Category: Daily Work

“I Don’t Have Time”

When my son was little, he wanted me to buy him a toy each time we went to the store. I would usually say no. “Why?” he would ask “Can’t we afford it?” My answer: “We can afford it but, this time, I am not buying this toy.” With the mortgage and school fees, yes,

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Bank Reconciliation

Continuing my occasional series on “the basics” this post addresses something I almost skipped, thinking it was perhaps too basic. Then I worked with an employee who reconciles the district’s clearing account, cafeteria account and student body accounts. I realized that the concept of bank reconciliation might be foreign to younger employees.  Growing up in the era of

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Three Monkeys and the Question of Evil

When we were in Bali in February we purchased a set of “Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Speak no Evil” figurines.  When we got home we realized we had been given two “Speak’s” and no “See’s”. This led me to ponder – should we really endeavor to see no evil?  I suppose in the Buddhist tradition one would

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Grant Carryover: An Ounce of Prevention

I have a short term assignment at a new district.  When working with grants that carry over year after year it is a great idea to check that the “carryover” amount is correct.  I did a quick check yesterday on two grants and found in fact the carryover was not correct on either of them. For the

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Speed versus Quality

Bob came to see me.  “When the examiners come just say Plan, Do, Check, Act.”  “Um, What?”  “Oh and Alignment and Implementation.  That’s key.”  I rolled my eyes only after he left my office.  The Baldridge examiners were coming and I had a script to follow, apparently. Thanks Cavegirl for the book recommendation Why Business

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Zombie PowerPoint

or, Why PowerPoint Cannot Die The YouTube video Death by PowerPoint is really, well, to the point.  Yet, despite obvious abuses, PowerPoint is here to stay. Powerpoint is the perfect vehicle for bulleted and numbered lists. We are addicted to lists.  What do you think most people will click on: Study shows correlation between polyphenols and health, or

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Local Control Funding Formula: Nothing and Something

The California Department of Education has “updated” its reporting software by removing the previous revenue schedule and replacing it with, um, nothing. I am going out on a limb.  I have created my own multi-year calculation.  Please email me at support@fiscalshare.com if you want a copy. We are four plus months into the fiscal year,

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Give Up Already!

I was still in bed when I heard such frightful swearing from the kitchen.  Upon investigation I discovered that Spouse had impaled his index finger on a nail and was trying to open up a “bandaid”.  Not a brand name Band-Aid, mind you, but a cheap generic version thereof.  He handed it to me.  Here

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Arson

FIRE ACCOUNTING Click on the link for my manual on school arson.  I have dealt with three major school fires in my career.  And believe me, there was no manual.  The first thing I did ten years ago when confronted with my first school fire was to Google “accounting for school fires” and couldn’t find anything terribly useful. I

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