It’s kinda cute, right?
It’s apparently Take Your Ferret Hiking Day. I actually do think it’s kinda cute but as I have said before, I do not want a pet.
I spent part of the day doing an annual financial accounting chore that I started when The Commander died. At least that’s when I switched these particular expenses from auto-pay on *her* bank account to auto-pay on *my* bank account. (I had put them all on auto-pay on *her* account while she was still alive and kicking, with her permission.) This is a mini-job for an “Accidental Financial Leader” like me.
I have always had a propensity to count and keep track of money. I mean I am good at counting and organizing money for deposit (bills, coins, and checks) and I can handle basic bookkeeping (keeping track of credits and debits). I have no formal training in accounting and am not good at investment stuff so don’t ask me about that. You’ll get the sign of the cross!
When I volunteered for my first non-profit treasury “job” at our co-op nursery school, I knew nothing. It was a means to get the GG out of being the co-op president. I was handed a huge checkbook with large-sized checks and an actual ledger book. I politely accepted the ledger book. My brain was going, “shitola, I am gonna put this all into Excel on my Mac Plus computer.” And so I did. The outgoing treasurer was very competent but this was a long time ago and I don’t think her family had a viable home computer yet, hence the handwritten ledger.
I computerized the nursery school’s meticulous records and then I went on to serve as PTO treasurer for an elementary school, two middle schools, and a high school and then I kinda got “senioritis”. I had fun doing those jobs and did some gnarly things like when I first took over the elementary school treasury, letters were arriving from the IRS threatening us with big penalties for not filing federal form 990 for the last six years. I was familiar with form 990 from the nursery school but in this case (loooooong story) I had to retroactively file that form for the previous six years!!! That included translating 5-6 previous treasurers’ “records” (or whatever you want to call them) and balancing the checkbook for that many years. And *then* doing six years’ worth of form 990. Whew!
Was I up to that? Ulp. Yes I was. Because I was working between Excel on my Mac Plus and a lot of paper (ledgers, bank statements, whatever) and was working in a small space, I spent a lot of time bouncing up and down from my Mac Plus to and from the floor (don’t ask). I was doing all of this during a two-week teacher strike, so the beach urchins were home and after one intense bookkeeping session, I walked into the kitchen and realized that my kids had cooked themselves a can of spaghettios without me even noticing. I don’t think they had ever used the stove without at least minimal supervision before. Mom’s not paying attention and we’re hungry and we know how to do this safely. And they did.
Non-profit bookkeeping (any bookkeeping) is NOT for the faint of heart, whether you are a paid employee or not. When I was doing this kind of volunteer work (which I LOVED), the concept of an “Accidental Financial Leader” did not exist. It does now and that’s what I used to do. I always gave all my paper and computer files to whoever I turned a non-profit treasury over to. Did they use them? Did they understand them? I do not know. LOLOLOL!
February 1st, 2025 at 9:28 pm
I was the treasurer of a couple of gymnastics club but it was all done with a program on my computer. I recall it being fairly easy although sometimes time-consuming. Most annoying thing was taking checks to the bank.