Today I have spent a whole day getting to grips with the accounts. It has been a tiring day...
Everything is on excel, on numerous spreadsheets which aren't linked and which require manual input on each. It is a cash accounting system, but there are no bank recs or petty cash recs to ensure cash ties up. Cash is given to managers of each budget as needed but it is mingled with their own money and relies on them returning paper receipts for ever transaction.
Eleanor the Director also introduced me to the Auditor also. The March 2010 accounts are due to be signed shortly and they have taken this long to prepare. One of the reasons is that the auditors need to enter everything into an Accounting package to produce a TB first. AfCiC do not use a TB, their concern is that cash inflow exceeds cash outflow, but at the moment I'm not sure that can be accurately proved.
From what I have read on other Afid blogs this is very common in NGOs in Africa. Eleanor is very switched on and knows if a number is incorrect, however she isn't an accountant and it isn't easy to see how her cash accounting spreadsheets agree to the P&L and Balance Sheet in a set of accounts.
I'm also not sure that she should be spending her precious time this closely involved with the accounting.
I think the next 5 weeks are going to very busy but I can see how much I can improve very quickly so at least I won't be bored!
Everything is on excel, on numerous spreadsheets which aren't linked and which require manual input on each. It is a cash accounting system, but there are no bank recs or petty cash recs to ensure cash ties up. Cash is given to managers of each budget as needed but it is mingled with their own money and relies on them returning paper receipts for ever transaction.
Eleanor the Director also introduced me to the Auditor also. The March 2010 accounts are due to be signed shortly and they have taken this long to prepare. One of the reasons is that the auditors need to enter everything into an Accounting package to produce a TB first. AfCiC do not use a TB, their concern is that cash inflow exceeds cash outflow, but at the moment I'm not sure that can be accurately proved.
From what I have read on other Afid blogs this is very common in NGOs in Africa. Eleanor is very switched on and knows if a number is incorrect, however she isn't an accountant and it isn't easy to see how her cash accounting spreadsheets agree to the P&L and Balance Sheet in a set of accounts.
I'm also not sure that she should be spending her precious time this closely involved with the accounting.
I think the next 5 weeks are going to very busy but I can see how much I can improve very quickly so at least I won't be bored!
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