ColorAccounting.com - Accounting Literacy & Business Acumen
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Sales Partners
    • In the media
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • Links
    • Vision
  • Solutions
    • Workshops
    • Remote Workshop
    • Books
    • Other Formats
    • FAQ
  • Clients
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Schools
  • Contact us
  • In the media

How Accountants Create The Future

12/28/2017

0 Comments

 
At the turn of every new year, people turn their thoughts hopefully to what the future may bring. We love to dream up goals and swear to resolutions. Accountants call it budgeting.

But, being called that, people don't love it at all. For some reason "budgeting" strikes fear into many. It can feel like a ball and chain.

Picture
"The best way to predict your future is to create it." Peter F. Drucker, author & management consultant
It's a pity. Because a budget can hold great power, and is nothing more than a balance sheet and income statement with a future date.

A balance sheet budget tells what assets we plan to have and how we will finance them. An income statement budget describes what we plan to earn and consume.

Revenue is a bit harder to predict than expenses. We can't force customers to buy our goods or use our services. But we can use trends to make informed predictions, and allocate resources to achieve our sales goals.

Expenses are more controllable. We impose limits and exercise choice. By forecasting revenue and expenses together, we plan our profitability. 

No one knows the future for sure, but planning it beats waiting for it to happen. And we suggest you plan with “roots and wings" in mind: grounded in reality, yet aiming to fly high. 

Here's to you creating a fabulous 2018.

Peter

Picture
Photo by Olu Eletu on Unsplash

0 Comments

A'Counting Our Blessings

12/21/2017

0 Comments

 
In this holiday season, we would like to take a moment to do the most important accounting task of all: counting the blessings we all enjoy and share.

Among the greatest of those blessings are the wonderful people we have the privilege to meet and work with.

Picture
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
So thank you, for enriching our lives and for traveling this road with us. 

We look forward to your energy, and sharing more adventures on this journey of spreading accounting literacy.

Seasons Greetings from the Color Accounting International team and the worldwide family of Color Accounting educators.

0 Comments

Sleepless In Johannesburg

12/15/2017

0 Comments

 
An accountant's job is to present factual information through financial statements, so that managers, investors and regulators can make well-informed decisions.

But what if one or more accountants are directed to generate false reports, intended to deceive? Sleepless nights for everyone.

Picture
Last week, shares in the "IKEA of Africa," Steinhoff International Holdings NV, plunged 82% after its CEO resigned and the company announced accounting problems could affect approximately $7 billion in assets.

It is alleged that finance folks at Steinhoff, which owns MattressFirm (USA), Poundland (UK) and Conforama (France), and has operations on five continents, have been using off-balance-sheet entities to hide losses and thereby inflate the firm's net worth and share price.

There's more subjectivity, estimation and judgment involved in accounting than many people realize. But when intent to deceive is introduced, it's a different ball game.

It appears that Steinhoff may join the ranks of names like ENRON, WorldCom and Sunbeam for accounting malfeasance. Sad.

Peter
Picture
Reminder: we will be speaking at the Winter HomeSchool Conference in Utah, USA on Jan 27, 2018. This conference is designed to help support and rejuvenate home educating parents who want to thrive, not just survive the homeschooling experience.
0 Comments

The Nobel Prize for Mental Accounting

12/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Money's role as a medium of exchange relies on the idea that the dollar you walk into a gas station with to buy fuel, has the same value as the dollar that you take into a grocery store to buy food.

But that's not how we think. Instead we divide our money into "buckets" of different perceived value. 

Picture
A Vietnamese vendor counts her hard-earned money aboard a local ferry
Photo by Niels Steeman on Unsplash


This year's Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Richard Thaler, who has researched how we create different "mental accounts" from which we invest, indulge, donate and buy groceries.

For example, if the price of gas goes up, people cut back on driving to save money, at significant inconvenience. Even though it would be much easier to take money from the groceries "bucket" and simply cut out a few treats to balance the budget.

Thaler's work shows us that we humans are irrational when it comes to money.

As accountants we can only tell you what the numbers are. We can't tell you how to think and feel about them.

Peter

Picture
0 Comments

    Blog
    ​

    RSS Feed

    Or simply subscribe here to get it by email.

    Author

    Co-founder Peter Frampton is the lead author of this blog.

    Picture
    View my profile on LinkedIn
    If you are interested in a #financiallyconsciousworld, join the conversation at Color Accounting Friends on LinkedIn.

    Archives

    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014


    RSS Feed

    Get notified:
    Use the RSS feed above or 
    Get the e-newsletter here...

    Categories

    All
    Accounting Literacy
    Account Management
    Assets
    Business Acumen
    Color Accounting
    Colour Accounting
    Costs
    Financial Literacy
    Investment
    Joint Value
    KAM
    Key Account Management
    Learning Style
    Luca Pacioli
    Organisations
    Resources
    Revenue
    SAM
    Silos
    Strategic Account Management
    Strategic Relationships
    Transactional


Finance and business acumen workshops for non-financial people using a breakthrough graphical system
© All rights reserved. Color Accounting International (1992-2019)
'Accounting Comes Alive', 'AccountingSchool.org', 'Color Accounting', 'Colour Accounting', the zebra icon AccountingSchool.com and 'BaSIS Framework' are trademarks of Color Accounting International.
Contact Us |  Corporate  |  Legals  |  Partner Orders  |  Register Event Held  |  Educators' Resource Center
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Sales Partners
    • In the media
    • Newsletter
    • Blog
    • Links
    • Vision
  • Solutions
    • Workshops
    • Remote Workshop
    • Books
    • Other Formats
    • FAQ
  • Clients
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Schools
  • Contact us
  • In the media