Sometimes the little things make all the difference!

I saw this over and over today... For the past 4 months that I have been working at APX, I have not had sound on my computer, a decent calculator, a 3-hole punch in my office, or a good stapler remover. This is not because APX can't afford these things. Trust me, I would know. I code the American Express bill every month and it is always for millions of dollars. The reason I haven't had these things is because my manager has to order these things. And while he is a very nice guy, he is SUPER scatterbrained.

Finally today Toni and I decided to take things into our own hands. Our toner was running low on our printer, so we emailed desktop support to come replace it. While we were at it, we told them that our computers needed sound so we could listen to our voicemail. Voicemail at APX is emailed. Fancy, I know... Now, have either of us ever received a voicemail? Heck no, we're not that important. I don't even think our voicemail is set up. But it was the valid excuse we needed to get sound. About 4 hours after sending that email... Voila! We had sound! If you're wondering why we would need sound, you obviously have never entered in a 400-line journal entry! As much as I love my job, some of the tasks we do can be a little repetitive. Enter music...

About the same time we were getting our sound installed, we heard from the receptionist that the summer offices had sent in all their office supplies and they were down in the warehouse if we needed anything. So of course we booked it down there and got a 3-hole punch for the staff accountant office, calculators, and a replacement for my crappy stapler remover. Sure these things seem trivial. I could bring in my iPod to listen to music, there is a 3-hole punch in the copy room, my computer has a calculator, and my crappy stapler remover got the job done... But these little things made all the difference. Yay for office supplies!!

Now for one more example of how the little things make all the difference from today. (This will include some accounting talk, but understanding the details isn't important, so just ignore that part if it doesn't make sense.) Every month I do the payroll accrual, the commissions accrual, and the tech pay accrual. Over the summer we pay our sales reps and techs a portion of what they will get paid for their sales/installs, and then in October they get a backend check with the rest of their pay. So we have to estimate how much we are going to have to pay and accrue for it because of the matching principle.

In June and July, I did the payroll accrual after I did the commissions accrual and the tech pay accrual. But after giving it some thought today, I realized that by doing it in that order I had over-accrued by 1.6 million dollars on the tech pay accrual alone! After talking to the controller, I was able to fix this large oversight, but it just got me thinking. The little things really make all the difference!