Ode to January Close

Oh, January.  Your month ends and I get to start sorting through the details of your financial data . . .payroll, AP, AR and all of the stats for the month.  New parameters and old reports create havoc in the reconciliation process.  New spreadsheets needing to be rolled forward with end of year 2009 balances as the new beginning 2010 balance.  Building new formulas to capture the new parameters that the old reports can’t see take so much time.  


Tums at the ready.  Aspirin for the brain.  Reading glasses to see the tiny numbers, lovingly called the Accountant Font, in row after row on printouts from the old reports that can’t capture the data due to the new parameters.  Nothing is tying out.


Why, January?  Why do you have to be so new?   Why do new processes have to start with you, complicating an already hectic close?  And why do the auditors show up asking questions about 2009 while we are trying to close you?  


I plug in my iPod and try to settle into the groove of making your close happen, oh January.  The beat of the music ends up in my finger tips as I figure your reserve calcs on my dinged up, coffee stained 10 key.   More coffee doesn't help.  Why, January?  Why?


Let’s make peace, January.  You try harder to keep your parameters the same as my spreadsheets and formulas know, and I keep your recons and beginning balances in tune.  Deal?  Um, January. . .   Deal?