Today I started my next project with Debby at Stricker Auto. We didn’t do too much today, but I did do inventory of the oil and oil filters and then organized some papers by date and invoices by their numbers. I wont be at her shop for 30 hours total in the week, so the remaining hours I have left will be devoted to working on my new car. I will add those updates as the project progresses.
Author: Alanna Schmidt
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/28/16)
Today I worked with the quick books program. My job was to insert all the business related expenses from a recording studio located in LA and Nashville. I would enter them by utilities, automotive expenses, lodging, food, etc. Then I worked with Sarah and watched as she balanced check books, inserted numbers for pay roll, and made sure a company was collecting all the money that it was entitled to. Today I had a bit more fun then I had in the past 2 days. Entering the business related expenses was boring, but using excel to balance the check books and add up invoice and sales tax amounts was interesting. We found a company who forgot to collect over $1000.00 in sales tax! I think I like using excel better because it makes things so much easier, it does all the math for you, and it organizes things in a much more easy way for you to utilize.
NOTE: I will not be posting tomorrow since today is my last day at SFW Partners, LLC. My supervisor John Schnurbusch is leaving for vacation, but I will be reading some information about the company, the individual partners, and watching some videos on how to use QuickBooks since I find the program interesting.
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/27/16)
Today I worked with payroll instead of filing taxes. I used a program called Sage 50. I looked at a clients ledger and entered all his debit and credit transactions and at the end I had to make sure the out of balance equaled 0. This was another program I caught on to really fast, it was just kind of boring. I figured out again that even though I’m good at it and its fairly easy, it’s not something I would want to be doing every day.
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/25/16)
Today I started my second week at SFW Partners, LLC. I filed another tax return for 2015 for the Maryville University golf coach. Then I went through the SFW website and looked at what every other person in the company does and also the different areas that they work with. This up coming week I want to learn more about
.payroll services
.budgeting analysis
.financial projections
.bookkeeping
.retirement planning
I choose these things because as I was doing the tax return today, nothing sparked my interests. I am very good with the program and I’m catching on very quickly, it’s just not something I could see my self doing 5 days a week from 9-5. So at least this project helped me cross one thing off the list of potential things I would want to pursue in the future.
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/20/16)
Today I started the day off filing a brand new tax return all by my self. Nothing was scanned into the computer or e-filed so I was given a stack of papers full of numbers and tax forms. At first I had no idea what to do with the information that was given to me, but once I sat down I figured it out fairly quickly. I am actually very surprised how easily I caught on to the tax filing program and how quickly I entered everything in. When I was done John and I sat down and went through everything and I got it all right. They are going to use what I worked on and completed when they go to finish filing the clients taxes. After that I stuffed envelopes full with invoices to be billed out later today and talked to 3 girls in the office about their daily routine. They showed me the different programs they use and what they accomplish, they showed me what different forms look like and what they are used for and they also showed me how they proofread projected financial reports.
Alanna’s Senior Project (04/19/16)
Today I started my third week of my project at SFW Partners, LLC. They have a lot of CPA’s and management consultants. I am working with John Schnurbusch and he is teaching me the ropes of an accounting software called Lacerte Individual Tax. I started out the day looking at the program and comparing it to an already filed tax return. I compared the numbers and I found where they were taken from. Then I was given a blank document and I had to file everything myself. When I was done John helped me go through it and correct any mistakes. After that was all done, I went out to lunch with the girls in the office and we talked about what I learned and what I should expect for the next two weeks.
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/07/16)
Today I used a heat sealer to package the bath bombs I made yesterday as well as a heat gun to shrink wrap them. Then I labeled them with the ingredient label and packaged them so they looked like small candies. Them Mrs.Hardcastle and I went through the laws of soap packaging. To put it shortly, we went through how your product becomes ‘cosmetic’ or ‘not cosmetic’ and what string of rules you have to follow for both sides and then we also went through how you need to list the ingredients you use, and also how to word the ingredients (i.e. using scientific names or not).
Alanna’s Senior Project (4/6/16)
Today Mrs.Hardcastle and I made some bath bombs and cut up the soap that I made a couple days ago. We also worked on packaging ideas for both products and went through some spreadsheets for my soap that showed what products cost the most, what the recommended cost should be for the soap per bar, and what the expected time it would take to break even was using different market ares (wholesale, independent, or going through a sales representative).
Alanna’s Senior Project (3/29/16)
Today Mrs.Hardcastle and I made mineral makeup and nail polish, now I know what your thinking, what could I possibly learn from that? Well when we were done we took the final product and figured how much each individual bottle/container cost us so she could come up with a price for a class she will teach involving these things. The next thing we did was talked about a few books she wanted me to read about the presentation of your company, customer service, changing your priorities to best fit your business, and how to not procrastinate on succeeding. Finally we watched a few safety videos about Lye (a chemical used in many things including soap making) since we will be making a batch of soap at the end of the week.
Alanna’s Senior Project (3/28/16)
Today was day one of my two weeks with Sharon Hardcastle. She is teaching me the fundamental steps to owning your own independent business and she is also teaching me how she makes and markets her bath and body products. Today all we did was talk about the steps in starting up your own business, how to factor in all the different finances to come up with the best and most profitable price for your product, we also made a body scrub and then calculated a potential cost (factoring in raw materials, labor, and packaging). Finally I started watching a video that went along with a program called Price-O-Matic, which is a business and profit calculator.
