Definitions, Explanations,
and other FAQs
The
expression “close the books” is an accounting term referring to the process of
finalizing a set of financial records at the end of a business cycle.
Contrary
to what a few people have assumed, it DOES NOT refer to my interest in
literature or my tendency to visit bookstores and libraries!
Do
you like the clever domain name?
The
rights to the “Close The Books” name have been secured
for several years in advance. It took
quite a bit of effort to come up with a name that was not already in use, made
sense within my profession, and was easy to pronounce.
If you
would like to design a “parody website,” you might consider “cook the books”
and “copy the books” as possibilities. If you do so, let me know and I might place a link to your site
within the “humor” section of this site.
Speaking of humor and cleverness: I discovered a simple online game called
“Close All Books.” If you enjoy “quickie games,” check out http://www.javascripter.net/games/closeall/game.htm.
Why
is there no contact information on your résumé?
It has been
omitted for online safety reasons and to minimize spam e-mail. If you
are a recruiter or hiring manager, I truly apologize for the inconvenience. The information will be promptly provided
upon request. Either click
on the link above the résumé (in the
info-box) or else click here.
Why
bother placing accent marks on the word résumé?
The
word résumé really does have TWO
accent marks. When just one accent mark is
used, it is spelled incorrectly!
Marks should always be used
except in situations where they’re incompatible, like in a computer filename.
Feel
free to test this on a spell-checker. If
you use zero accents, MS Word’s spell-checker assumes that you mean the word
that rhymes with “re zoom.” If you
accent either E then it says you must also accent the other one.
Isn’t
“proper accentuation” being too nitpicky?
No, I
don’t think I’m being nitpicky. Rather, I am being accurate and detail-oriented,
and I’m following proper grammatical procedures – which are desirable
characteristics in an accountant!
I also
spell words correctly without constantly
relying on a spell-checker; and I know the proper usage of insure versus ensure.
recording industry
Did you
know that the manufacturing cost of an audio CD is between “a couple of
dollars” and “less than a dollar,” depending on the specific
circumstances? So why should
a new album cost $15-$18, even if you allow generous markups to cover
marketing and distribution costs?
I
refuse to buy brand-new audio and video recordings because most of that
enormous markup does not go to anyone who is “ARTISTIC.” That does not mean that no artists ever earn
phenomenal royalties or residuals. A few
artists are so successful that they too become bloated moneybags, as noted
below.
Garth
Brooks
While I
really – REALLY – like some of Garth Brooks’ music, you should be aware
that Garth Brooks seems to be a little bit preoccupied with his own
fortunes. He refuses to allow
"new" recordings of his music to be sold by stores that also sell
used recordings. Clearly, Garth Brooks is not “looking out for the
little man," despite the image portrayed by the powerful lyrics of his
songs.
At
least the successful artist has to “put out” in order to fuel his/her fame and
wealth, by traveling from city to city and performing in numerous concerts
every year. The same cannot be said for
the corporate fat-cats who feed off of the artists’
hard work.
Commercial
Surety Bond Agency
The
company was located in a building literally
right next door to the San Francisco branch of The Pacific Exchange (previously
known as “The Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.”)
I have
a letter of recommendation that spells out specifically what I did during my
internship at Commercial Surety.
What
is a surety bond?
A
surety bond is a contract that usually provides for monetary compensation in
case the “principal” party fails to perform the acts as promised. There are many different types of surety
bonds, but the two general categories are contract
and commercial surety bonds.
Suretyship
is a very specialized line of insurance.
There are three parties to a surety bond agreement.
The principal is the party that undertakes the
obligation.
The obligee is the party who receives the benefit of
the bond.
The surety strives to guarantee that the obligation
is met (and compensates the obligee if it is not).
trime
A “trime” is a three-cent coin that resembles a dime.
In
1851, Congress actually reduced the postage rate from five
cents to three cents. To make it easier
to buy stamps one-at-a-time (a common practice back then), Congress authorized
production of a silver three-cent piece.
This
three-cent coin, known unofficially as a “trime,” was
smaller and thinner than a dime. The
head side featured a six-pointed star.
The tail side had the Roman numeral III for “three” and the letter C for
“cents.” They were supposed to make
low-denomination commerce (e.g., postage stamps) more convenient. However, trimes
proved unpopular because they were easily lost, due to their size and
weight. During the Civil War, they were
hoarded for their silver content and disappeared from circulation entirely. A copper-nickel three-cent piece was released
in 1865. The new coin had Miss Liberty
on one side, and a wreath and the denomination on the other side.
The
last three-cent pieces were issued in 1889 – but the unusual denomination
almost made a comeback during the Second World War With demand for pennies at a record high,
Congress again authorized production of a three-cent piece (one tiny trime serving in place of three big pennies) but none were
actually produced. The U.S. Mint was
able to meet the wartime demand for coins without resorting to production of
the unusual piece – largely by producing zinc-coated steel cents in 1943 and
“nickel-less” nickels in 1942-1945.
AUTHOR CREDIT: Almost all of the preceding material was
obtained from “Three-Cent Pieces,” by Thomas LaMarre,
located at http://www.money.org/ynnewsletter20014.html; © 2001, ANA. The
source material was reorganized and typographical/grammatical errors were
corrected by Allan French (who claims no copyright to the edited version).
Who designed and maintains this website?
And what tools were used?
The
site is mostly my own creative effort. ©
2003-2004, Allan M. French, all rights reserved. Most of the pages were designed in MS Word 2002,
while a few subsections were (gag, choke) done in Notepad. With the exception of my Yahoo Profile, nothing on this website resulted from a
quickie “fill-in-the-blanks” website template.
In the
future, I plan to utilize site-management software. That will enable me to maintain cascading
style sheets, utilize frames, and incorporate features that will benefit both
site visitors and me.
I am a Bean Counter professional
accountant, not a Computer Nerd
software engineer. However, I do enjoy
“programming,” as evidenced by the Excel
VBA macros I developed on a recent consulting job. In developing this website, substantial
technical assistance has been provided by EntryLevelProgrammer-Dot-Com. In some cases, my “from-scratch” pages are
the evolution of pages initially created by “ELP” on my behalf.
The
expression “write-up” has a special meaning within the field of
accounting. (Two
meanings, actually.)
It
refers to the process of creating a complete set of financial records for a client,
often many months “after the fact,” based on little more than the client’s
transactional data. (It also has another
meaning: it’s the opposite of a “write-down,” but that’s not
the usage I’m discussing here.)
Write-up
services are often provided to small or medium-sized businesses that prefer to
outsource most of their accounting tasks.
A bookkeeper can pay bills and make bank deposits while leaving the more
complicated tasks to the company’s accounting firm. The accountants will enter the transactions
into specialized “write-up software” – sometimes an entire year’s worth all at
once – and provide bank account reconciliations, adjusting journal entries, and
(preliminary/rough-draft) financial statements for the client. That data can then be used to prepare a tax
return for the client company, if desired.
If
you’ve ever wondered what a “tax firm” does outside of tax season, preparing
write-ups is among their year-round tasks.
As
noted above, some companies wait until year-end to get their records in
order. However, many will have it done
monthly or quarterly. They may also
request tax-planning advice, business-development guidance, legal and notary
services, or other assistance at the same time.
NOTE: The preceding
explanation was developed by a non-CPA accountant whose
had “just a little” write-up experience.
This should be accurate-enough for most non-accountants. I realize that experienced CPAs may find this
explanation inadequate.