Did you ever get called to the principal’s office? It’s always an uneasy feeling, thinking you’ve done something wrong and might face punishment. In my early accounting days, I experienced the equivalent of this when I was summoned to the managing director’s office for the holding company that now owned my father’s business.
As a young accountant eager for accuracy, I discovered an error in a prior month’s results. Naturally, I wanted to correct it. However, I didn’t yet appreciate that these financial results had already been utilized by corporate, and altering them was not an option.
Today, when working with clients and discussing the correction of errors from prior months or even years, I often see immediate fear in their eyes. They worry, “I’ve already reported these financial statements; I can’t change them now.” That’s when I share my story of being called to the big corporate office in Boston and getting thoroughly admonished. I now truly understand why results should not be changed once reported.
When addressing costing problems, whether using the Inventory Deep Dive tool or through company observations, I assure clients that we are not altering prior financial statements. Visual ERP software has fabulous logic that captures prior months’ changes in the current accounting period. They must have gotten the memo about not changing financial results.
So, I want to put everyone’s mind at ease. If you are fixing problems from prior months—whether adjusting the value in accounts payable invoices, repairing incorrectly done split work orders, closing a work order that wasn’t fully received, correcting a labor ticket with the wrong value or fixing Bad FIFO layers—don’t worry. Everything will be captured in the current month, and you won’t have to visit the principal’s office.
Have a wonderful day, and I wish you all the best as you work through your month-end process.
