Wednesday 26 October 2011

The Accounts

I thought I would write a bit about the accounts and the things that I have been working on over the past couple weeks so that future AFID volunteers have an idea of the type of work they may be involved in…contrary to what people may believe, it has not been all play and no work!

At the beginning of my assignment Eleanor and I sat down and drafted some objectives that we hoped I would achieve by the end of my placement.  I have been working closely with Nancy, the administrator, understanding AfCiC’s financial processes and bringing the budget up to date (which had not been updated since August).   As a result, I have spent quite a bit of time educating Nancy on the importance of having accurate and up to date financial information to aid decision making and the role of the budget as a key control mechanism.

The accounts are maintained in Excel and are relatively simple to follow, but the input is manual which means it is prone to human error and can be extremely time consuming to update (even more so if someone has fallen behind).  The previous AFID volunteer introduced VLOOKUP/SUMIF formulas into the budget linking the numerous Excel workbooks together which has saved time.  However, certain tasks, such as inputting cash from bank statements, still have to be done manually.  AfCiC also work on a cash accounting based system, actual revenue and expenditure is entered in the budget only in the period which it is received/paid, they don’t really apply the accruals concept here.

The rest of my time I have spend providing one to one coaching and training with programme managers and staff members helping them understand some of the basic accounting concepts, the significance of the budget and how their weekly expense submissions fit in with the overall financial process.  In addition, I have also provided the managers with some basic Excel training (although I am no expert myself) producing some simple expense templates, at present they all maintain their accounts on paper. 

Other adhoc tasks include, compiling a financial procedures manual and financial guidelines document for staff members  and managers.  It has been fun…I never thought I would say that about accounts! But all the staff are so enthusiastic and willing to learn, it has made my job a lot easier.

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