The Offbeat Accountant

“In this bright future you can’t forget your past” Bob Marley I like accounting terms… It’s funny how we can call differently certain things that seem the same, with the aim to give some spice to our days. For example, everybody knows that our  tangible assets  (such as buildings, cars and machines) are victims of  depreciation  when we  prorate its cost over that asset's life. But if you happen to have a great deal of  intangible assets  (patents, trademarks, goodwill, etc.) you’d better call it " amortization"  in your books. And wait! Let us not forget the  depletion , which   refers to the allocation of the cost of  natural resources  over time such as oil wells, mines and wood. Now I wonder which of these terms best describe the current situation for us? Our profession has been practically unaltered for almost 500 years until the introduction of computers, and after that, the only major dynami...

It has been quite a time since the idea of start writing a blog popped up in my mind. As many writers, I always wanted to do my grand debut with a book or an article in a business magazine, but after some coaching sessions and a good advice from one of my MBA professors I decided that a blog will do the trick. The idea of the blog was very clear since the beginning: how can we ( accountants ) put some spice on our profession?? How many jokes on having one of the most boring professions in the whole world have we heard? (well, maybe lawyers have to endure that honor - but the second at least) Recently, I have found a book in Amazon entitled " 60 Ways to Avoiding Becoming an Accountant ". The author, Vivien Donald, offers 60 alternative careers that go from mushroom farmer to steeplejack ( this may be interesting if you love heights ), from stunt performer to yacht crewmember. By the look of it, ANYTHING seems more interesting than balancing a journal entry or is...