The Positive Accountant - Vol 1 Edition 22
Wasn't that the oddest Easter ever - lovely weather, wanting to go places but unable to, wanting to see people but unable to.
We now find ourselves back in the middle of this strange life, and I find myself back writing The Positive Accountant.
And that's interesting as all thepositives that I'm going to list could actually be seen as negatives if seen in another light (I won't spoil it for you though, you'll have to read them for yourself). Although, if I'm honest, there might at the time have been just the tiniest bit of colourful language used...
So maybe we just need to remember that to find a silver lining we need sometimes to fly into a cloud...
Remember, if you have 'missed' any previous editions, they can be found at
http://www.positiveaccountant.com
What are my positives today:-:
1. We had some rain over the weekend. To be entirely accurate we had some hail, and a thunderstorm to boot.
Now, there are places you really don't to be when this happens.
For example, 2,000 feet in a Cessna (been there, done that).
Or on the back of a dive boat between dives (been there, done that).
Or in the outside lane of the M25 driving a convertible with the roof down (you guessed, yes, done that too)
Exactly halfway through a dog walk wearing only a T shirt and sunglasses is up there with the rest of them.
But the crops and garden needed it, so that's apositive.
2. When I woke up this morning I had something on my To do list from 19 years ago, it isn't there tonight
When we first moved in to our house we found that the immersion heater didn't work. In fact switching it on caused it to catch fire. But that didn't matter, we'd sort it one day and rely on the boiler instead
Then when we decided to sort it, we couldn't find an immersion heater to fit the cylinder. Didn't need it, we had a boiler.
As it wasn't working I later stole the cable run in the loft to power a new ring main circuit. Didn't need it we had a boiler
A couple of years ago we changed the hot water tank, didn't bother wiring in the immersion heater because we hadn't got a wiring run. Didn't need it, we had a boiler.
This morning as a result of an emergency call out we don't have a boiler any more - it's gone on holiday for a week or two.
So I spent the day crawling around in the loft (last cleaned in 1835) running a new cable, pulling it though wall channels etc.
So that's that off the list.
3. We have hot water.
Damn good job too.
And here's apositive, that could be a negative, Tracey of Lakenheath has told me that she's rediscovered her love for home baking, the negative being that her clothes might not fit much longer !
And what am I talking to clients about today ?
Cashflow forecasts - let's face it, most people don't do these regularly. But get them wrong and you get some dangerous results.
Here's my top tip,an error that I've seen four times in the last week.
The error is to forecast monthly cashflows in a spreadsheet, then add the columns together to get an annual summary. All well and good
But if you're running a brought forward/carry forward section at the bottom of the cashflows, don't add these columns together as well - the brought forward figure for the annual needs to be the brought forward of month 1, and the carry forward needs to be carry forward of month 12.
As I say, I've heard 'Doh !' down the phone four times very recently !
Stay safe, until tomorrow
Adrian
07917 338342
Not quite Tulips in Amsterdam, but they were lovely in the sunshine at the weekend