Accounts Receivable

My accounting job so far is pretty fun. It’s a lot less stressful than sales, but it’s not necessarily easy either. I’m currently in charge of accounts receivable (AR), but I’m eventually supposed to be fully trained in accounts payable (AP) as well. Besides my boss who oversees the whole department, there is only one person doing accounts payable (just like I’m the only person doing accounts receivable). Once I’m up to speed, either one of us can cover for the other if necessary.

Learning my basic everyday responsibilities was pretty easy; it took about two days, and those days weren’t all that busy. The real challenge (and the real fun) comes from working on my “AR Aging Report,” which is a list of all our customers who have outstanding invoices and how much they owe. I have to contact the customers with past due invoices and find out why they haven’t paid us yet. Of course, if there are invoices from six months ago (for example), there must be a reason why. The researching and investigating into the stories behind everything is really interesting. I love knowing things, and the research sometimes feels like a puzzle game. If and when a situation is resolved, I get to check it off my list, which is a great feeling.

On a related note, I think that working in sales for a while helps me appreciate and understand the accounting side of business more than if I hadn’t worked in sales. Our accounting department is in its own little world, off in the far corner of the building. If I hadn’t had exposure to other departments first, I would only see numbers going in and out. But since I’ve worked with our products and customers first hand, the numbers, orders, and invoices all have more meaning. The girl who works in AP only does accounting, so I don’t think she’s quite as excited as I am over everything (though she does have an associate’s degree in accounting, so she at least knows what she’s doing, whereas I’m picking it up as I go along).

Anyway. I feel a lot less stress throughout the day, and I find the work is fascinating. I worked late tonight because I was having fun researching for my AR Aging Report. It’s almost like when I was in college and used to do my math homework on Friday nights just because I was so into it (yeah I was a big nerd).

Disclaimer: I don’t think I’m doing real accounting just yet. It’s too early to tell whether I would want to become an accountant professionally. But for now, I’m having fun learning.

One More Week In Sales

The countdown is on. The official date of my move to accounting is February 17th (next Tuesday), so I only have one more week of being in sales. Most of my responsibilities have been transferred away now; I mostly just make sure the little things are done and done properly. My boss/friend will be away toward the end of the week, so I’ll be watching the sales team during that time too.

In addition, my boss/friend, my replacement, and I all took a trip down to my biggest client’s office today to tell them that I will no longer be managing their account and that my replacement would be taking over. My primary contact played it off during the meeting like it wasn’t a big deal, but when I got back to the office, he messaged me online (and called me later) to express how upset he was (in a completely macho manly way) that I was leaving and didn’t tell him sooner (as if it would make a difference). I never really thought he liked me all that much (he always got along better with my boss/friend), so it was interesting (and nice) to see his reaction.

I can feel the end coming. I’m both excited about moving to accounting and sentimental about leaving sales. Yes, I never felt entirely comfortable/suited/adequate in sales, but I think I gained a lot from working in it. Hopefully I will gain a lot from my accounting job as well.

Too Reliable

As I mentioned in a previous post, my boss/friend has hired a whole new team of salespeople. Because everyone is new and still require a lot of training, my boss/friend uses me as his go-to guy. Whenever he needs an immediate answer on the status of almost anything, he’ll ask me and I can answer it (usually right away). When he needs something done quickly and accurately, he’ll ask me to do it. He never has to check my work (I’m more detail oriented than he is), and he always knows that he doesn’t need to worry about anything after he tells me to do it. He trusts me.

The problem is that he (and the rest of the sales department) is (are) relying on me too much. Maybe it’s my personality or my work ethic, but I’m too reliable. I’ve spoiled my boss/friend by making sure he never has to worry about the little details. There are a lot of things that he can’t trust other people to do yet, so he continues to ask me. How is he ever going to let me move to the accounting department if he always has to ask me for help?

Another problem is that my replacement is not learning fast enough. It took me many months of struggling, stressing out, and getting yelled at by my boss/friend to get to where I am now, but my replacement doesn’t have the luxury of time. The original goal was for me to transfer in about a week and a half, but that might not be enough time. Maybe I’ll never leave sales!

New Again

My sales replacement is learning, but the progress seems slow. There is a lot to learn, so I’m not sure what is the best way to impart my knowledge. The president of the company seems anxious for me to switch to the accounting department (I think he has high hopes that I can relieve some duties from the operations manager who is handling most of the accounting department herself), but I feel like there’s a long way to go before that can happen. I guess we’ll see what happens in the next couple weeks.

In addition to my replacement, my boss/friend hired three other new salespeople (he’s really pushing to expand his sales team quickly). Since I’m the only “old” salesperson at the company who knows pretty much everything about our company’s products and processes, my friend/boss sometimes asks me to help train the new people. It makes me feel like I’m second in command (which is a great feeling).

Of course, when I move to accounting, I’m going to be at the bottom of the food chain again. I’m going to be the new person who doesn’t know anything (except that I’ll already be somewhat familiar with some of our internal procedures). It will be interesting to be on the other side of the fence again.

Boss/Friend

My official transition from sales to accounting won’t happen for about a month. My boss wants to find a replacement for me before I make the move. In the meantime, he’s being just as hard on me as ever (I wouldn’t have expected any less).

I understand why he’s so hard on me, too. As long as I’m under his supervision, he’s trying to teach me as much as possible. I’m currently (very slowly) working on a PowerPoint presentation for a potential (huge) client. I’ve never used PowerPoint, and I haven’t really had to prepare formal presentations quite like this before. My boss understands that it’s difficult to prepare, but he still insists that I work on it as if it’s my own potential new account, even though I will leave the sales department before there are any results.

In the end, even though I tend to paint a picture of my boss always yelling at me, I know that my boss has always been supporting me and wanting what’s best for me. He only pushes me so hard because he expects so much from me. At the same time, it’s difficult to be his friend when all we talk about is work; it’s not always easy to separate business and friendship (you may have noticed at some point that I stopped using the term boss/friend). Hopefully after I move to the accounting department, I can refer to my boss as just my friend again.

My Own Two Feet

After a few days with my friends in Las Vegas, talking to them and thinking about my future, I decided to accept the accounting position. While the end decision seems like the obvious choice, I didn’t make the choice easily.

Before I revealed my final decision, I had a talk with the operations manager (who will be my supervisor). She told me the initial salary, which, as I expected, is a substantial pay cut. But there is room to grow. Beyond the starting job description, I can take on more roles within the accounting department and maybe eventually manage the whole department so that the operations manager can focus on her myriad of other responsibilities. Even further than that, I could end up as the controller, controlling all the finances for the company. If I end up liking accounting and deciding to pursue it outside of my company, the growth potential is even greater.

When I told my boss my decision, he didn’t seem surprised or upset. I think he already knew what I would choose; he knows me pretty well. From here, he’s going to talk to the operations manager to see when exactly the transition will happen. He’s hoping to find a replacement for me before I make the move, but the operations manager is pretty anxious for someone to help her handle her accounting responsibilities (she really has too many things to do).

All the friends to whom I’ve talked to about this (including a few coworker friends) thought that changing to accounting was a good idea. I guess I made it well known that I wasn’t too happy with my sales job. However, when I told my parents over dinner, they seemed shocked that I would make such a decision. Because I’m “lucky” and “do well at sales,” they thought I should stay in sales because of the potential financial returns. My mom was especially upset by my low starting salary, exclaiming that with my master’s degree, the amount was absurd (I’m paraphrasing, but it’s an equivalent sentiment). I had to explain all my reasoning to them, but I still don’t think I convinced them.

In many ways, this change is important for me. Not only does this mean I get to leave sales behind, but I also feel like I’m standing on my own two feet. The fact that I made this decision based on what I think is best, knowing full well that my parents thought otherwise, is a big step for me. Even though I’ll be making less money for a while, I think I made the right choice.

Sales Is A Good Fit… For Him

I had a very high-powered meeting today at one of my client’s office. My boss and my boss’s boss (the president of our company) came with me to meet the senior manager at my client’s company, so I basically just sat in the meeting room and listened. I had (or felt like I had) nothing to offer the conversation. If I had my boss’s position, I would have no idea what to say.

It’s times like this when I really feel like I’ll never be the salesperson that my boss wants me to be. My boss will always expect more from me, no matter how well I do, which is good and bad. It’s good that he pushes me to always do more, but it’s bad in that I will never feel like I’m doing enough.

I used to beat myself up about not being able to be as good at sales as my boss (I guess I was jealous of his sales/management ability), but lately I’m realizing that that doesn’t mean I’m any less of a person than my boss. It just means that sales is a good fit for him and not so much for me. We’re different people; we shouldn’t have to be good at the same things. I’m much more technical and detail oriented than my boss. Perhaps I should be showing off my strengths rather than trying to build up my weaknesses.

I got a brief overview of the accounting position yesterday, and it seems fairly straightforward. There are a lot of details and a lot of things that need to be kept organized, but I think I can do well at the job. It might be more structured and routine than sales, but I think I’m okay with that.

The main thing that’s keeping me from making a decision is the pay. I asked the operations manager what the pay structure would be, but she hasn’t given me an answer yet. I’ll probably hear back about it on Monday. I don’t know at what salary I’m willing to accept, so I’m trying not to speculate either. I am reserving any definitive decision until I have all the information I need (though it might be painfully obvious to what direction I’m leaning).

In other news, I’m taking a vacation day tomorrow in order to celebrate my friend’s 30th birthday. We’re going to Las Vegas over the weekend! Yay! Funny thing is, I’m really tempted to bring my laptop so I can check my work email while I’m there. It’s really hard to take a break from work!

An Opening

Work today was business as usual, until my daily after-work meeting with my boss. After we finished discussing our regular topics, my boss told me that there is an opening in our accounting department and that I can take the job if I want it. Even though my boss prefers that I stay in sales, and he says I’m doing a good job, he also knows that I’m constantly stressed and frustrated by sales. He’s willing to let me go if accounting is what I would rather do.

The funny thing is, I had asked my boss multiple times over the last few months whether there was an opening in accounting. He always said no, and even if there was, he wouldn’t let me go (he relies on me, he thinks I can do well in sales, etc.). I always wanted to move to accounting (I think I’m better suited for it), but now that I have the opportunity, I don’t know if I want to take it.

The main (and possibly most important) reason I’m hesitant is the money. Since my pay structure is currently based on commission, my pay will almost certainly go down if I move to accounting. The pay is fixed, so there is no “unlimited potential” the way there is in sales. When I do my current job, I try not to think about money and how much I’m going to make in commission. But when there’s a chance that I won’t get as much money anymore, I have to really take it into consideration. After all, how am I going to live on my own and be financially indepedent (from my parents) if I don’t make enough to do so?

On the other hand, it sounds like the accounting department really needs someone who is technical, detail oriented, and reliable. All the managers think that I would do very well at the accounting job (it’s more like basic accounting/bookeeping than actual CPA type of accounting, so they’re also afraid I’ll end up being bored too). The operations manager (who supervises the accounting department right now) has been looking for a qualified person to fill the position for a while now, but she hasn’t found anyone suitable. I suppose that’s why they’re offering me the job.

In thinking about the best interest of the company, I think I should take the accounting offer. I think I have the skills to really help out my company and fix the problems with our accounting department. I also think that stepping down from sales will give someone more qualified for sales to take my place, thereby also benefitting the company from the sales department perspective as well. However, is doing what’s best for the company what’s best for me?

A Huge Mistake

I made a huge mistake last week at work. Basically, my boss gave me a small but time consuming task, and I never properly took care of it. I always kept delaying the task because 1. it was low priority (it’s only marginally related to my sales position), 2. it’s very time consuming (I didn’t want to spend business hours doing it when I have more pressing things to worry about), and 3. I was never given a deadline on when it had to be accomplished. I let it slip last week that I never actually finished the task (I didn’t think it was a big deal, and I was going to finish it soon), and my boss got really upset with me.

My boss wasn’t so much upset because I hadn’t done what he asked (though I’m sure that’s part of it) but moreso because I hadn’t communicated to him that I didn’t have time (or didn’t want to take the time) to do it. If I was too overwhelmed with work, he could reassign the task to someone else who could get the job done. Since he always assumed everything was fine, the task went unfinished for months.

Of course, I should’ve known better than to think it was acceptable to leave a task unfinished for three months. I’m not even sure what I was thinking. My boss certainly had a right to be upset with me. Usually, though, my boss forgives and forgets pretty quickly; by the end of the day, everything between us is back to normal. But not this time. Even though I did finally finish what he asked of me, I think he doesn’t trust me at all anymore.

It’s very difficult to gauge how he feels now. We haven’t had a chance to go to lunch together all week (maybe he doesn’t want to, or maybe he’s just been busy), and our communication has been minimal. Our after-work meetings are brief and contain no friendly banter. He was out of the office for two and a half days on a business trip, and I had almost no contact with him (usually he at least calls or emails me to ask if everything is okay). I really feel like he’s giving me the cold shoulder, only talking to me when it’s absolutely necessary for work.

It’s been kind of a rough week. With the economy having one of its worst weeks ever, my sales have been down. That coupled with my strained relationship with my boss makes for a very stressful work environment. I’m really not looking forward to tomorrow morning.

Possible Internship

Work has been really stressful all week. Every week feels more stressful than the last. I sometimes wonder if all jobs are meant to be this stressful. I get the impression that my friend/boss wants me to think that if I can’t master my sales job then I can’t master any (meaningful) job. It makes sense when he says it in his own way (a sign of a salesman), but I don’t know how much it’s true.

Meanwhile, my friend in the actuary field asked me today (by email) if I would be open to an actuarial internship in Portland. Not wanting to limit my opportunities, I said I wasn’t against it. Apparently, my friend has been talking about me to a manager at his company, and this manager seems interested in possibly taking me on as an intern in their Portland branch (my friend is in Seattle). Of course, if I do a good job, I would be hired to a salaried position.

My friend said he’d know more in a couple weeks. Wouldn’t it be great if I got an internship at his company? I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I really hope something comes out of this opportunity!