Wow, apparently I just needed to get yesterday out of my system and today things were much closer to what I like to think is normal.
Of course, work went absolutely insane. Did I mention yesterday what happened? I don’t think I did, not really, so I will now. So. Our software company likes to mess with me, I’m convinced of this. Otherwise how on earth can they stay in business if they routinely ignore checking their reports before sending to clients, etc. I don’t mean to rag on all programmers and I’m really thankful that they got someone in there who knows what they’re doing, finally, but the salespeople/CSR/tech people are horrid. ANYWAY! Back in May I had discovered yet another problem with the check report not pulling in all the information from the payment batch so I had them fix it. Well, it never occurred to me to check (of all the things I already check on that report because they’ve screwed up in the past) that the written amount matched the numeric amount. I mean, really, why would anyone write a report that had those fields pull in different values? Why?
Nonetheless, any check we’ve written in the past three months (including the August 9th checks) that had an earned discount had the discounted amount in the numeric section and the pre-discount in the (legally binding) written out section. CRAP! Only, until this morning I didn’t know that the problem started in May, it could have been so very much worse. And after working my way back, finding the month it happened in, and figuring out what change led to that we luckily only had 2 checks that I had to call and humbly ask that they credit us for the earned discount but I’ve put the software company on notice that if I can’t convince the companies to work with us there, I’m holding them responsible for our lost funds. Two of the 8/9 checks that could be a problem have already cleared (at the correct, intended, amount) and the other two companies hadn’t noticed the discrepancy in the previous months, so we might be really lucky.
Then I had to go tell my boss.
He took it well. I think since I’d already done the damage control that I could and the software company has already sent us a replacement report that seems to be right (until the next occasional situation comes up and we find another problem… it happens quarterly at this point), we both agree that it could have been loads worse and it’ll all work out. But this brought up one of those when-I-get-a-chance projects: the bank recs. Dude, back in ’04 we had some serious issues with our dot matrix (I know!) check printer dropping pixels and so many checks would come back 1 cent, dime, or dollar off (almost always in our vendor’s favor) that it drove our previous reconciler absolutely bonkers. And since I usually don’t have the downtime required to get in a bank-rec groove but once a year or so, I had managed to rec 2004 in December, but 05-present is still totally undone.
Well, not totally anymore. I managed to get through March of 05 this afternoon and since my schedule is looking pretty light I anticipate having ’05 done by end of day Friday. Even if I have to stay late to make that happen. But if the other 9 months go as well as these first 3 did, I might actually be able to start on 06 on Friday, we’ll just have to see how long it takes before my eyes cross.
But enough of that job!
Since last Wednesday at All Saints worked out so well I figured I’d give it another try tonight. Two and a half hours and 1300+ words later and I have my next eHow article written. It’s a food article (medieval food) so I still need to actually make the item in question (which I’ve done twice before, once for 100+ people last Fall) and take the in-progess photos to go with the steps and give it an edit-check, confirm measurements and times, that sort of thing. But tonight was super-productive!
At least until I got home.
It wasn’t nearly as hot at the Cafe this week as last, but it was still pretty warm and I was sorta drained by the time I got home. Plus it was eight o’clock: way late for dinner so I made something quick, made a sandwich for lunch tomorrow, checked my email and crashed on the couch to watch more Girls Next Door, Season 2, and started on the front of the Grecian Plait sweater; I’m like an inch and a half in on the front so not bad progress (the bottom section is a quick pattern stitch so it’s semi-instant gratification knitting, yay!). Nothing more’s getting done on the Abyss tonight, definitely not, and I think that’s my only other really big thing. Oh, exercise. Well, that hasn’t really happened at all this week, but I should make up for it this weekend if I get to moving stuff in, out and around the Abyss: vigorous housework definitely counts as cardio!