year end crossover

[geraldenek]

BUT Our previous accountant (who is a CA infact) stuffed up prior years - late payments to SARS as well as late returns filed - documentation missing or not filed etc, when i had a look at our records from SARS there was more payments for penalties and interest than anything else. Everything is now in order and SARS has finally been paid up - we are a very small business with a very uncomplicated accounting structure - no inventory, no foreign transactions etc. We are still trying to figure out why they got it so wrong....

There is lots of CA's also making a mess of things - i had just sat now for about 2 hours going through financials that was done for one of my monthly bookkeeping clients by an auditing firm which charges them +/- R30 000 a year - got 14 mistakes on it - and the cherry on the cake was an afrikaans line inserted in the income statement on english financials - i just get really fustrated when you pay for something and this is what you get.

interest received - should have been insurance payment received, account names was wrong, 3rd party loans classified under shareholders loan - and so the list goes on - really???

They wrote 4 journals which was the tb, one i gave to them for stock and the other 2 were adjustments that was received after the pastel was handed over to them. I am really starting to wonder if any work was done on this......

[Blurock]

There is lots of CA's also making a mess of things -......

Big firm big problem? Make sure that the size of your accounting firm matches the size of your business. If you are too small for one of the Big 4, you may be fobbed off to a clerk and mistakes are inevitable.

Ensure that your accountant shows an interest and is prepared to understand and discuss your unique situation. We do not all require CA's. A good CFA can often add good value to a small or medium sized business.

[Jennajay]

There is lots of CA's also making a mess of things - i had just sat now for about 2 hours going through financials that was done for one of my monthly bookkeeping clients by an auditing firm which charges them +/- R30 000 a year - got 14 mistakes on it - and the cherry on the cake was an afrikaans line inserted in the income statement on english financials - i just get really fustrated when you pay for something and this is what you get.

interest received - should have been insurance payment received, account names was wrong, 3rd party loans classified under shareholders loan - and so the list goes on - really???

They wrote 4 journals which was the tb, one i gave to them for stock and the other 2 were adjustments that was received after the pastel was handed over to them. I am really starting to wonder if any work was done on this......

This was our greatest peave - In no way were we ever trying to save money on our accounting. Our director had no idea about accounting and the previous producer didn't either so he was happily going along thinking that the accounting aspect of his business was running rather smoothly, he wasnt even aware of what portion of payments were interest/penalty related and what portion were actually from the return - i think its just testimony to the fact that in any company, big or small, its just not acceptable to not know whats going on.

[Blurock]

- i think its just testimony to the fact that in any company, big or small, its just not acceptable to not know whats going on.

Aah, the root of the problem! Not knowing is a sin and a big reason for business failure.

I am amazed at how many business owners do not know what is happening in their business. They have an attitude of "leave it to the accountants" or admin or even production. All they want to do is the easy stuff and they do not make an effort to acquire the skills to run a business effectively.

A business owner does not have to be an accountant, but he needs to get the right management reports and he must ask questions in order to check if things are still on track. Too often we are too scared to crunch the numbers as that may expose our inability to count...?

[Jennajay]

I phoned our accountant to request the data - she sent through a text file and said i should just be able to import it into pastel, I have her Trial balance from last year as well as the adjusting Journal entries so if all else fails i am able to manually input these - although i REALLY am hoping there is an easier option. blegh.
Is there anyway i can import this simply into pastel? help.

[Neville Bailey]

- she sent through a text file and said i should just be able to import it into pastel,

Jenna, did she say what was on the text file. I assume it was a general journal batch that she exported into ASCII format.

If you want, you can email the text file, or send it to me via PM, so that I can inspect it.

[Jennajay]

Jenna, did she say what was on the text file. I assume it was a general journal batch that she exported into ASCII format.

If you want, you can email the text file, or send it to me via PM, so that I can inspect it.

I assume its a text file containing the batch of adjusting Journal entries? - this is what i requested from her? But i have no way of opening the file to see whats inside - about to PM it to you....

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Jenna, I've had a look at the text file, but it is not in the required format for importing into Pastel.

However, I can modify the layout into a CSV file, so that you can import the file into a General Journal.

Let me know if you would like me to do that for you, but I might need a copy of your Pastel database in order to test the import.

[Jennajay]

Hi Jenna, I've had a look at the text file, but it is not in the required format for importing into Pastel.

However, I can modify the layout into a CSV file, so that you can import the file into a General Journal.

Let me know if you would like me to do that for you, but I might need a copy of your Pastel database in order to test the import.

Hi Neville - Can i request a CSV file directly from my previous accountant?

[Neville Bailey]

Hi Neville - Can i request a CSV file directly from my previous accountant?

If the accountant had exported the journal batch as a CSV file prior to updating it, that would have been perfect. However, it is now too late to do so, as the batch has already been updated.