Accounting Frustration, and other things...
It's been a week of ups and downs to be sure. Right at the moment though, I'm feeling the edges of a headache coming on from assorted stress-inducing issues I've been fighting all day. The biggest stress-maker today has been U-Haul, and the accounting that's related to it.
I rented my first truck today, a 20-footer which I had to go to Swift Current to pick up. Trixstir and I did that on Wednesday, since we had to make a supply-run anyway, so on the return trip she drove her van back, and I drove the U-Haul truck and a trailer to add to my inventory here. The truck was booked for rental before I even had it on the lot, which is why it was so important to get it here on time. Apparently, there's another one coming in on December 4th, so I won't be "truck-less" on the lot for long.
As this was the first truck I've rented out, there was bound to be some glitches in the system. There were, but thankfully my customers were very patient and understanding, and Control was able to sort out the problem (once I got off hold and was able to talk to a live person.) Normally, I don't open until Noon on Saturdays, but the customer wanted to get an early start, so I was actually at the shop just after 8am so they could come in at 8:30 to get the truck. I think this extra flexibility gave me some Brownie-Points which made up for the delays due to the glitches. In the end, the customer got the truck the wanted at a better price than we had originally figured, and everyone was happy!
The biggest problem I'm having with U-Haul is when it comes to accounting. If the customer pays by credt-card, there's no problem - U-Haul handles everything on their end, and I get a comission deposited to my account (assuming they've got the numbers right this time!) The problem arises when a customer pays by Interac; If they pay by cash or cheque, it's a minor inconvenience since I have to take the cheque (or cash) down to the bank and manually deposit it. If they pay by Interac however, then it goes through my business accounts and has to be accounted for. I could make it a lot easier on myself by just not recording the transaction since it's a simple in-and-out, but that could create problems down the road if the Interac Ins-and-Outs don't match what the bank's records say. What I wanted Quickbooks to do was to create a simple holding account, a "Short Term Asset" account where the funds could go in, and pop back out again. But it doesn't work that way...
Quickbooks has "Expenses" and "Items", and even a non-inventory tracked item is still an "item", and items don't work with Short Term Asset accounts. If you try, as I painfully discovered, the funds go in, and out again just as fast, and get reposted to an actual income account, which leaves you with a negative balance where there shouldn't be one. It's a pain in the ass, but the only way around it is to set it as an "other income" account (set for zero-taxes) and then create a Bill for the amount owed, and pay that from the Other Income account. Then it complains that you're running an expense into an Income account, but it will allow it, and the end result is a zero-balance, which is what you want. I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent trying to straighten that mess out. At least with Quickbooks, it's possible to delete entries, and then re-enter them to clean up such a mess; With Simply Accounting, you can't do that - it tracks every little move and you have to create multiple check-and-balance accounts to clean up any glitches like that. That's ideal, I guess, for big corporations where you want to be very sure that no-one is cooking the books, but it's an even bigger headache than what I had with Quickbooks.
The part for the paper-shredder arrived yesterday, and once I got the accounting mess figured out, I attempted to install it. That's when I found out I had been looking at the wrong parts diagram, and thus ordered the wrong part. The machine in question is a model 3220S-1, and the parts-list I had was for a model 3220S. That "-1" on the end makes a big difference, though you can't tell from the parts diagrams because they're sketched diagrams instead of actual photographs of the equipment; As a result, the parts look identical, and they are very nearly identical. Very near, but not quite. So now I've spent $28 and change (part, taxes, shipping) on a part that would cost me more to ship back than it's worth; The part cost $15, to ship it back would cost at least $12, and I'm sure there would be a re-stocking fee, so sending it back is just not a feasible idea. Thus, I have a $28 plastic reminder to be more careful in the future, and the customer is probably going to have to wait another week to get their shredder back. *sigh*
I got another cheque from one of my Corporate customers that I do warranty work for. Once again, the cheque is for less than what I billed them for. Part of it I can understand: There's a guide-book that I have to use for shop-time, and the amount I had submitted is more than the book allows for. Apparently, "diagnosis" is supposed to be included in the R&R time, even though it has its own section on the invoice. Also, it seems that fuel is not an allowable expense. Ok, in the future I will put the cost of the fuel under "shop supplies" and leave it at that. All in all, there's a difference of about $20 - not a huge amount, but an annoyance just the same. At least these guys pay pretty fast unlike Sears who can take two months or more to cough up the dough! Sears rarely balks at my claims, but I hate waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) for them to pay up. :/
It's my birthday tomorrow. Yay. The only thing worse than getting older is not getting older. I remember when birthdays used to be fun. They haven't been fun for me for quite a few years now. :/ I guess a big part of that is just the stress: I'm another year older, and what have I got to show for it? More stress, more debt, more grey hairs... At least I have hair though... ;) Well, there, that thought made me grin a bit, so maybe it's not all bad...
I rented my first truck today, a 20-footer which I had to go to Swift Current to pick up. Trixstir and I did that on Wednesday, since we had to make a supply-run anyway, so on the return trip she drove her van back, and I drove the U-Haul truck and a trailer to add to my inventory here. The truck was booked for rental before I even had it on the lot, which is why it was so important to get it here on time. Apparently, there's another one coming in on December 4th, so I won't be "truck-less" on the lot for long.
As this was the first truck I've rented out, there was bound to be some glitches in the system. There were, but thankfully my customers were very patient and understanding, and Control was able to sort out the problem (once I got off hold and was able to talk to a live person.) Normally, I don't open until Noon on Saturdays, but the customer wanted to get an early start, so I was actually at the shop just after 8am so they could come in at 8:30 to get the truck. I think this extra flexibility gave me some Brownie-Points which made up for the delays due to the glitches. In the end, the customer got the truck the wanted at a better price than we had originally figured, and everyone was happy!
The biggest problem I'm having with U-Haul is when it comes to accounting. If the customer pays by credt-card, there's no problem - U-Haul handles everything on their end, and I get a comission deposited to my account (assuming they've got the numbers right this time!) The problem arises when a customer pays by Interac; If they pay by cash or cheque, it's a minor inconvenience since I have to take the cheque (or cash) down to the bank and manually deposit it. If they pay by Interac however, then it goes through my business accounts and has to be accounted for. I could make it a lot easier on myself by just not recording the transaction since it's a simple in-and-out, but that could create problems down the road if the Interac Ins-and-Outs don't match what the bank's records say. What I wanted Quickbooks to do was to create a simple holding account, a "Short Term Asset" account where the funds could go in, and pop back out again. But it doesn't work that way...
Quickbooks has "Expenses" and "Items", and even a non-inventory tracked item is still an "item", and items don't work with Short Term Asset accounts. If you try, as I painfully discovered, the funds go in, and out again just as fast, and get reposted to an actual income account, which leaves you with a negative balance where there shouldn't be one. It's a pain in the ass, but the only way around it is to set it as an "other income" account (set for zero-taxes) and then create a Bill for the amount owed, and pay that from the Other Income account. Then it complains that you're running an expense into an Income account, but it will allow it, and the end result is a zero-balance, which is what you want. I don't even want to think about how many hours I spent trying to straighten that mess out. At least with Quickbooks, it's possible to delete entries, and then re-enter them to clean up such a mess; With Simply Accounting, you can't do that - it tracks every little move and you have to create multiple check-and-balance accounts to clean up any glitches like that. That's ideal, I guess, for big corporations where you want to be very sure that no-one is cooking the books, but it's an even bigger headache than what I had with Quickbooks.
The part for the paper-shredder arrived yesterday, and once I got the accounting mess figured out, I attempted to install it. That's when I found out I had been looking at the wrong parts diagram, and thus ordered the wrong part. The machine in question is a model 3220S-1, and the parts-list I had was for a model 3220S. That "-1" on the end makes a big difference, though you can't tell from the parts diagrams because they're sketched diagrams instead of actual photographs of the equipment; As a result, the parts look identical, and they are very nearly identical. Very near, but not quite. So now I've spent $28 and change (part, taxes, shipping) on a part that would cost me more to ship back than it's worth; The part cost $15, to ship it back would cost at least $12, and I'm sure there would be a re-stocking fee, so sending it back is just not a feasible idea. Thus, I have a $28 plastic reminder to be more careful in the future, and the customer is probably going to have to wait another week to get their shredder back. *sigh*
I got another cheque from one of my Corporate customers that I do warranty work for. Once again, the cheque is for less than what I billed them for. Part of it I can understand: There's a guide-book that I have to use for shop-time, and the amount I had submitted is more than the book allows for. Apparently, "diagnosis" is supposed to be included in the R&R time, even though it has its own section on the invoice. Also, it seems that fuel is not an allowable expense. Ok, in the future I will put the cost of the fuel under "shop supplies" and leave it at that. All in all, there's a difference of about $20 - not a huge amount, but an annoyance just the same. At least these guys pay pretty fast unlike Sears who can take two months or more to cough up the dough! Sears rarely balks at my claims, but I hate waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) for them to pay up. :/
It's my birthday tomorrow. Yay. The only thing worse than getting older is not getting older. I remember when birthdays used to be fun. They haven't been fun for me for quite a few years now. :/ I guess a big part of that is just the stress: I'm another year older, and what have I got to show for it? More stress, more debt, more grey hairs... At least I have hair though... ;) Well, there, that thought made me grin a bit, so maybe it's not all bad...