"Fiscal years" are stupid

[Dark Jaguar]

Seriously, why can't they just start and end their years at the end of December like everyone else (except China)?

[Bo Jackson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_year

Seems to be some good reasoning there.

[Great Rumbler]

End of fiscal year accounting activities are an absolute pain. You've got seperate entries for the end of the day, the end of the month, the end of the quarter, and the end of the year. Trust me, it's painful. If you do all that during a part of the year where you also have a huge increase in business activity, like the holiday rush, you're going to get bogged down really fast.

Also, in case you hadn't noticed, not every company is founded on January 1st.

[Dark Jaguar]

Just get a computer to do the work then. Is a networked computer system that simply does calculations on the fly that hard to implement? Explain why in 30 seconds.

[Bo Jackson]

Read the wiki.

[N-Man]

Just get a computer to do the work then. Is a networked computer system that simply does calculations on the fly that hard to implement? Explain why in 30 seconds.

You're right DJ, fuck accountants. They will be replaced by Skynet - just like everyone else.

[Great Rumbler]

Just get a computer to do the work then. Is a networked computer system that simply does calculations on the fly that hard to implement? Explain why in 30 seconds.

Because not every business activity is done on a computer? Because not every company USES computers for most of their activities? Because everything has to come out exactly right?

With end-of-year accouting you need everything to be virtually perfect. And if you're working at a big company and some numbers don't come out right, you're going to have to go through thousands and thousands of activities, transactions, and documents until you find that one number that was entered wrong or accidentally put in the wrong column or any number of other things. Computers help, of course, but you're still going to be doing a lot of it yourself.

You're right DJ, fuck accountants.

As someone who actually has some knowledge of what it is that accountants actually DO, if you're running anything bigger than a mom-and-pop operation you're going to be up a creek without a paddle if you don't have somebody to help you out.

And good luck getting a computer to decide if that machine you've got in the back can be propely designated as being held for sale or not. Or which method of depreciation is best for your company truck. Or telling you how you're supposed to account for the fact that you traded a machine plus $1000 to someone for another machine, only the machine that you got is a different kind of machine. Or which method of inventory valuation you should use or whether you should use the perpetual inventory system or the periodic system. Or how you should apply the cost of overhead to the products your company produces [do you apply based on machine hours, labor hours, amount of factory space used, or utilities used?]. Or how to deal with internally created good will. Or how to calculate the good will present in that chain of stores you just bought. Or how to evaluate the impairments on your newly gotten goodwill and when your supposed to evaluate it for impairment and when you can recover impairments. Or how you're supposed to distribute the costs associated with running a mining operation where you can reasonably estimate the yield of the mine and its residual value. Or any number of other things that a computer simply can't do for you.

[Bo Jackson]

And Gr's passion comes through!

[Dark Jaguar]

Blah blah blah blah blah! You magic men and your made up words! Like you can assign a number value to such concepts as "good will" or "impairments". Nazi!

Computers are better at math than we are. Just scan everything and let the computer take care of it all.

Anyway, when DOES this fiscal year thing start anyway? I'm never sure!

At the very least, companies need to stop saying they plan to do this or that by the end of a fiscal year. They need to make announcements based on Earth time.

[Great Rumbler]

Computers are better at math than we are. Just scan everything and let the computer take care of it all.

And that wouldn't help you one bit. Accounting is knowing what to do and when to do it. The math is the easy part.

Like you can assign a number value to such concepts as "good will" or "impairments".

Actually, you can.

Anyway, when DOES this fiscal year thing start anyway? I'm never sure!

Nintendo, Sony, Square-Enix, Capcom, and Toshiba's fiscal years ends on March 31st. Microsoft's ends on June 30. Apple's fiscal year ends on September 30th. Ford and Southwest Airline's ends in December. Palm's ends on May 31st.

You can find information about company's fiscal years on the financial reports, which you can easily find on Google.

And Gr's passion comes through!

It's because I've spent four semesters learning this stuff and I still feel like I've barely even scratched the surface of what the job requires.

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay, explain specifically what you actually do. You have 30 seconds.

(Let's see how long we can keep this up.)

[Great Rumbler]

Okay, explain specifically what you actually do. You have 30 seconds.

Provide information useful for decision-making.

And I can keep it up all day because I actually know what I'm talking about.

[Bo Jackson]

oooooh, burnnnn

[Dark Jaguar]

Okay, let's say I have dropped like a bunch of food on Ethipia or however you spell that. How many good will points do I gain, and is it enough to evolve my corporation into a Corporema?

[Great Rumbler]

Internally created goodwill is not capitalized in any way. You only do that when you purchase another company or asset and it is the amount by which your payment for the object in question is beyond its fair market value. It represents the amount that public perception positively effects the value of the company or asset.

[Dark Jaguar]

Alright, no upper case letters for inside moral, got it. Sooo, if public perception is all like, different based on how much you pay to absorb other companies... how do you measure that?

[Great Rumbler]

It's measured based on the amount in excess of the fair market value that you pay. That's all there is to it.

[etoven]

*Backs slowey out of this DJ burnathon thred*
*Vows never to take accounting advice from him*

[Dark Jaguar]

etoven, what you wanna do is basically hollow out your bed and store all your money there for decades at a time. Banks are for SUCKERS!

So GR, how does this translate to "good will"? Does anyone outside the company ever really notice you paid more than you could have for this or that company, and if they do, what does that mean to them?

[Great Rumbler]

So GR, how does this translate to "good will"? Does anyone outside the company ever really notice you paid more than you could have for this or that company, and if they do, what does that mean to them?

The economic reality is that the physical building of the McDonald's restaurant is only worth $800,000, but I paid $1,000,000 for it. In recording this transaction, I debit my building account for the amount of $800,000 [which is the fair market value of the building], but I paid more than that to get the building, so I must also debit my goodwill account in the amount of $200,000. This is done to better reflect the economic reality of the transaction.

What it means to people outside of the company is that I don't have $1,000,000 worth of buildings, I only have $800,000. The remaining $200,000 is the extra I paid for the goodwill associated with it.

[Dark Jaguar]

That's it? I thought you were quantifying "nice" here, and that's ALL it is? Fantastic pal! Way to reillusion me!

[Great Rumbler]

"Quantifying nice"? I'm not sure where you got that idea from as I clearly stated what goodwill was at least twice before.

[Dark Jaguar]

It couldn't have been that clearly if I didn't get it! Now this has all been very interesting but I just have one question. Why do you hate freedom?

[Great Rumbler]

And I'll answer your question with a question of my own: Why do you hate accounting?

[Dark Jaguar]

That's not an answer at all! At best it's a response!

Fact: Accountants are actually trolls who work in subterranian lairs ordering employees to take "rickety airlines" and stun birds with briefcases for sustanence, JUST to save "a buck". That is a PERFECTLY accurate description!

[A Black Falcon]

I've never taken accounting... all I can think of is that I did take an economics class once and it was one of the most boring classes I've ever had... though that probably has nothing to do with accounting.

[Dark Jaguar]

I just want to let you know I stopped reading after you said "did take an economics class once" and have labelled you an ENEMY OF THE STATE, by which I mean my special group of da prolaterapeoples. Hey! My phone just melted!

[A Black Falcon]

It was when I was still thinking of doing a Computer Science major (first semester of my second year of college) and you needed two semesters of economics for that major. I didn't take it by choice. :)

[Dark Jaguar]

I accept your apology.

[Great Rumbler]

I've taken two economics classes and four accouting classes.

[lazyfatbum]

Holy cow you're frightening.

Good with decision making, eh? - Help me decide if I think you're a scary nerd or a GIANT scary nerd.

*sharp as cheddar*

*suddenly realizes he's also a giant scary nerd*

dimmat! :crap:

[Bo Jackson]

etoven, what you wanna do is basically hollow out your bed and store all your money there for decades at a time. Banks are for SUCKERS!

that's a pretty bad idea

[Dark Jaguar]

I've taken two economics classes and four accouting classes.

I'm sorry but the truth is I get all my financial advice from Regis on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It was such an important question to ask too. I'd never considered it. Upon deep reflection I had the answer. Me!

[Great Rumbler]

Holy cow you're frightening.

Good with decision making, eh? - Help me decide if I think you're a scary nerd or a GIANT scary nerd.

That's right. I'm a giant scary nerd who'll get a six-figure salary, work in a cushy office, and influence the decisions of corporate CEOs and Board members.