It's been some time...
I totally just remembered livejournal - woohoo! The last time I posted anything was two years ago. I decided it's time for an update.
I still work at Brown-Strauss Steel. I'm still in the same position, however I've taken on many new responsibilities and learned many new things. I did achieve the CBA designation that I posted about last. CBA stands for Credit Business Associate. The acronym doesn't make much sense - I think it should be Business Credit Associate. I am actually one class and a test away from achieving the next highest level, which is the CBF, or Credit Business Fellow. Again, doesn't make sense - but the highest level is CCE, or Certified Credit Executive. I suppose they want some uniformity. In any case, I'm working my way up. The only problem now is that I'm pretty much more qualified to do a higher level job that I don't really get to do where I am currently. I could also be getting paid a lot more. I still love my boss, and the job is interesting, so we'll see.
One of the responsibilities I've taken on is sales tax. If that doesn't spell excitement, I don't know what does. *end heavy sarcasm* I know so much about it now, that I gave a presentation at a business dinner for other credit professionals - which I suppose might be impressive.
My venture into sales tax hasn't been all hugs and kisses, however. I've recently upset a large customer for charging the correct sales tax rate, which is of course higher than they'd like to be paying. I've gone in circles with this customer, shown them evidence of their sales tax rate, their nexus, and all sorts of good stuff. I've even spoken with an auditor for verification, and studied municipal tax code, as well as offered them the name of the auditor I've been speaking to. After all this they still weren't happy. So then our sales department tried to secretly circumvent me by trying to get our accountant to agree to or "verify" the lower (and legally incorrect) tax rate. The accountant, not an idiot, referred them to me, and pretty much told them I was right.
THEN I started getting complaints from our sales department saying we were losing sales on this customer because we were the only people charging the correct tax rate. I then took it upon myself to contact one of our competitors. BTW - it is totally normal for credit people to discuss customers they have in common - we even have sponsored meetings to do so. I did discover in my phone conversation with the credit manager of our competitor that our competitor doesn't charge any of their customers the correct tax. I would explain how that happens, but no one cares, but I'm available to explain if anyone is curious.
After our conversation, I emailed the credit manager of our competitor a link to an online tool to verify the proper jurisdictions to collect sales tax for based on delivery address. I also pasted a section of one jurisdiction's tax code to illustrate why they should change the way they collect sales tax. I didn't mention our customer in common at all.
Then three weeks go by, and I get called into the president's office. That's right, the president. Apparently our competitor decided it was a good idea to forward my email with all of my contact information to our customer in common. Apparently after I spoke with the competitor and sent them proof they were doing something wrong, they wanted to do it right. The problem is they used my email as proof in their argument, since apparently some people are too fucking lazy to find information themselves, or to think that it might look sketchy to leave my information in the email.
Nothing I did was illegal, or unethical - but it pissed our customer off. I was accused of being unethical, and I was also accused of possible collusion and price fixing. Those are pretty serious violations of anti-trust regulations. It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that anyone would accuse me of doing something illegal, when at best, I would've been preventing something illegal from continuing. End result - the president thinks I'm an idiot, our customer is probably only buying from us because we're not the most expensive anymore, and our sales department thinks I'm retarded. Sales should be happy - we're not losing sales because of tax issues anymore! Whatever - people suck. If you read this far, thanks for reading.
Oh ya - still single. :-)
I still work at Brown-Strauss Steel. I'm still in the same position, however I've taken on many new responsibilities and learned many new things. I did achieve the CBA designation that I posted about last. CBA stands for Credit Business Associate. The acronym doesn't make much sense - I think it should be Business Credit Associate. I am actually one class and a test away from achieving the next highest level, which is the CBF, or Credit Business Fellow. Again, doesn't make sense - but the highest level is CCE, or Certified Credit Executive. I suppose they want some uniformity. In any case, I'm working my way up. The only problem now is that I'm pretty much more qualified to do a higher level job that I don't really get to do where I am currently. I could also be getting paid a lot more. I still love my boss, and the job is interesting, so we'll see.
One of the responsibilities I've taken on is sales tax. If that doesn't spell excitement, I don't know what does. *end heavy sarcasm* I know so much about it now, that I gave a presentation at a business dinner for other credit professionals - which I suppose might be impressive.
My venture into sales tax hasn't been all hugs and kisses, however. I've recently upset a large customer for charging the correct sales tax rate, which is of course higher than they'd like to be paying. I've gone in circles with this customer, shown them evidence of their sales tax rate, their nexus, and all sorts of good stuff. I've even spoken with an auditor for verification, and studied municipal tax code, as well as offered them the name of the auditor I've been speaking to. After all this they still weren't happy. So then our sales department tried to secretly circumvent me by trying to get our accountant to agree to or "verify" the lower (and legally incorrect) tax rate. The accountant, not an idiot, referred them to me, and pretty much told them I was right.
THEN I started getting complaints from our sales department saying we were losing sales on this customer because we were the only people charging the correct tax rate. I then took it upon myself to contact one of our competitors. BTW - it is totally normal for credit people to discuss customers they have in common - we even have sponsored meetings to do so. I did discover in my phone conversation with the credit manager of our competitor that our competitor doesn't charge any of their customers the correct tax. I would explain how that happens, but no one cares, but I'm available to explain if anyone is curious.
After our conversation, I emailed the credit manager of our competitor a link to an online tool to verify the proper jurisdictions to collect sales tax for based on delivery address. I also pasted a section of one jurisdiction's tax code to illustrate why they should change the way they collect sales tax. I didn't mention our customer in common at all.
Then three weeks go by, and I get called into the president's office. That's right, the president. Apparently our competitor decided it was a good idea to forward my email with all of my contact information to our customer in common. Apparently after I spoke with the competitor and sent them proof they were doing something wrong, they wanted to do it right. The problem is they used my email as proof in their argument, since apparently some people are too fucking lazy to find information themselves, or to think that it might look sketchy to leave my information in the email.
Nothing I did was illegal, or unethical - but it pissed our customer off. I was accused of being unethical, and I was also accused of possible collusion and price fixing. Those are pretty serious violations of anti-trust regulations. It's also pretty fucking ridiculous that anyone would accuse me of doing something illegal, when at best, I would've been preventing something illegal from continuing. End result - the president thinks I'm an idiot, our customer is probably only buying from us because we're not the most expensive anymore, and our sales department thinks I'm retarded. Sales should be happy - we're not losing sales because of tax issues anymore! Whatever - people suck. If you read this far, thanks for reading.
Oh ya - still single. :-)