[Anonymous]

this is stupid, but i just wanna ask…since noone seems to listen to me

say you need to reclassify an expense to a different account. you’re given just a number with no specific transactions making up that amount. within this account you have 100 transactions that occurred on different dates and months (6 month range). you’re told to just do it and expense everything at the end of dec. is that even proper? it looks senseless to me and not very reliable accounting.. any insights??????

[Peanut]

So those 100 transactions make up what they want to reclassify out, but they want to reclassify is as 1 journal entry? Is that what I'm getting? If you were to reclassify those transactions as one JE you better have supporting documents–print screens details of the transactions that make up that big number.. Or the auditor is going to ask “wtf makes up this number bozo?”

AUD 81 (X4) Previous scores 59, 72, 72
REG 80 (X3) Previous scores 59, 60
FAR 75 (X2) Previous score 67
BEC 79 (X2) Previous score 58

[makinthemagic]

it's hard to say without seeing all the documentation and knowing the company, but what I'd say is it possibly could be incorrect but, if it is, you are being told to do so because the amounts are immaterial and tasks must be completed even if they aren't 110% perfect. there might be a year end tru up that will clear things up later. accounting is only clean and precise in textbooks.

Bec 4/11/11 91
Aud 7/11/11 75
Reg 8/31/11 80
Far 5/24/11 86
Ethics - 98
California Licensed CPA
Illinois Registered CPA

[Anonymous]

@Peanut..yes to ur question…

the total of these transactions I would definitely classify as material. The problem is that everyone I work with is like 20-30 yrs older than me. no one listens to me. people who have no clue about accounting for reporting purposes just talk as if things were that easy. I was actually told to do this to reduce the variances that show on the budget reports and this guy from another department came and talked to me about something like “we don't care about the past” when I told them they had to be reclassified in the proper period…I was like wtf and just shut my mouth…. Things are pretty messed up in this place. My boss (CFO) is an extremely smart guy but he does not know anything about GAAP since he used to work as budget director for a city, so he thinks about everything on a cash basis. I think the controller is tired of him already since the CFO just started a month or so ago….im done venting…thanks..

[Anonymous]

Having no actual accounting experience, but considering that this is the internet, I feel fully qualified to address your question.

Isn't there someone else internal you can go to for guidance? Are there any other accountants you work with? To me the whole thing just feels sketchy; if you're just being strong-armed into performing accounting duties that you don't understand or that you are uncomfortable with, it sounds like there is the potential for problems down the road. Nobody should expect you to know the proper treatment for every little issue that comes up, but you should at least have a resource available for getting reliable guidance and answers when that happens. (It probably should be more official than a CPA review forum.)

Maybe I'm just clueless about how the accounting world actually works, but if you feel intimidated and uncomfortable in your work atmosphere, you really should try to resolve it in the short run before things get further out of hand.

[Anonymous]

@Dave..I do understand and know what I'm doing, but I just don't understand the way they do many things in this place. And whenever I go ask the controller he gives this look like “go fly a kite kid”…I feel very uncomfortable here. In the first place, there should not even be the need to do all these reclassifications. It's just crazy. I actually took the time to do reclassify every transaction one by one even though it took me like 10 hrs., and people (A/P and CFO) think that I'm just crazy for doing that. Now when I go to the general ledger I see the original transaction and the reclassification right below. I seriously need to pass the exam quickly so I can get a real job. Sometime I have a feeling that I'm doing accounting back in the 50s or 60s..We can't even do the reconciliations electronically, we do them in Excel… :)…and i have no effing idea why….lol

[Author]

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