Complications

Shannon’s brother, Gary, stopped by tonight on his way home from work. Well, it’s not really on his way, but he was waiting for the freeways to clear up some and drop off a couple of things.

He asked me about work and how the year-end was messing up my life. Not much, it turns out. All we have to do is W-2’s and 1099’s out before January 31.

But when I started telling him all the other complications of working for a company that provides administrative services for 3 other companies, one of which operates in 13 states, has 17 checking accounts and keeps 8 sets of books, he got thoroughly confused. That’s the usual response I get when I try to explain what it is I do for a living. And it’s why I just tell people I do accounting work when they ask.

And as I was talking, I realized that it really is more complicated that I ever think about. The complications have built up over time, so they have aggregated into one giant complication that’s hard to get a handle on from the outside. It doesn’t seem so much so from the inside.

But the idea of a Texas professional association that has an affiliated non-profit company that operates in 11 states (I think) and exists to provide funding to two other affiliated non-profit companies makes most people’s heads spin. They all think that non-profits either don’t make money or spend all they have.

It’s a common misconception.

Non-profits that last, like all companies, must have reserves to survive the inevitable rough patches. And ours just celebrated its 100th year in existence.

But I digress.

I suppose my job looks complicated, and for a lot of people, it would be. For me, it fits like those beat-up but very comfortable shoes I wear whenever I get the chance.

Keeping track of 4 corporations, 8 sets of books, 17 checking accounts and multiple investment accounts is second nature to me, now. It didn’t come overnight.

On my current assistant’s first day, I told her that she wouldn’t learn the job in 6 hours, 6 days, 6 weeks or 6 months. It’s been about a year now, and she’s just getting to sorting out the complications. She was hired primarily to do data entry, but even her position is complicated.

Nothing’s simple in that world.