Boy has my financial juggling gone astray today! We live on limited income from a variety of sources and sometimes we have a timing problem (bills due out this week, money coming coming in next week type of thing). As an accountant I am pretty good at this juggling.
I had it all planned out. We have dividends coming in on Monday which would cover almost all of our bills due out in the next week – except our RV payment and that is due out this week. I knew that later in February we would need to take money out of husband's IRA to cover our car insurance, but had time until same.
Well, the money to cover the RV payment was to come from the monthly client I have and she pays me quarterly when I go and do her books, etc. and I was due for a check in January. I tried to go to her last week, but when I called on Monday she was going to the doctor on Tuesday and did not expect to come into her place of business on Wednesday or Thursday either – maybe Friday she suggested? Friday it actually was suppose to be nice weather here and in Pennsylvania and husband was ready to go to Pennsylvania for the day and I could not disappoint him – who knows when the weather would be right in both places again as it has been so long since they were.
So I said that I would be in this week. I telephoned her on Monday to go yesterday, Tuesday, but she still was not feeling well so today, Wednesday it had to be. In addition to needing to do her bank rec, payroll taxes have to be filed by the end of January so I had to go there now! I was glad that weather stayed nice and no snow or rain.
I planned last night to deal with my problem – I wrote out a deposit slip for her check. I checked where branches of our bank are near her. I checked where a post office was near her. My plan was that when I finished doing her books I would take the check from her, deposit and mail out the RV payment.
When I got there she had a bad month and not only could not pay me, she could not pay her rent either. I did her books. I had her sign her payroll tax forms. I dealt with a couple of problems she had which are not related to what I am suppose to do, but I do things for her – she is in her 80s.
Well, I have my check – but cannot deposit it until she calls and says okay. I need to get that RV check out tomorrow, so we will have to go and take the money out of husband's IRA now and hope that she says I can cash check when the bills that were to be paid later in February with the IRA money come due. Just when I think I have it all taken care of….
I am sure that all of you have had similar problems. The important thing to do is keep track of it all – accurately so that nothing bounces – and if there is that rare occasion that something goes wrong and it does bounce – both the bank and who you paid will look at your records and say “hey, this never happens with you – of course we understand and will waive the fees for the bounced check/late payment”. (Yes, I did mess up badly once a few years ago and the fees were waived by both by the bank for the bounced check and by the company I had paid with the check as our record was so good that they could excuse the one error.)
To help keep my records accurate I use a software program to help me – Quickbooks (Quicken it's non- business alternative is good also). I keep my checkbook by hand and also in the program – and the two of them better agree or I have a problem to look for. The software lets me memorize the payments and when they are do and will remind me when I open it what bills need to be paid and what money should be coming in. It also lets me keep my personal expenses separate from our various businesses and each of them separate from the others. Lets me set up accounts for our tax related expenses and income to keep track of them for the taxes when they filed the following year.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK – Now is the time to get started so that next tax season will easier for you to deal with your income taxes (presuming that you are in the US and need to do so). It is also a good time to start keeping better financial records in general as we all need to do same and it is easier to start with the start of a year than in the middle of it.
Showing posts with label payroll. Show all posts
Showing posts with label payroll. Show all posts
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Thursday, April 4, 2019
COMING TO THE END OF TAX SEASON - HOW DO I KEEP IT ALL ORGANIZED AND GET IT ALL DONE?
Last weekend I suddenly realized - I have 2 weeks to the end of tax season - and none of the returns which are due by April 15 are done, most not even started - and only 1 was almost finished. Panic was about to set in - then I looked at my list. I have a dying accounting practice - literally, my clients were from my dad or from my boss and are older than me with a couple of exceptions.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
It is an extremely small practice, but I have clients in 4 (US) states - well, I did, but that is another story - I now have in clients, that I know of, in 3 states. My dad was an accountant for an avant garde art gallery at one time and he had many clients who were “modern” artists. My boss had a couple of clients who were writers. Between the two groups I have had clients in 7 states other than my home state and clients in Paris, France and in Auckland, New Zealand. (At one time I had a client in Hawaii and the clients in Paris - one was 6 hours ahead of me and one was 6 hours behind and I would confused as to which was which. The solution? I telephone (pre-Internet days) all of them at 3:00. Which 3:00? It did not matter - it would either be 9 am or 9 pm - not too early to call and not too late to call. Just when I thought that I had the time difference dealt with - a client moved to New Zealand - 16 hours off and a different day!
I do the returns in the order I receive the information. If, though, I have returns that have to go out of state and others that are local, when it gets down to the end - as it is now - I have to get the out of state returns done first so they can be mailed to the client in time for the client to look over the returns, come up with any money they need to pay and get the return out timely on their end. Local clients I can always hand deliver the return. (My dad used to hand deliver returns - he and I (long before I was old enough to work) would go out at night and drop off returns at his clients. I loved doing that with him.)
So a return that has to go across the country was mailed out on Monday - plenty of time in advance. I spent yesterday afternoon preparing extensions for 2 clients who have requested them - I mailed the extensions out to the tax offices that they have to go today. I worked up estimated taxes (for 2019) for one client today and they will go out to him tomorrow. (Estimated taxes are paid by people who do not have taxes withholding on parts of their income due to the type of the income and I have to estimate what their income/taxes will be next year for them.) Normally one has to have 90% of their tax prepaid when the return is due, by withholding and paid estimates to avoid a penalty - or if one’s tax went up a lot in the year the estimate has to be equal to or greater than 100% of their tax for the prior year - in some cases 110% of same. I have to calculate and guess how much the clients need to pay as estimates for the coming year without them overpaying a lot, but also enough that they will not have a penalty at the end of the coming year. These will go to the client (again out of state) tomorrow in the mail.
I have another client who owes taxes for past years. Her husband had been ill and they were also moving to another state so the past several years’ taxes have been a bit late in being filed. She always gets a refund so there is no penalty for filing late, although I always file extensions for her, but she files long after same is over. Last year I went after her to give me info so I could do her return for 2014 so she could file it or she would lose her refund - I prepared the return and also her 2017 - so we started to catch up. I need to do her 2015 return this year so that she does not lose her refund from same. Big problem - the land near her home broke through a retaining wall and she cannot go home - even just to get the papers needed for her 2015 return. I filled in a form for her so that IRS will send copies of what they have for her for 2015 - but it is getting close and I have not received the papers from them. Luckily she had mailed or emailed me the forms she had from their pensions when I made the estimates for 2015 so I have that information. Her other income is Social Security and a tiny bit of bank account interest. Today I looked up what percent Social Security went up in 2015 compared to 2014 so I could estimate out what her income would have been (turned out it was the same amount for both years) and then estimated what would have been withheld on it. I also took her 2014 and her 2017 interest income to figure out what she probably received in 2015. (2016 also has to be completed so I don’t have the info for same.) If I don’t receive the information by tomorrow I will do the return with the info I have, which should be a close estimate of everything. She will have filed timely before she loses her refund. If it is wrong - well, IRS will compare it to their records and correct the numbers before sending her - her refund.
How do I keep track of all of this and make sure all the needed information is on the forms and correct? I have two things that help greatly.
First, I have a pocket file holder - nice plastic one that sits on the floor next to my desk. It has sections in it. A file folder is slightly too large (by maybe half an inch) across to fit in as one is just suppose to use each pocket as a file. I want to be able to pull out the entire file and know everything is in it. I cut one end off of some file folders - just enough for them to fit in the holder. Problem solved. I used to use removable labels when I had a lot of clients so I could reuse the cut folders during the season. Now each client has a folder with their name on it.
When a client mails tax papers to me - whether all of the papers needed or some of them - I put them in the matching folder - in the file holder. I just take out that folder when I am ready to work on their return. Our information for our personal return and for our business returns go into two of these folders also (one is for our return and one is for the business returns) - in this case the year end forms received go into the folder and I when I move last year’s personal bills into a box (in the office closet) at year end, I put the sections of the bills into the matching tax return information folder also.
Second, most of my clients have fairly ordinary returns. So I wrote up a form for myself to fill in the all of the info that might be involved in clients (or our) returns - a section with various types of income listed with lines for the info, a section for taxes paid, estimates and withholding, another section for deductible expenses, and one for adjustments to be made to everything for the state return (if there is one) for the client. Across the bottom is room to write which returns have to be filed by the client - left side Federal, right side state, so I can check that I have all the needed forms for client to file. This information form is changed as needed - when the requirement to have medical insurance under ACA came into being - I added a check box at the top to check off that client has medical insurance. The back of this form is blank so I can list things if there are several of the same item to be totaled. If there are too many to fit, I add a piece of “columnar paper” (paper with columns to list money amount) and use that. This system has worked well for well over a decade and I will keep using it to keep clients’ info organized for their taxes.
Then when I am done with the clients’ returns I have to do the hard returns. Ours and our corporation. They have to be done together - or at least I have to break out some of the figures between the two before doing the return. These at least I have until midnight, April 15 to finish and mail.
Some people find all of this overwhelming when I talk about it. I grew up in a house with both parents who were accountants - although most of the time only dad was working when I was growing up - mom was a stay at home mom until I was in college. (They did have to come up with tuition - after scholarships and loans were subtracted - to pay tuition for the 3 of us.) Husband did not understand this at first - everything was secondary to “tax season”. My parents anniversary is during tax season (when they married it was ending a month earlier than it does now). My mom’s birthday is during tax season (she just turned 90!). Even husband’s birthday falls during tax season - but his I cannot ignore.
So at this point unless something odd happens, I should be done in time - even with time off to write this post and next week’s post and do something for husband’s birthday (and having gone to a birthday party for mom given by my sister). Then - payroll taxes are due by the end of the month!
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you have a repetitive task - daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually - figure out how you can make it more automatic to do. This is true whether it is a task around the house such as cleaning or laundry or changing towels - I change the sponges and scrub pad in the kitchen every month at the change of the month to remind to do so. I change all the towels on Mondays (new start to the work week). I then change the bathroom towels (in both bathrooms) on Thursdays also - why Thursday? It is about the middle of the week - and we have garbage pickup on Thursdays - so the kitchen towels are changed on the same days as the garbage is picked up. I change the kitchen towels again on Wednesday and Friday - why not Thursday? Well, I like to change the kitchen towels more often as I am working with food that is raw and may have microbes in it and then touching the towels. Why Wednesday and Friday? - Well Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which are every other day.
You have to decide for yourself when to do what and figure out how to remind yourself what to do. It helps a lot to have a schedule and check off lists.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
USE YOUR CELL PHONE AND COMPUTER TO HELP STAY ORGANIZED
Yesterday I had an idea for this post. Between then and now I forgot. That seems to happen a lot these days. I will admit to being in my mid 60s. As a child people said that I had memory of an elephant. I still do for some things - my husband can tell you that I remember things from decades ago that he has forgotten (or remembers totally wrong), but from one minute to another I might not remember. Not sure if it is aging and an actual memory problem or lack of interest in remembering something - although I am sure that is not why I forgot what I was going to write about. So I will write about remembering things to help get organized (unless the other idea comes back to me.)
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
One problem in organizing and getting rid of stuff is remembering what needs to be done when. For example - one needs to do food and related shopping to keep the household going. I used to have a paper list on the fridge. If we were running low on something I would put it on the list. Husband knew if he was running low on something, he should add it to that list - and he did. Originally I went food shopping on Thursdays - why? Well, my mom did her shopping on Thursdays! We have tended to eat on weekends for most of the time we have been married. So food shopping on Thursdays actually made no sense - the food was sitting around for 3 days before we even started to use most of it.
I switched my food shopping to Mondays. In those days the weekly supermarket sales started on Sunday so by switching to Monday not only did I have fresher food (nicer looking produce) I also was more likely to find the sale items in stock. I found out the first year that we were married that I should not take husband food shopping. He was on vacation from work. (He was on a school year schedule and had several 1 week vacation plus 4 weeks in the summer.) I invited him to the supermarket with me. We left with nothing. Why? “I don’t feel like this for dinner tonight.” Me - “No we are buying this because it is on sale and we will buy extra and freeze it. We don’t have to eat it tonight.” So after doing my food shopping on Monday, I would go again on Friday if anything was needed for the weekend. My week at that time was Monday - run household errands, Tuesday through Wednesday I would work, go out to clients, etc., Friday I would do our banking, buy an extra food, run errands and enjoy lunch out - alone (cheap). My big joke - remember I work by myself - was that “the office voted to go out to lunch together on Fridays”. Saturday and Sunday was our time together. This worked very well.
Over the years other chores were added in that had to vary through the week. For about a decade we were both in two rotating art exhibitions. This involved bringing his work - cut paper, leather, turned wood - and my work - textile/multimedia dolls - to a showcase at each of the two sets of exhibitions we were in. Various libraries, local government offices, & businesses would come and select whose work they would like to have at their locations. The exhibitions were for 1 or 2 months. The artist would bring the work and set it up at the locations and then at the end of the month take the exhibitions down. Since the exhibitions had to be set up/removed during the day, I would do it for both of us. I had to juggle setting up/removing 1 to 4 exhibitions a month over a 2 county area. Not an easy thing to keep track of or to do. But - it was actually easier when I did this alone than when husband stopped working and was doing this with me. I knew the different locations and what would fit and how I had arranged the pieces in prior years. Some locations were really great and I would do a big exhibition with papers explaining the work and which pieces were which and some of the locations had room for 3 pieces. Some of the work was hung on the wall (or on standing panels) and some had to go in cases. Some had employees were who were excited and nice about what was being hung - some were annoyed that we were there. I had computer printed forms I brought with me to list to pieces on for it to be signed for. I also have a data base for each type of work in my computer so I know which pieces had been exhibited where and when. I had an appointment in my computer calendar/cell phone to remind me to call and make an appointment to bring the exhibitions in to set up and another to remind me to make an appointment to take them down at the end of the month or 2 months.)
Similarly I used to have to go to clients on a monthly or quarterly basis. I had to remember which client to go to when and what had to be done when I went there. At first I made notes about what to do at each client and put it in my, originally, paper calendar book, later in my cell phone. Of course over the years I basically knew what to do at each client by memory, but kept my notes. I am now down to one client except for annual income taxes and it is easy to remember what to do there. Also over the decades the client’s records all were put into my laptop computer to make it easier. I still have reminders of when which taxes are due for client and for our personal businesses.
Friends are amazed that I remember their birthdays and anniversaries. I would mail cards to friends children when they were young - I remember the excitement of getting something in the mail. All of this was in special calendar book that I just kept same in so it did not need to be carried to a new book every year in the old days. Now it is all in computer calendar and automatically is there every year.
I have alarms in my cell phone and computer that remind me when something needs to be done - including when to stop working at my computer in the office and go down and make dinner. (This happens 15 minutes before I need to go down so I have a chance to finish up - and back up.) Reminders for birthdays and anniversaries go off a week before each event. I also have a memo/to do/note program in my cell phone (and syncs with my computer) to keep track o f information. The first one is a shopping list - I have various stores/types of stores listed and I add in items we need to buy. Since I find that I am using much fewer coupons these days (as there are so few which match with what we need) I will put “coup” after the item if I have a coupon for it. (Coupons are in sorted holder in the car.) I have a category in this memo for Christmas - this way I will remember next Christmas if we need to replace strands of light or if we have enough card and wrapping for next year. Another category in this memo is things that we cannot find here, but can find in Pennsylvania on trips. I have one memo which holds the specifications of various things in the house that we might buy items for - such as sewing machines so I can buy bobbins for them. Another memo has which light bulbs we need for where. Yet another says how much fabric I need and which buttons I need for reenacting clothing in case we come across something interesting. You get the idea.
THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK -
If memory or a need for reminders is part of what keeps you from getting organized - use your computer or cell phone - or even an old fashioned calendar/agenda book and a shopping list on the refrigerator - to help you keep track of everything.
Those of you who were hit by the storms across the middle of the U.S. - I hope that you are safe and warm and the results of the snow and rain disappear quickly.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
FRUSTRATION'S ALL AROUND
Since the main Christmas tree did not go up until the last minute, I sort of figured that husband would be okay leaving it up a bit later than usual. Usual being this past Monday (3rd Monday in January - no reason other than it is a holiday here in the U.S. - honoring Martin Luther King, Jr - a civil rights leader - and therefore sticks out in one’s mind as it being the time to start taking down the tree and the decorations. But on Monday afternoon before I had a chance to bring up the subject, he asked when the tree would be down - so he could take back the living room for his weaving. He needs the length of the room to warp (set up threads on) his loom for his next project. He said that he regretted having to take it down, and the rest of the decorations could/should stay up for a while yet. This also led him to consider maybe putting the tree in the dining room next year to avoid this - the only time our living room is used for anything other than his weaving these days is decorating for Christmas, opening our limited presents on Christmas morning, and taking down the decorations. I told him that it was scheduled to start coming down the same day he asked and it would.
So after dinner I went downstairs and brought up box #4 for the tree decorations - last up, first off as it gets the outermost decorations. I started taking down icicles, plain balls, gold paper figures, etc used to fill in open spaces after the nicer decorations go on the tree. He suddenly realized what I was going and came into the living room, looked, and then said “Maybe it all should stay up a little longer.” I stared at him - “Yeah, I know it was my idea.” He then started helping me take things off the tree - actually trees as I have to pack the studio tree ornaments away at the same time as they are packed together and shared ornaments. I did most of 2 boxes of ornaments (out of 4). Frustrating - I would rather not have started yet - and then he says I shouldn’t have!
I am on a comics discussion group. As of a week ago Monday (maybe earlier, that is when I go online to the group to read a week’s worth of posts) the site was not so much there - and I was not sure if it was a problem with the site or my computer. A check with another computer showed that it was not accesible from that computer either. I figured all would be well the next day - it was not. I went looking back in my emails as I had a couple of email conversations with the fellow whose site it is. I never kept a record of his email address, because it is on the site. I found that, yes, there was a problem and it was “now” expected to be back by Thursday (last Thursday now) after it had not been back by “Tuesday” (2 days before last Thursday). As of last night it is still not working right enough to use. Frustration - I enjoy the company of those on that group and we have great discussions beyond the comics we are talking about.
I am also on an embroidery discussion group. This group is in the middle of migrating to a new site and “wonderful”changes. The site started moving in December and due to everything that was going on, I did not have a chance to register with and start to use the new site. The old site is still open (until at least the end of January) and I was communicating a bit with the members through that site. But it was now January and I signed up with the new site. Not as bad to use as I feared. There was one problem - either very few people were posting or I was not able to see all of the posts. The page numbers were listed at the top of the page - but when I clicked on any page number, I was still on the same page. Very frustrating I was missing seeing photos of everyone’s work and hearing about their holidays. I posted about this and finally had an answer appear as the last one in the list and therefore on the page I came on the group on - there was a problem and there was a work around. So finally last night I was able to move around in this group and read the posts for half of December and all of January.
Last night I went to make a monthly backup of my main computer, while at the same time making a quarterly backup of my work laptop -onto 2 separate external hard drives. The one I have been using for quarterly backups did not work. It had electricity, but did not show up on the computer. I then tried plugging it into my desktop computer - did not work there either. Oh, well, I had thought about replacing it, just had not gotten around to it. The biggest problem I had was this computer is wonky. The oldest back up of this computer is on the drive which did not work - and it is a “clean” backup which I need if I have to start this computer over.
I did what I hate to so. I told husband about the drive not working. This resulted in at least an hour’s worth of his repeating all I did with his computer. We then took apart the case the drive was in and took the drive out of it. When I updated the hard drive on my main computer we had bought an external drive case for the old drive so I could still access it when I found missing things. We opened that case, took out the old drive, and put the backup drive with the problem in it - it worked. I copied the needed file off it to the monthly back up drive. (And husband thought it a waste when I decided to back up the computers to 2 drives instead of one.) We then reassembled my old hard drive into the case and put the backup drive into a small box to keep it safe. I now will get a new second backup drive. (See backing up drives is important!) Now the backups are set up when I am going to backup and I walk away and they just run on their own. Very frustrating and a waste of time.
I have to go to my client in Manhattan as I have to do her payroll taxes - and the date for filing the company’s copy of her W2 has been moved up to January 31 from February 28. Last year I mailed the forms to her for her to mail out and it did not get to her - but came back to me in the mail, despite being correctly addressed to her. So I really wanted to get to her early this month in case there were problems getting the forms to her to mail. Then I realized something - she will have taken at most one payroll check last year (the business is not doing well) and I can make do the paperwork in advance and bring it with me. So I pulled out my typewriter and started typing the forms. I had ordered the forms from IRS in December to make sure I had them - 2 different forms and a different cover form for each - 4 kinds of forms in all. I was fine until I did the second form - there were no cover forms! I went looking and counting - they had sent me 2 sets of the other cover form. So I had to go online and order more forms - and I hope they will be here early enough to fill in and mail to her for her to sign. I am going to her tomorrow - I hope. We have had another snow storm - very light, but I didn’t want to drive in the snow. It was last night to today. So tomorrow morning I will get up and call the client and hope she says I can come there tomorrow - if not I hope I can go there next week. Not only do I have to do her work - I get paid quarterly and we need the money to pay bills. So, between the weather and IRS not sending forms it has been frustrating.
Now, tonight I took the garbage from the kitchen out for pickup tomorrow morning. Husband was having a reaction of some sort from the dinner we had and I did not want to open the garbage pail when he was in the room. I took it out while he was upstairs. I did not tell him I was doing so - I have taken the garbage out for the 29 years we have lived in the house and I just about never tell him I am doing so - unless there is some unusual reason to do so. I put the garbage at the street and came back to our side porch and pushed the handle button to open the storm door - the button did not move. I tried again several times - and it is cold out (not as bad as has been this winter, but still around freezing) and it did not work. I thought about the front door - but I had only cleared snow from half of the steps and I was concerned it might be icy since it would have melted and might have refrozen - so I pulled out my cell phone and texted my husband. He got the message and for a minute thought I was just telling him something - then figured out that I was stuck outside the house and came and let me in - and also went back and sprayed the handle lock. Following this I was told that I should never go out of the house without telling him! This led to an extensive discussion with no resolution as to my competence to go out alone without telling him - again, frustration.
I have been good at keeping up with my housework,, but - uh oh - I just realized that I never put in laundry to wash - I will do so as soon I get this posted.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Frustration takes so much away from us (or at least from me). It takes concentration (why else would I forget the laundry) and time - I have had to keep going back and checking to see if the two group sites are working that I could have used on other matters. But we have to deal with it and move on.
So after dinner I went downstairs and brought up box #4 for the tree decorations - last up, first off as it gets the outermost decorations. I started taking down icicles, plain balls, gold paper figures, etc used to fill in open spaces after the nicer decorations go on the tree. He suddenly realized what I was going and came into the living room, looked, and then said “Maybe it all should stay up a little longer.” I stared at him - “Yeah, I know it was my idea.” He then started helping me take things off the tree - actually trees as I have to pack the studio tree ornaments away at the same time as they are packed together and shared ornaments. I did most of 2 boxes of ornaments (out of 4). Frustrating - I would rather not have started yet - and then he says I shouldn’t have!
I am on a comics discussion group. As of a week ago Monday (maybe earlier, that is when I go online to the group to read a week’s worth of posts) the site was not so much there - and I was not sure if it was a problem with the site or my computer. A check with another computer showed that it was not accesible from that computer either. I figured all would be well the next day - it was not. I went looking back in my emails as I had a couple of email conversations with the fellow whose site it is. I never kept a record of his email address, because it is on the site. I found that, yes, there was a problem and it was “now” expected to be back by Thursday (last Thursday now) after it had not been back by “Tuesday” (2 days before last Thursday). As of last night it is still not working right enough to use. Frustration - I enjoy the company of those on that group and we have great discussions beyond the comics we are talking about.
I am also on an embroidery discussion group. This group is in the middle of migrating to a new site and “wonderful”changes. The site started moving in December and due to everything that was going on, I did not have a chance to register with and start to use the new site. The old site is still open (until at least the end of January) and I was communicating a bit with the members through that site. But it was now January and I signed up with the new site. Not as bad to use as I feared. There was one problem - either very few people were posting or I was not able to see all of the posts. The page numbers were listed at the top of the page - but when I clicked on any page number, I was still on the same page. Very frustrating I was missing seeing photos of everyone’s work and hearing about their holidays. I posted about this and finally had an answer appear as the last one in the list and therefore on the page I came on the group on - there was a problem and there was a work around. So finally last night I was able to move around in this group and read the posts for half of December and all of January.
Last night I went to make a monthly backup of my main computer, while at the same time making a quarterly backup of my work laptop -onto 2 separate external hard drives. The one I have been using for quarterly backups did not work. It had electricity, but did not show up on the computer. I then tried plugging it into my desktop computer - did not work there either. Oh, well, I had thought about replacing it, just had not gotten around to it. The biggest problem I had was this computer is wonky. The oldest back up of this computer is on the drive which did not work - and it is a “clean” backup which I need if I have to start this computer over.
I did what I hate to so. I told husband about the drive not working. This resulted in at least an hour’s worth of his repeating all I did with his computer. We then took apart the case the drive was in and took the drive out of it. When I updated the hard drive on my main computer we had bought an external drive case for the old drive so I could still access it when I found missing things. We opened that case, took out the old drive, and put the backup drive with the problem in it - it worked. I copied the needed file off it to the monthly back up drive. (And husband thought it a waste when I decided to back up the computers to 2 drives instead of one.) We then reassembled my old hard drive into the case and put the backup drive into a small box to keep it safe. I now will get a new second backup drive. (See backing up drives is important!) Now the backups are set up when I am going to backup and I walk away and they just run on their own. Very frustrating and a waste of time.
I have to go to my client in Manhattan as I have to do her payroll taxes - and the date for filing the company’s copy of her W2 has been moved up to January 31 from February 28. Last year I mailed the forms to her for her to mail out and it did not get to her - but came back to me in the mail, despite being correctly addressed to her. So I really wanted to get to her early this month in case there were problems getting the forms to her to mail. Then I realized something - she will have taken at most one payroll check last year (the business is not doing well) and I can make do the paperwork in advance and bring it with me. So I pulled out my typewriter and started typing the forms. I had ordered the forms from IRS in December to make sure I had them - 2 different forms and a different cover form for each - 4 kinds of forms in all. I was fine until I did the second form - there were no cover forms! I went looking and counting - they had sent me 2 sets of the other cover form. So I had to go online and order more forms - and I hope they will be here early enough to fill in and mail to her for her to sign. I am going to her tomorrow - I hope. We have had another snow storm - very light, but I didn’t want to drive in the snow. It was last night to today. So tomorrow morning I will get up and call the client and hope she says I can come there tomorrow - if not I hope I can go there next week. Not only do I have to do her work - I get paid quarterly and we need the money to pay bills. So, between the weather and IRS not sending forms it has been frustrating.
Now, tonight I took the garbage from the kitchen out for pickup tomorrow morning. Husband was having a reaction of some sort from the dinner we had and I did not want to open the garbage pail when he was in the room. I took it out while he was upstairs. I did not tell him I was doing so - I have taken the garbage out for the 29 years we have lived in the house and I just about never tell him I am doing so - unless there is some unusual reason to do so. I put the garbage at the street and came back to our side porch and pushed the handle button to open the storm door - the button did not move. I tried again several times - and it is cold out (not as bad as has been this winter, but still around freezing) and it did not work. I thought about the front door - but I had only cleared snow from half of the steps and I was concerned it might be icy since it would have melted and might have refrozen - so I pulled out my cell phone and texted my husband. He got the message and for a minute thought I was just telling him something - then figured out that I was stuck outside the house and came and let me in - and also went back and sprayed the handle lock. Following this I was told that I should never go out of the house without telling him! This led to an extensive discussion with no resolution as to my competence to go out alone without telling him - again, frustration.
I have been good at keeping up with my housework,, but - uh oh - I just realized that I never put in laundry to wash - I will do so as soon I get this posted.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Frustration takes so much away from us (or at least from me). It takes concentration (why else would I forget the laundry) and time - I have had to keep going back and checking to see if the two group sites are working that I could have used on other matters. But we have to deal with it and move on.
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