March 17, 2011
Having spent many months being thirsty for information in regards to financial management and reflecting on using the manual method of learning the basics of book keeping I have been totally perplexed how in this era of wonderful programmes of the computer that we have such a multitude of different methods of accounting, be it for small entities or very large entities. In the process of seeking this information I have learnt to read the stockmarkets, without having participated in the real dollar component, which takes me back to the manual methods of book keeping learnt whilst in my high school years. My first full time job was working in a bank and being of trainee status, I was the one that was always nominated to do the meneal tasks such as statistics, which at the time I did very well but I couldn't see the reasoning. My point being that to apply any form of mathematical programme you need to be fluent in the manual application, so as to be aware if a figure doesn't look correct on the monitor you have the ability to recognise the problem. I feel that the computer also has a heart which qualifies it to have a bad day and make a mistake, however if this mistake is overlooked by the operator of the computer then this becomes a recurring problem that can cause mayhem, which is where the state of company reports have been found world wide to be in dissarray at this time. Simple solution to avoid this happening is to be sure that the operator of any computer has got a good mind for figures and that there should be a qualification to be met prior to the authority to prepare company books in any manner. External Auditors also should be made more accountable (excuse the pun) and with the fabulous salaries that they are afforded be legally responsible for any recurring problem to the company financial reports with allowance of minor anomolies in the preparation of reports in the first Audit only. To have a Global standard of accounting would be logical in respect of the international trade that is done on a daily basis and management of billions of dollars will have the opportunity to be spread in the correct manner and afford everybody from the farmer to the CEO of a high profile company to assure that the structure of the company is operating effectively, giving everybody a sense of pride at the end of the financial year of the reflected year of success that they have directly attributed to by running an orderly accounting standard. With a Global standard of accounting there should also be one standard financial year, which should run from the first day of the year to the last day of the year and allowing for all taxation and reportings to be finalised by the 1st of July each year.