Dated accounting systems
I'm sure some of you working on in-house accounting teams have to deal with older technology. Maybe you're still using Excel 2003. Maybe Windows 95 is your operating system. Maybe your entire office is still working on first generation Macs. If any version of this technology nightmare is true for you, I sympathize with your situation. But just remember — it could be worse:
Bill Green was mayor when Philadelphia first purchased FAMIS accounting software in 1981. Apple's Macintosh computer was yet to be designed. Microsoft Windows was still four years away.
Thirty-five years later — the equivalent of a geologic era in computing — the Mac is part of history and Windows is in its 10th iteration. Philadelphia still relies on FAMIS: Financial Accounting and Management Information System, to manage the city $4 billion annual expenditures and revenues.
Because FAMIS integrates with nothing, the city of Philadelphia still relies on Excel for its 2,300-page budget. I can't help but wonder if doing the budget on paper ledgers might be more efficient. Anyway, the reason that FAMIS hasn't been replaced, you might've guessed, is "it is cheap to operate."
Having it all
Most people want it all, but don't have it all. So how do you get it all? Deloitte's Cathy Engelbert has the answer:
"I didn’t think I could have it all," adds Engelbert, "but when I defined what doing it all is, I said I can do this, I can juggle it." Once she made the conscious decision to define what her "all" meant, she was able to do all the little things that mattered to her, such as coaching her daughter’s basketball team
See? All you have to do is tell yourself that the current circumstances/living hell you're experiencing is having it all. Life is so easy.
Kamp KPMG
The House of Klynveld's answer to Deloitte Disneyland will be in Orlando, Florida, according to the Sentinel:
KPMG, one of the four largest accounting and professional services firms in the world, has purchased land for a new, $430M global training and conference center in Lake Nona.
The firm bought a 54-acre site for $41.84 million. It plans an 800,000-square-foot training and conference center and lodging facility for employees.
The plans include "options to build its own hotel facility, or 'corporate sleeping rooms' with 600 to 1,200 rooms." There's no word on when it will be completed, but this has got to be the biggest thing to hit Florida since Legoland.
Previously, on Going Concern…
Like the rest of you, we've been on break! That makes this day extra painful. In any case, it was pretty quiet around here although someone is wondering about taking a role with a former client.
In other news:
- For Non-Tech Companies, if You Can’t Build It, Buy a Start-Up
- The SEC fined General Cable Corporation $81.5 million for FCPA and accounting violations.
- PCAOB staff offers guidance on audit firms' work in China
- Books that some CFOs read in 2016.
- French workers win legal right to avoid checking work email out-of-hours
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