It’s been five days since I returned from Canada to Beijing. It was a great trip and on the way back I felt like in Star trek in the AirCanada pods. I guess Virgin pioneered that style and I must say it was very comfortable and yet i felt “green” since the space wasn’t wasted.
I have to say that Canada is great but that for me it no longer feels home. The pace – is so slow. The life – quite easy and convenient. Excitement factor for me – unfortunately low. But non the less – Alex lives in Calgary now, so I expect I will be in Canada quite frequently. I’m documenting my impressions here now so i can reflect later and see if more frequent exposure to my native land changes.
And so, into business. I came back with a mission in mind to get the accounting and finance systems done once and for all. In a way – I’m deferring everything but top urgent to focus on this one thing.
Today I had a bit of a eurka moment. Ok, I’m sure for the MBAs it’s no revelation for me I was able to look at things in a different light.
What I have come to realize is that a lot of my finance issues center around a complete lack of processes and procedures. For example, let’s say someone spends $1000 via a credit card – at the moment I have no system in place to a) download the data, b) enter into a system, c) check against approval rights and spending rights d) report and in the end e) validate.
So with above example, the issue is not so much lack of financial system to record that into (which I have) but rather the process required to go through all these steps.
So, the beauty with above, is that, anyone with a bit of process knowledge (like me) can organize a financial system – and the accounting in all of that is but a small part.
So, with this new insight – I’m very confident that it’s now only a matter of weeks before much of my headache will go away.
So, a lesson out of this is – if you want to WORK in a business don’t document and don’t procedurize – you will continue to have WORK. Buy if you want to RUN your – and control it – then is all process centric. So, it’s interesting how I didn’t realize that so much of the issues I faced was more about process and not about accounting per se.
Looking back further, the people I have hired in the past have been accountants and analysts – what I needed was more of a – hmm – I actually don’t know the title of someone that can setup a financial department? So, regardless I needed that person 🙂