Sail the seas of Accountancy...

Dear Congressman,

Today at work I was perusing my email inbox when I spotted the following:

Announcing our 2013 CFO of the Year finalists! 

Join the Commercial Commenter as we honor and recognize the 24 chief financial officers of Greater Cincinnati organizations who were named finalists in this year's CFO of the Year awards program.

For those who are not entirely business savvy, a CFO is a Chief Financial Officer. This is the person who makes sure 1) the bills, taxes and employees are paid,  2) the outstanding debts are collected, and 3) the financial reports are generated demonstrating that the company did items 1) and 2) properly.

Now, I know they like to give awards for all kind of things in the world, but really, CFO? I understand that I have greatly simplified what a CFO does, as there is a certain amount of planning of the overall company vision that  normally goes with the position, but the last time I watched the Academy Awards ceremonies, the accountants were the ones delivering the award envelopes, not receiving them.

There is a reason for this….

No one wants to watch Brad Pitt with his long hair flowing in the wind reconciling a bank statement, or Ann Hathaway do a musical number with Neil Patrick Harris on the joys of depreciating assets.

Accounting is boring. Trust me, I am a CPA, a verified authority on the subject.

So I have to tip my hat to the marketing geek who came up with an award ceremony for CFO of the year. Hopefully the criterion for winning this prestigious honor involves keeping your company solvent and making sure none of the other employees are robbing the organization blind behind your back.

And how do you really judge who is the best?

“Well Jim, we knew it would be close this year, between Reginald Sneed  of Sneed and Associates and Elizabeth Norris of First International Savings and Loan,  but I think Sneed's team has an edge with the clarity of their journal entries and the concise nature of their cash flow statements in the monthly closing process. I believe it will be just too much for Elizabeth to overcome.”

"I disagree, Brent. Elizabeth has a good stable of accountants who have finished in the top ten in reconciling the last four years. And the flux analyses of this group is by far some of the best you will see anywhere. I think this is going to be closer than appears at first glance."

Yawn….