Accountants and waste management

The more I work in the field of accounting and financial analysis, the more I see the strange, yet significant similarities between the accountant and the waste management business.

For example, I analyze an account called "other miscellaneous accruals and deferrals", which is accountant talk for "iey yie yie, what the heck is this and where do I put it ... oh, this looks like a good place." I spend endless hours a month dealing with the accounting trash of the company, the dust bin called "other misc".

Another such place is a great world called intercompany. In large companies this dumping ground is so huge that some companies such as Enron can defraud the public for years before the feds catch up to them. Other more honest companies, such as my own, simply spend thousands of man hours a year trying to keep on top of it. What exactly is intercompany and how can it get so out of hand.

Let's suppose I took $100 out of my pocket and sent it to you via Western Union, but didn't tell you about it. Would you know to go to Western Union to pick up the cash? Of course not. So it goes for all large companies. Company A takes money out of their pockets and puts it into intercompany (Western Union), but if they don't tell Company B, then the money just sits there until someone cleans it up. Enron cleaned up all of it...many times... then didn't include Company A as part of their company so they would get all the cash (Company B), but not send any of it out.

Well, it's time to go home. I think I'll wear an orange garbage man suit to work on Monday :)