For the second time in as many weeks, I’ve been the victim of a financial audit. Today’s, however, was a lot quicker, and a lot less painful than the kind I’ve been preparing for daily over the past four weeks at work. Today’s audit was conducted by a kindly brother who lives in my ward, and who (by his own admittance) has difficulty balancing a checkbook. Yes, it’s the infamous (insert forboding music; perhaps a batman-like “Dum, dum, dum!” [Not to be confused with Mom’s “Dumb ditty-dumb dumb dumb.”]) stake audit.
He did a good job, I’d say. He let me run the 10-key, because he couldn’t do it without looking at the numbers, and, not to boast or anything, I can do it with my eyes closed. I answered some of his questions about auditing and internal controls, like why the bishopric is not supposed to keep financial records (It’s a matter of the authorization–custody–recordkeeping theory. Strong internal controls do not permit one person to have any combination of two of the three without mitigating controls.) He found a couple of tiny issues, and both of them were mistakes on my watch. I gave him some suggestions for how to judgmentally select “random” dates when picking deposits for testing.
While we were inside, a light snow fell outside. It was one of those beautiful snows that is light and fluffy like good pancakes. The chain link fences and trees looked like they were covered in feathers. The nice thing about snow up here, is that if it’s snowing, it’s warm. Once we lose the cloud cover, it gets cold. Some of our friends emailed this week because we made the news in Salt Lake with our -27° weather. Apparently, it gets colder than that. Stay tuned for further weather updates.
Julie got a new calling today, but since she hasn’t been sustained, I can’t tell what it is. (Although from the sound of her phone conversation behind me, she’s telling every Tom, Dick and Jeannette in the West. Whatever.)
I’ve got seminary this week, and I believe we’re starting 2 Samuel. Poor King David; he had such promise, and then he screwed everything up through a couple of dumb decisions. It’s a sad, sad story. I hope the kids will pick some good things up from it.
That’s the news from Marbleton this week. We have added the weekend of February 29th to our 2008 touring calendar. We’ll keep you updated as we know more.
5 comments:
We are glad you both were blessed. What a scarry story.
Audits usually are pretty scary things.
Emily - What about outstanding checks and deposits in transit? The bank may tell you that you have $400 available, but what about that $400 rent check that your landlord hasn't cashed yet? You start writing checks and buying things with a debit card based on what the bank tells you is available, and you'll start bouncing checks and incurring overdraft fees, unless you keep more cash in your checking account than you need, and that excess cash balance can be a real drag on your portfolio. I used to think that balancing my checkbook was a pain and confusing, but then I figured out how to do it. Maybe someday I'll post a lesson on how to balance a checkbook...
Anyway, I've ranted enough. Thanks for posting.
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