About
My name is Erin, I am an Accounting Systems Consultant and I live in Utah.
My career in Accounting started nearly 22 years ago in Calgary, Alberta Canada where I handled Accounts Payable, Billings and Payroll for a Contractor who specialized in Protective Coatings for Rail Cars and Fireproofing for Oil Refineries. Since then I have gone on to earn a BS degree in Accounting, and worked as a Controller in the Home Health Care, Construction and Property Management Industries and I currently provide Accounting and Software Support as a Consultant.
From the beginning, I was more interested in what was going on behind the scenes with the accounting software than I was with the available tasks and reports. I just wanted more flexibility and information than the software I used made available. That is still my main interest but it cannot be accomplished without first “unplugging” and gaining a solid understanding of the structure of the Accounting System behind its Computerized version. So, for the first part of this blog, I will “unplug” from technology and work on explaining the structure of the system.
My target audience is anyone who uses Accounting Data. I hope to help anyone who would like to know more about their Accounting Data. I wish the very basics had been explained to me more clearly from the beginning.
For those who are starting businesses or thinking of investing, there really is no substitute for a good accountant but there is also no substitute for understanding the numbers yourself.
Accounting is the language of our economy, it is relied upon to provide the feedback that keeps us competitive and able to provide the goods and services that we all depend on and enjoy. When accounting fails, we all lose. We lose because costs are always passed on to consumers and tax payers via increases in prices, tax dollars spent on bailing out failed businesses and tax dollars spent on prosecuting and sometimes jailing those responsible for the bad faith accounting.
Get Started: Accounting Overview
Note: There are two different aspects of the Accounting System, the two aspects are Structural and Content. The aspect of the Accounting System that I address in the blog is Structural. I will add Content for demonstration but the purpose of the information in the blog is related to Structure, not Content.