welcome to the finance blog spring 2011

so i am the new finance manager--danielle. i live in room 5. this is a blog that the finance manager from last semester started. i am going to try to keep it up over the semester in an effort to keep this position more transparent!

anyways, task 1:

count the karma box!

-D

Some Q$A with the managers ...

What comprises miscellaneous expenses?

Couldn't get an answer on this one. I suppose I should talk to Central Office.

Centralized coop maintenance expense has been climbing, from 6 grand Oct 13 to 9 grant Oct 27 to 10 grand Nov 3... This from carpets? What's it from?

So, Anders and I spoke in passing about these questions. Most maintenance expenses are for things like nails and other necessary items to keep the house in shape. With the way maintenance expenses have been climbing, it may be a good idea for the house to discuss things that we've approved, such as cleaning the carpets. Can we afford all of the larger improvements we have committed to? Anders and I spoke about getting together to come up with a budget for maintenance for next semester.

House approved projects is at 10 grand deficit. It was at 34 grand. It went down a lot. I'm curious how? Other fluctuations as well.

This is apparently related to payments on the solar panels. I should interview Alfred about this.

There have been a lot of fluctuations in the maintenance budgets. Why?

I'm still not totally clear on this. Apparently, it also has something to do with payments on the solar panels ... ?

How do we have a surplus in the food budget when we eat so luxuriantly?

We actually DO NOT have a surplus. In fact, we have a post-food-orgy deficit. I'd have to double check with Jarrod on how much that deficit is.

Response to VOCs

Hi Elves,

So, I just now joined Lothlorien Elf Gossip. I literally could not figure out how to join this e-mail list until like ... 2 days ago. Now I can e-mail all of you! It's splendid. 

So! VOCs. You were a surprisingly gentle bunch. The main complaint I got was that people didn't know what I did and that I don't give enough updates. I only started figuring out what I should do recently. You are absolutely right that I should update more. My biggest self-criticism is that I keep telling myself I am going to do something, then I procrastinate and nothing happens. It's lame as HELL. 

Anywho, so, it is now time for me to change my ways. I'm going to try to send out a report every other week. At the end of the semester, I want to put my notes together to map out BSC finances as best I can so that there's a quick reference available on Lothipedia. I also want to revise and explanation of my position. 

Ah, so that brings us to what I do. What do I do? Well, my purpose is to prevent managers from embezzling. I am currently doing this by looking at decentralization reports and asking questions about changes I notice. For example, the maintenance account has fluctuated a bit this semester. Anders said the main culprit for this up-and-downage is the SOLAR PANELS. Now, exactly how that works ... Not sure. I'll have to ask Alfred. 

I set up a blog at the beginning of the semester which I need to update more often. I'll post this update, as well as others, here: http://lothfinances.blogspot.com/

Later this evening, I plan to post the answers to some questions I asked the coordinators recently. Here's a list of my long and short-term goals in case you are interested:

Short term goals:

--Check nifty bundle of checks that Jarrod gave me against electronic bank statements

--Look at decentralization reports and ask managers questions about them more often. 

Long term goals:

--Compile notes that I've taken over the semester for Lothipedia.

--More clearly define my position and how to do it (on Lothipedia)

Questions? Tips? Concerns? You can comment on the blog, e-mail me or talk to me :-)

Best,

Tess

I got the fear but I've got a plan...

The Fear

Earlier this week, the kitchen manager handed me two check stubs from Merchant's bank. They are sitting on my desk and I don't know what to do with them. I know I'm supposed to compare them to some other document and that they are somehow supposed to end up in some drawer in the first floor of South House. Frankly, I get the heebie-jeebies when I think about opening that drawer. I have this nightmare about receipts dating back to the the One World Family era flying into the air like a scene from a Harry Potter movie. I jump to retrieve them, but they slip out through the windows, under the doors, and around corners, landing in the garden, people's mail boxes, or worse-- the toilet in potty loveless. 

Every day I wake up and see those check stubs on my desk, I realize-- I'm not really clear on how to do my job. I read the job description on Lothipedia, and it posed more questions than it answered for me. 

The Anxiety

Here are the responsibilities that I feel the least secure about:

Help the KM to figure out their budget since CK and CO don’t provide current and accurate data via the decentralization report.

Okay, so, I have the decentralization report, but I don't know how to read it or how to find the "current and accurate data" that it apparently doesn't provide.

Set up easy to use documents (e.g. google spreadsheets) to make the KM life easier. This also includes training of the managers how to use them.

Yeah, this sounds like a good idea ... but before I do this, I need to know what sort of information the managers need and where to find it. 

Discuss the financial situation at Loth’s manager meetings.

I don't really know what the financial situation is just yet ... But I'm gonna figure it out! I'm an epic snoop. 

Read decentralization report and note down everything that CK messes up (orders get charged weeks later, get charged for wrong things...)

I can do this once I figure out what we are ordering. I suppose I should put that information in a package of dated spread sheets where on one side I list what we ordered and on the other side I list what we were charged for in the decentralization report.

The Plan

So, now that I've made myself look an incompetent idiot, I'm going to suggest a solution to my many dilemmas: I'm going to focus my time as finance coordinator on figuring out how to do my job and documenting it in an easy to understand way. My impression is that there's a lot of re-inventing the wheel going on for each new finance coordinator. The point of the job is to ease the loads of other coordinators, but with the amount of stuff I need to ask them about, I worry that I'll be more of a burden than a help. 

I'm not saying I won't do my job. I'll check what I have to check, once I figure out how. As* I figure out how, I'll make templates for future finance coordinators. The first template I make will be the the decentralization/actual order comparison. Also, I've sent an e-mail to Margie at CO asking her to sit down with me and explain how the BSC's finances work in general. I'll write a blog post about what she says, which can double as a Lothipedia post.** I also want to sit down with all of the house coordinators to talk about how their individual finances work, but I don't want to take up a whole lot of your guys' time. I know you're all really busy and so am I, but maybe you can each make half hour appointments with me over the next few weeks?

Hey, elves! Do you guys have any suggestions? Questions? Comment, comment, comment! This is cyber democracy. I know the cyber part might turn some of you guys off, but the democratic part is great, right?

Oh, p.s.-- Jarrod and I counted up the Karma Box monies. The totals: $963 in cash, $125 in checks, $55 in EBT wooden coins. THAT'S A LOT OF MONEY COMING OUT OF A BOX. Also, we apparently have like $13,000 in our checking account. We could send an elf to college for a semester! But, seriously, that's great. The question is, where does it come from? I want to find out. 

*I almost wrote "ass!"

**I was thinking about how this might read like a news article and then I was like, "Shit! Sean wanted me to do a mock news article about the reunion." Then I was like, "Damn, I failed." I'm really sorry. I just realized I'm like wayyyy behind in school. Go me.