me she said that she would like me to revamp the system a bit. But that is where I may have went wrong when I accepted the position. She said a bit when in reality it needs a complete ravamping. One would have to have a lot of creativity to make a system worse than what is currently in place. I have tried convincing her that gnucash would be a more efficient way to do at least a part of the bookkeeping, and that it would reduce costs because of decreased labor time. We spend quite a bit of time recording transactions in the current system, up to 30 minutes for 1 transaction. She is not approving of any of the possible implementations. I realize one of her concerns could be that she knows there is a lot of turnover and wants to keep what she is familiar with. The ways she has suggested I revamp the system would require cell referencing poorly input and inconsistent data and on top of that with the way things are currently done there is a lot of inserting of rows which would create problems. When I first got there, instead of making cells bigger they were merging cells which I had to undo because that can create problems if you move the data. I have also tried making the invoices in excel which isn’t as convenient as gnucash but it is a way to do it. She hasn’t approved of any of the implementations to date because she wants advertising on the invoices. I have no problem with that because there are other parts to the business but when it is actually a statement, not an invoice, the number of rows necessary does not leave room for enough advertising on the print out and she doesn’t seem to comprehend that idea. Payroll is also done in excel which can be risky creating potential liability for the business owner.

Aside from not being able to make any changes the boss is very inconsiderate of her employees’ time. This is her only job and she is there less hours than we are. We have to get up for work in the morning and she doesn’t, so some nights she will keep us there until 11:30. I wouldn’t mind it if I was spending that time learning new things or if it had nothing to do with her being unwilling to do any of the work herself. But that is not the case. If we have a question we have to spend 20 minutes searching Google instead of spending 30 seconds asking her because whenever we ask her something regarding any of the non-bookkeeping tasks she just says she doesn’t know and to ask Google. This is stuff related to graphic art for the newsletters. Keep in mind these are things that in the interview I told her I didn’t know how to do. If I spend 30 minutes attempting to figure something out, she will assume no attempt was made at all. An accurate analogy of the feedback I receive from her would be let’s say you are playing a sport and you do something right but your coach doesn’t know what he’s talking about and tries to correct you on it. The majority of the feedback I receive from her is a result of her ignorance, although there is truth to a small amount of her feedback. Asking questions results in criticism because she will assume you are asking because you were not listening, even if you could repeat word for word what she said. An example would be asking what the move to a new location would mean for the bookkeeping staff while we are in limbo and do not have a computer set up in a new location. She would say don’t you remember that 4 weeks ago at 11:30 at night that I said I will be moving the computer to my house. Well yes, I actually do remember that, but my question was related to what that would mean for us. So you want us coming into your house although no customers will be walking in to your house to make payments? OK, fine with me if that’s the case, but I was just asking. You could have been moving it there for your own use only for the week.

So I am considering two possibilities. I give her a phone call and talk about the possible changes with her over a beer and maybe even a PowerPoint presentation on my laptop and see what comes of it. This could bring false hope if it goes well. It could also piss her off. Best case scenario she decides to allow the implementations. Or I can quit. I have 3 jobs right now, so when school starts I will have to quit to only have 2 jobs during the school year. So I will be quitting at the latest the end of August.

If I suck it up and stay and she never approves of any changes I will consider it a waste of my time. I could be getting to bed earlier and then waking up earlier to start my day and working out in the morning. With the 3rd weekend job I just got I will have more than enough to pay my rent and may even have some money saved up upon graduation.

If I stay and she approves of the changes I will learn through the process of implementing and utilizing the system. If that were to happen, i would consider it worth it being a little more tired during the day for the summer. However, I do not know if that will happen.

I figure I have already suffered so I might as well try to get a reward from it, however it could be a situation where it is sunk cost, or sunk suffering so to speak.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[hutchinson29]

Thanks everyone for the responses

[hutchinson29]

If I were to talk with her, and she does not approve of the changes, would it be appropriate to give 2 weeks notice?

[hutchinson29]

If I were to talk with her, and she does not approve of the changes, would it be appropriate to give 2 weeks notice?

[Mayo]

Hell, I'd give two weeks notice as soon as I got enough work hours elsewhere.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Mayo]

Hell, I'd give two weeks notice as soon as I got enough work hours elsewhere.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Anonymous]

Giving 2 weeks' notice is considered the most polite and proper way to handle it, presuming you aren't in any sort of contract otherwise (say if you agreed to work for the summer – not just a general “I can work till school starts back”, but an actual agreement). If you were to do a meeting like I suggested above, I'd be inclined to bring my formal 2 weeks' notice on paper with me – maybe have a folder with the 2 weeks' notice and with a mock-up plan for implementing a new system and ask her which one she'd rather receive from you. Of course that wouldn't be the way to be super-respectful to a boss, but it sounds like your understanding was that you were more of an adviser than an employee, and like you have little respect for her accounting, so it might be appropriate in this situation.

But I would definitely give 2 weeks' notice just to be nice.

[Anonymous]

Giving 2 weeks' notice is considered the most polite and proper way to handle it, presuming you aren't in any sort of contract otherwise (say if you agreed to work for the summer – not just a general “I can work till school starts back”, but an actual agreement). If you were to do a meeting like I suggested above, I'd be inclined to bring my formal 2 weeks' notice on paper with me – maybe have a folder with the 2 weeks' notice and with a mock-up plan for implementing a new system and ask her which one she'd rather receive from you. Of course that wouldn't be the way to be super-respectful to a boss, but it sounds like your understanding was that you were more of an adviser than an employee, and like you have little respect for her accounting, so it might be appropriate in this situation.

But I would definitely give 2 weeks' notice just to be nice.

[hutchinson29]

I think I am going to have to sit down with her

and show her a plan, if she is not open to it, then I will have to put in my 2 week's notice. The hardest part will be getting her time.

[hutchinson29]

I think I am going to have to sit down with her

and show her a plan, if she is not open to it, then I will have to put in my 2 week's notice. The hardest part will be getting her time.

[Isostasy]

Reminds me of the firm I work at. It's so disorganized that I'm sure they lose money on most projects. But anyway what type of advertising does she need to include on the invoice? You can customize the invoices on QuickBooks to include your company logo uptop and I'm pretty sure there's a spot on the bottom to include messages. You should look into this before your meeting.

[Isostasy]

Reminds me of the firm I work at. It's so disorganized that I'm sure they lose money on most projects. But anyway what type of advertising does she need to include on the invoice? You can customize the invoices on QuickBooks to include your company logo uptop and I'm pretty sure there's a spot on the bottom to include messages. You should look into this before your meeting.

[hutchinson29]

They have an old version of QuickBooks on the computer. It is from 2009. The kind of advertising she wants has to do with future lessons customers might be interested in and possible discounts if the customer signs up by a certain date. My original plan was to set it up in QuickBooks and write instructions on how to use the program and record certain transactions. The only way this wouldn't work is if when turnover happens, the new employees are unable to use the QuickBooks software. As an alternative I began making statements not invoices in excel, but the amount of rows necessary for a statement would not allow room for advertising on the bottom of the page.

And yes, when I first began working here there were customers receiving lessons that hadn't paid and she wasn't aware of it.

Another frustrating thing is that in a 4 hour shift, there are some days she has me doing other stuff and I have 0 minutes to work on revamping the system. We are at a more relaxed point in the year right now so maybe that would change but I definitely can't depend on it. I realize there are other parts to the business, so I don't have a problem with that in some aspects, but when the system is as bad as it is and she doesn't put time into revamping it it is a little frustrating. I don't think she realizes how bad the current system is. For the statements in excel she had a hard time understanding why when it comes to A/R and balance sheet items like cash that it doesn't necessarily matter what the person is paying for. If its 3 different types of classes, 100 each, 300 for the customer to pay, you don't have to put 3 separate payments on the invoice if the customer writes a 300 dollar check, or you don't have to narrowly specify what the payment is for as long as its within the right department. Because she doesn't seem to get that idea, she keeps requesting changes that makes things more complicated when they add no value to the customer or business. She wants things to specify class day and time, ect. With the way I set it up that was specified for the charges, but not for the payments because its not necessary.

[hutchinson29]

They have an old version of QuickBooks on the computer. It is from 2009. The kind of advertising she wants has to do with future lessons customers might be interested in and possible discounts if the customer signs up by a certain date. My original plan was to set it up in QuickBooks and write instructions on how to use the program and record certain transactions. The only way this wouldn't work is if when turnover happens, the new employees are unable to use the QuickBooks software. As an alternative I began making statements not invoices in excel, but the amount of rows necessary for a statement would not allow room for advertising on the bottom of the page.

And yes, when I first began working here there were customers receiving lessons that hadn't paid and she wasn't aware of it.

Another frustrating thing is that in a 4 hour shift, there are some days she has me doing other stuff and I have 0 minutes to work on revamping the system. We are at a more relaxed point in the year right now so maybe that would change but I definitely can't depend on it. I realize there are other parts to the business, so I don't have a problem with that in some aspects, but when the system is as bad as it is and she doesn't put time into revamping it it is a little frustrating. I don't think she realizes how bad the current system is. For the statements in excel she had a hard time understanding why when it comes to A/R and balance sheet items like cash that it doesn't necessarily matter what the person is paying for. If its 3 different types of classes, 100 each, 300 for the customer to pay, you don't have to put 3 separate payments on the invoice if the customer writes a 300 dollar check, or you don't have to narrowly specify what the payment is for as long as its within the right department. Because she doesn't seem to get that idea, she keeps requesting changes that makes things more complicated when they add no value to the customer or business. She wants things to specify class day and time, ect. With the way I set it up that was specified for the charges, but not for the payments because its not necessary.

[KBinMN]

Either she is unwilling to change or unwilling to explain why things are done the way they are.

It sort of sounds like you are just looking for validation to leave. Go ahead, leave! I give you permission. You don't owe her anything, don't feel guilty about it.

There are many times when partners or seniors don't know the depth of what they are asking you to do. I think some older bosses don't know many of the systems/software as well or it just isn't required for what they do, so they don't realize something might take 4 hours that they thought would take a half hour.

[KBinMN]

Either she is unwilling to change or unwilling to explain why things are done the way they are.

It sort of sounds like you are just looking for validation to leave. Go ahead, leave! I give you permission. You don't owe her anything, don't feel guilty about it.

There are many times when partners or seniors don't know the depth of what they are asking you to do. I think some older bosses don't know many of the systems/software as well or it just isn't required for what they do, so they don't realize something might take 4 hours that they thought would take a half hour.

[Author]

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