Monday, November 30, 2009

Bob Newhart's theory of accounting


American funny man Bob Newhart originally trained to be an accountant. He explains that when attempting reconciliations he reckoned that:
"as long as you got within two or three bucks of it, you were all right. But that didn’t catch on … At the end of the day I had to balance the petty cash with the slips—every time you give out money you had to get a slip. It had to balance. Well, I’d be there for three or four hours tying to figure out where the last dollar or dime went to. So finally I’d just take it out of my pocket and I’d put it in. If there were two dollars leftover, I’d take it out … And they told me you can’t do that. You gotta find it. I said, “you’re paying me five dollars an hour to find two cents—it doesn’t make sense.” So I wasn’t a very good accountant."
His 1988 biography quotes Newhart as saying that if he hadn’t taken a gamble with comedy he would still be an accountant:
“Keep in mind, when I started in the late fifties, I didn’t say to myself, ‘Oh, here’s a great void to fill—I’ll be a balding ex-accountant who specializes in low-key humor.’ That’s simply what I was and that’s the direction my mind always went in, so it was natural for me to be that way.”

1 comment:

Andrew Wilcox said...

I know exactly how he feels.

Yesterday I did the annual accounts for my cricket club. The bank accounts reconciled but the cash didn't. Somewhere in my filing cabinet is -£43.46 according to my accounts. In reality my petty cash folder had a £20 note in it!

Let me paint the scene. Captains, who change every month in our club, collect fees from players at each game. Pay our tea lady and collect a fee from the opposition or at away games pay the opposition. Then they give the residue to me. Sometimes this comes with explanatory notes, sometimes not.

Some players owe match fees, some oppositions forget to pay, some tea ladies (or blokes) donate their tea, some captains don't think students should pay the 18 and above rate, and let ringers/one of guests play for free. Oh and a bit of kit buying and annual membership gets mixed in as well.

I am going to do it all on PayPal next year :)

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