Question:

            Senator Covered Up Evidence of P.O.W.’s Left Behind             When John Kerry’s Courage Went M.I.A.             by Sydney H. Schanberg             February 24th, 2004 1:00 PM             Senator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a             navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous             more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence             that a significant number of live American prisoners-perhaps             hundreds-were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending             treaty was signed in January 1973.             The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out             this subterfuge a little over a decade ago- shredding documents,             suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee’s final             report-when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on             P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs.             Over the years, an abundance of evidence had come to light that the             North Vietnamese, while returning 591 U.S. prisoners of war after             the treaty signing, had held back many others as future bargaining             chips for the $4 billion or more in war reparations that the Nixon             administration had pledged. Hanoi didn’t trust Washington to fulfill             its promise without pressure. Similarly, Washington didn’t trust             Hanoi to return all the prisoners and carry out all the treaty             provisions. The mistrust on both sides was merited. Hanoi held back             prisoners and the U.S. provided no reconstruction funds.             The stated purpose of the special Senate committee-which convened in             mid 1991 and concluded in January 1993-was to investigate the             evidence about prisoners who were never returned and find out what             happened to the missing men. Committee chair Kerry’s larger and             different goal, though never stated publicly, emerged over time: He             wanted to clear a path to normalization of relations with Hanoi. In             any other context, that would have been an honorable goal. But             getting at the truth of the unaccounted for P.O.W.’s and M.I.A.’s             (Missing In Action) was the main obstacle to normalization-and             therefore in conflict with his real intent and plan of action.             Kerry denied back then that he disguised his real goal, contending             that he supported normalization only as a way to learn more about             the missing men. But almost nothing has emerged about these             prisoners since diplomatic and economic relations were restored in             1995, and thus it would appear-as most realists expected-that             Kerry’s explanation was hollow. He has also denied in the past the             allegations of a cover-up, either by the Pentagon or himself. Asked             for comment on this article, the Kerry campaign sent a quote from             the senator: "In the end, I think what we can take pride in is that             we put together the most significant, most thorough, most exhaustive             accounting for missing and former P.O.W.’s in the history of human             warfare."             What was the body of evidence that prisoners were held back? A short             list would include more than 1,600 firsthand sightings of live U.S.             prisoners; nearly 14,000 secondhand reports; numerous intercepted             Communist radio messages from within Vietnam and Laos about American             prisoners being moved by their captors from one site to another; a             series of satellite photos that continued into the 1990s showing             clear prisoner rescue signals carved into the ground in Laos and             Vietnam, all labeled inconclusive by the Pentagon; multiple reports             about unacknowledged prisoners from North Vietnamese informants             working for U.S. intelligence agencies, all ignored or declared             unreliable; persistent complaints by senior U.S. intelligence             officials (some of them made publicly) that live-prisoner evidence             was being suppressed; and clear proof that the Pentagon and other             keepers of the "secret" destroyed a variety of files over the years             to keep the P.O.W./M.I.A. families and the public from finding out             and possibly setting off a major public outcry.             The resignation of Colonel Millard Peck in 1991, the first year of             the Kerry committee’s tenure, was one of many vivid landmarks in             this saga’s history. Peck had been the head of the Pentagon’s             P.O.W./M.I.A. office for only eight months when he resigned in mind-set             to ‘debunk’ is alive and well. It is held at all levels . . .             Practically all analysis is directed to finding fault with the             source. Rarely has there been any effective, active follow-through             on any of the sightings . . . The sad fact is that . . . a cover-up             may be in progress. The entire charade does not appear to be an             honest effort and may never have been."             Finally, Peck said: "From what I have witnessed, it appears that any             soldier left in Vietnam, even inadvertently, was in fact abandoned             years ago, and that the farce that is being played is no more than             political legerdemain done with ’smoke and mirrors’ to stall the             issue until it dies a natural death."             What did Kerry do in furtherance of the cover-up? An overview would             include the following: He allied himself with those carrying it out             by treating the Pentagon and other prisoner debunkers as partners in             the investigation instead of the targets they were supposed to be.             In short, he did their bidding. When Defense Department officials             were coming to testify, Kerry would have his staff director, Frances             Zwenig, meet with them to "script" the hearings-as detailed in an             internal Zwenig memo leaked by others. Zwenig also advised North             Vietnamese officials on how to state their case. Further, Kerry             never pushed or put up a fight to get key government documents             unclassified; he just rolled over, no matter how obvious it was that             the documents contained confirming data about prisoners. Moreover,             after promising to turn over all committee records to the National             Archives when the panel concluded its work, the senator destroyed             crucial intelligence information the staff had gathered-to to keep             the documents from becoming public. He refused to subpoena past             presidents and other key witnesses.             When revelatory sworn testimony was given to the committee by             President Reagan’s national security adviser, Richard Allen-about a             credible proposal from Hanoi in 1981 to return more than 50             prisoners for a $4 billion ransom-Kerry had that testimony taken in             a closed door interview, not a public hearing. But word leaked out             and a few weeks later, Allen sent a letter to the committee, not             under oath, recanting his testimony, saying his memory had played             tricks on him. Kerry never did any probe into Allen’s original,             detailed account, and instead accepted his recantation as gospel             truth.             A Secret Service agent then working at the White House, John             Syphrit, told committee staffers he had overheard part of a             conversation about the Hanoi proposal for ransom. He said he was             willing to testify but feared reprisal from his Treasury Department             superiors and would need to be subpoenaed so that his appearance             could not be regarded as voluntary. Kerry refused to subpoena him.             Syphrit told me that four men were involved in that             conversation-Reagan, Allen, Vice President George H.W. Bush, and CIA             director William Casey. I wrote the story for Newsday.             The final Kerry report brushed off the entire episode like unsightly             dust. It said: "The committee found no credible evidence of any such             [ransom] offer being made."             A newcomer to this subject matter might reasonably ask why there was             no great public outrage, no sustained headlines, no national demand             for investigations, no penalties imposed on those who had hidden,             and were still hiding, the truth. The simple, overarching             explanation was that most Americans wanted to put Vietnam behind             them as fast as possible. They wanted to forget this failed war, not             deal with its truths or consequences. The press suffered from the             same ostrich syndrome; no major media organization ever carried out             an in-depth investigation by a reporting team into the prisoner             issue. When prisoner stories did get into the press, they would have             a one-day life span, never to be followed up on. When three             secretaries of defense from the Vietnam era-James Schlesinger,             Melvin Laird, and Elliot Richardson-testified before the Kerry             committee, under oath, that intelligence they received at the time             convinced them that numbers of unacknowledged prisoners were being             held by the Communists, the story was reported by the press just             that once and then dropped. The New York Times put

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Response:

When voters are given factual information, they are able to make wise decisions.   $50 million negative ad campaigns by Bush sucks up all of the oxygen on the air waves for factual information. Any gains that Bush makes in the polls from this kind of campaigning celebrates the fact that the ONLY way that Republicans can win votes is by keeping citizens ignorant, away from debate and discussion of the important issues that are facing us. The Bush-Cheney campaign is all about LYING.  Republicans count on inflaming the passions and fears of Americans with LIES.  Like this one: "Kerry voted against every major weapons system." Guess what?  On Cheney’s request. Cheney’s record (when he was in the House of Representatives and Secretary of Defense) was for giving the military even less support than Kerry. In 1990 and in 1995 Kerry voted against two Defense Appropriations bills in order to send them back to committee to be rewritten.  They included, obviously,  a number of weapons systems  (although not "every major weapons system"). Before there ever was a vote,  Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said:  "Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you’ve squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don’t fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements.

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – First I am a CPA in public practice – with my own firm. Second, I do "write up" type work for only a handful of clients – 3 of which are non profit organizations. Well, my comments will probably cause a stir – BBUUTT TO INCREASE BILLINGS. Traditionally, CPAs took the check stubs deposit receipts and bank statements on a monthly basis to "even out" the yearly work load.  After punching the button a set of financial statements is generated – a comp letter slapped on it and higher fees generated.  With the advent of cheap software client no longer "need" this service, but many CPAs still thrive on this type of work.  IMHO – this work is rapidly disappearing.  Thus my firms commitment to generally not perform this function. Since the majority of clients are now computer literate and – if properly guided – can utilize a cheaper program to generate accounting information that is useable in their day to day operations for making management decisions (i.e.. they care about cash flows and AP and AR management primarily), your question IMHO is an extremely good one. Hope I provided another point of view. — Regards, Mark X Rigotti

now most of the "write up" work is after the client has prepared his own deposits and checks with an accounting program like peachtree, quickbooks or MYOB and then wants recognizable monthly financial statements.  It’s easy to do all of this by email attachments

Response:

in a perverse way that’s what makes it good for accountants and business owners,  they can do the dirty work like running checks and deposits, the accountant then uses their time  (per hour) "cleaning" it up.

I’d much rather have them write checks manually and use duplicate deposit tickets and let my office do their financials.  Most of the time when I look at self-prepared financials I just want to PUKE. — Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens,  Georgia

Response:

in a perverse way that’s what makes it good for accountants and business owners,  they can do the dirty work like running checks and deposits, the accountant then uses their time  (per hour) "cleaning" it up. I’d much rather have them write checks manually and use duplicate deposit tickets and let my office do their financials.  Most of the time when I look at self-prepared financials I just want to PUKE.

if you can get them at the beginning before the bad habits set in, it can be productive but you’re right,  –  it can turn into a mess rather quickly, – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –

Response:

Traditionally, CPAs took the check stubs deposit receipts and bank statements on a monthly basis to "even out" the yearly work load.

For my clients that don’t have any financial software, or for those that don’t ~want~ to do the books, I am requiring them to let us do the work on a monthly basis.  I always find a few each year that dump a box of stuff off and say "Here’s my year, figure it out" in January or February.  You just can’t do 12 months of work like that in a few hours. After punching the button a set of financial statements is generated – a comp letter slapped on it and higher fees generated.

The comp letter only goes if the financials are leaving your office. With the advent of cheap software client no longer "need" this service,

I probably spend more time fixing the clients creative bookkeeping than preparing books from scratch. but many CPAs still thrive on this type of work. IMHO – this work is rapidly disappearing.

And being replaced by fixing their mistakes.  I find that it generally takes longer to make it right, than to keep it right. Thus my firms commitment to generally not perform this function.

Bully for you. Since the majority of clients are now computer literate and

Computer literate and accounting literate are two vastly different things. QB, and programs like that do not replace basic accounting skills.  If anything, those programs enhance the acounting flaws of most small business owners. – if properly guided

Again, I probably spend more time fixing their self-generated financials than the time I would spend generating them to begin with. now most of the "write up" work is after the client has prepared his own deposits and checks with an accounting program like peachtree, quickbooks or MYOB and then wants recognizable monthly financial statements.

You hit the nail squarely on the head.  "Recognizable monthly financial statements". I talked to a welding business the other day.  Looked at their 2002 QB reports.  Not a single fixed asset on the books, one single $400,000 liability account (they said their debt has never been greater than $100,000), about $20,000 of revenues with a net profit of $45,000 (there was a some-odd $250,000 credit account as an expense. I’ll spend a few weeks fixing this into "recognizable financial statements". Don’t ya just love QuickBooks? — Paul A. Thomas, CPA Athens,  Georgia

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – First I am a CPA in public practice – with my own firm. Second, I do "write up" type work for only a handful of clients – 3 of which are non profit organizations. Well, my comments will probably cause a stir – BBUUTT TO INCREASE BILLINGS. Traditionally, CPAs took the check stubs deposit receipts and bank statements on a monthly basis to "even out" the yearly work load.  After punching the button a set of financial statements is generated – a comp letter slapped on it and higher fees generated.  With the advent of cheap software client no longer "need" this service, but many CPAs still thrive on this type of work.  IMHO – this work is rapidly disappearing.  Thus my firms commitment to generally not perform this function. Since the majority of clients are now computer literate and – if properly guided – can utilize a cheaper program to generate accounting information that is useable in their day to day operations for making management decisions (i.e.. they care about cash flows and AP and AR management primarily), your question IMHO is an extremely good one. Hope I provided another point of view. — Regards, Mark X Rigotti now most of the "write up" work is after the client has prepared his own deposits and checks with an accounting program like peachtree, quickbooks or MYOB and then wants recognizable monthly financial statements.  It’s easy to do all of this by email attachments

Bob, Agreed 100% with QuickBooks being the biggest "OFFENDER" in that area. <BG — Regards, Mark X Rigotti

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – First I am a CPA in public practice – with my own firm. Second, I do "write up" type work for only a handful of clients – 3 of which are non profit organizations. Well, my comments will probably cause a stir – BBUUTT TO INCREASE BILLINGS. Traditionally, CPAs took the check stubs deposit receipts and bank statements on a monthly basis to "even out" the yearly work load. After punching the button a set of financial statements is generated – a comp letter slapped on it and higher fees generated.  With the advent of cheap software client no longer "need" this service, but many CPAs still thrive on this type of work.  IMHO – this work is rapidly disappearing.  Thus my firms commitment to generally not perform this function. Since the majority of clients are now computer literate and – if properly guided – can utilize a cheaper program to generate accounting information that is useable in their day to day operations for making management decisions (i.e.. they care about cash flows and AP and AR management primarily), your question IMHO is an extremely good one. Hope I provided another point of view. — Regards, Mark X Rigotti now most of the "write up" work is after the client has prepared his own deposits and checks with an accounting program like peachtree, quickbooks or MYOB and then wants recognizable monthly financial statements.  It’s easy to do all of this by email attachments Agreed 100% with QuickBooks being the biggest "OFFENDER" in that area.

in a perverse way that’s what makes it good for accountants and business owners,  they can do the dirty work like running checks and deposits, the accountant then uses their time  (per hour) "cleaning" it up.

Response:

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi Bryan Did you put money into the corporation to get it started? No – I didn’t need to – it’s an Internet business, and the startup costs were out of pocket. I didn’t want to waste any time setting up until I knew it would work. It’s been a long time since I have had , inc. behind anything. But if I recall (although the laws may have changed by now), anything I put in became my equity and the profits of the company became my equity position over initial investment. I could make draws against my initial equity without consequence, but to draw against my equity position (profits) was a different matter, meaning it was taxable as income. Yes – that’s OK with me – I’m not trying to avoid taxes – yet Now if I need to draw money from the company, I just set up a dummy account and let the attorney figure out where and how it should be handled each quarter.  And it usually means I owe taxes, FICA and other things on it.  So if I need 5 grand, I’ll pull 6 instead and drop the 1 grand into a savings account to pay the income taxes when they come due each quarter. OK, thanks. A previous poster (John) suggested a "suspense" account. Bryan

Bryan, I’ll say this to you once. Based on their posts here, neither Deutschmann nor John know enough about tax law or your situation to give you useful advice. Based on your earlier posts, you aren’t interested in following this advice but here it is again anyway. Hire a local tax professional who specializes in business taxation, particularly closely held corporations. If you don’t you risk very bad surprises. For example, based on your cavalier manner of drawing funds and (apparently) having those draws characterized as salary, you could wake up one day and find that an IRS auditor has recharacterized your salary as dividends. Bingo – your corporation owes back taxes and you, personally, are entitled to no refund. Good luck.

Response:

Well then, we’ll just have to wait for the CPA’s to pipe in on this.

I am a CPA. You are saying that personal monies invested in a private company is stuck there forever and that when you want it back you have to pay income taxes on money that you have already paid taxes on.  What happens

I’m saying the "strategy" you and Deutschmann recommended will not work for the original poster based on the clear facts he provided. The profits or regular corporations are taxed twice in the U.S. There are ways to get money out that legally avoids that costly outcome but neither you nor Deutschmann described one that will work for the original poster. if you can only get 50% of your money back?  Or none at all?  The company goes bankrupt?  Are you allowed a Capital Loss?  Do you know what Capital Gains are?  Could the CPA’s comment on this?  I do own a company (5 of us) and I do have a Capital Share plus due to shareholders structure and I can’t wait to find out what the answer is… although I have already paid some of the "Dues to Shareholders" and none have been asked for taxes on that.

Five of you, if unrelated, being equal owners of a company is different from one person owning (directly or indirectly) 100% of a company. Rather than waiting for CPAs to "pipe in" here, I suggest you and your 4 fellow shareholders hire a tax specializing CPA of your own right now. Based on your demonstrated lack of knowledge you risk doing yourselves serious financial harm.

Response:

It’s hard to reply to a message like this because of the lack of information provided. It depends.

OK, let me make it simpler. Owner has company Company makes sale. Owner needs food Food costs money How does owner get money? Bryan

Response:

It’s not the "group"’s fault if you don’t like following good advice. Ever hear the expression "penny wise and pound foolish"?

Yep. That’s me. But I like this one better: "A fool and his money are soon partying." Bryan

Response:

Hi Bryan Did you put money into the corporation to get it started?

No – I didn’t need to – it’s an Internet business, and the startup costs were out of pocket. I didn’t want to waste any time setting up until I knew it would work. It’s been a long time since I have had , inc. behind anything. But if I recall (although the laws may have changed by now), anything I put in became my equity and the profits of the company became my equity position over initial investment. I could make draws against my initial equity without consequence, but to draw against my equity position (profits) was a different matter, meaning it was taxable as income.

Yes – that’s OK with me – I’m not trying to avoid taxes – yet Now if I need to draw money from the company, I just set up a dummy account and let the attorney figure out where and how it should be handled each quarter.  And it usually means I owe taxes, FICA and other things on it.  So if I need 5 grand, I’ll pull 6 instead and drop the 1 grand into a savings account to pay the income taxes when they come due each quarter.

OK, thanks. A previous poster (John) suggested a "suspense" account. Bryan

Response:

Suggest you go talk to a professional bean counter in your area. Thanks, but if that’s all this group has to offer, I’ll figure it out in about ten minutes. Bryan

…….oh shit….here it comes….. Bryan

Response:

Credit the Bank Account and Debit the Suspense account.  Later on when you talk with your accountant he can tell you how to best classify the expense.  We don’t know the particulars of your company nor do we know of your personal finances so we can’t say if it’s best that you take it as salary, bonus or dividend.  Your accountant will be able to figure that out for you.  If you don’t have a Suspense account create one, it’s a balance sheet account, place it in the liability section toward the end of the Balance Sheet accounts, after the payables but before dividends, Capital/Share accounts and retained earnings.  You have to remember when you look at your financial performance that the amount in the suspense account is not accounted for, so your results will be lower than reported. John

Thanks John – I set up the company on accounting software merely for the purposes of income tax reporting. Personally, I have no concern for looking good to anyone else. But you’ve made this look like a fairly simple maneuver so I’ll go with it. Bryan

Response:

Well then, we’ll just have to wait for the CPA’s to pipe in on this. You are saying that personal monies invested in a private company is stuck there forever and that when you want it back you have to pay income taxes on money that you have already paid taxes on.  What happens if you can only get 50% of your money back?  Or none at all?  The company goes bankrupt?  Are you allowed a Capital Loss?  Do you know what Capital Gains are?  Could the CPA’s comment on this?  I do own a company (5 of us) and I do have a Capital Share plus due to shareholders structure and I can’t wait to find out what the answer is… although I have already paid some of the "Dues to Shareholders" and none have been asked for taxes on that. John – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Not so.  Mr. Deutschmann explained it correctly, the capital provided by the owner can be repaid without any tax implication on either side i.e.; the company or the owner.  The company can recall shares at the issue price and there will be no gain or loss on either side.  Or the original investment may have been a loan in which case the money is simply a repayment.  How the money is treated is the only thing that will make the payment taxable or not and Mr. Deutschmann did say that if the owner was to take a dividend/bonus out of profits or retained earnings that the payment would be subject to taxes. You are so wrong you are dangerous to any owner of a closely held corporation. If the original poster does what you suggest and his 100% owned corporation has earnings and profit, he (the original poster) will have taxable dividend income. Quite simply put what Mr. Deutchmann explained is that you can buy 100 shares in xyz inc. at $10.00 and sell them back for $1,000 and you will not be taxed on the $1,000.  Or you can lend $1,000 to xyz and when xyz repays the loan you will not be taxed on the original loan amount, quite the same as how a bank loan is treated, it is not revenue and the payments are not an expense. If "you" don’t control XYZ, Inc. directly or indirectly, then maybe. The OP CONTROLS his company which makes you wrong.

Response:

Not so.  Mr. Deutschmann explained it correctly, the capital provided by the owner can be repaid without any tax implication on either side i.e.; the company or the owner.  The company can recall shares at the issue price and there will be no gain or loss on either side.  Or the original investment may have been a loan in which case the money is simply a repayment.  How the money is treated is the only thing that will make the payment taxable or not and Mr. Deutschmann did say that if the owner was to take a dividend/bonus out of profits or retained earnings that the payment would be subject to taxes.

You are so wrong you are dangerous to any owner of a closely held corporation. If the original poster does what you suggest and his 100% owned corporation has earnings and profit, he (the original poster) will have taxable dividend income. Quite simply put what Mr. Deutchmann explained is that you can buy 100 shares in xyz inc. at $10.00 and sell them back for $1,000 and you will not be taxed on the $1,000.  Or you can lend $1,000 to xyz and when xyz repays the loan you will not be taxed on the original loan amount, quite the same as how a bank loan is treated, it is not revenue and the payments are not an expense.

If "you" don’t control XYZ, Inc. directly or indirectly, then maybe. The OP CONTROLS his company which makes you wrong.

Response:

Not so.  Mr. Deutschmann explained it correctly, the capital provided by the owner can be repaid without any tax implication on either side i.e.; the company or the owner.  The company can recall shares at the issue price and there will be no gain or loss on either side.  Or the original investment may have been a loan in which case the money is simply a repayment.  How the money is treated is the only thing that will make the payment taxable or not and Mr. Deutschmann did say that if the owner was to take a dividend/bonus out of profits or retained earnings that the payment would be subject to taxes. Quite simply put what Mr. Deutchmann explained is that you can buy 100 shares in xyz inc. at $10.00 and sell them back for $1,000 and you will not be taxed on the $1,000.  Or you can lend $1,000 to xyz and when xyz repays the loan you will not be taxed on the original loan amount, quite the same as how a bank loan is treated, it is not revenue and the payments are not an expense. John The original capital was neither an expense or a revenue on either side and the same is true – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – It’s been a long time since I have had , inc. behind anything. But if I recall (although the laws may have changed by now), anything I put in became my equity and the profits of the company became my equity position over initial investment. I could make draws against my initial equity without consequence, but to draw against my equity position (profits) was a different matter, meaning it was taxable as income. Mr. Deutschmann, you are quite mistaken. Distributions to owners, to the extent of earnings and profits in the corporation, are taxable dividends to the owners.

Response:

It’s hard to reply to a message like this because of the lack of information provided. It depends.

Response:

It’s been a long time since I have had , inc. behind anything. But if I recall (although the laws may have changed by now), anything I put in became my equity and the profits of the company became my equity position over initial investment. I could make draws against my initial equity without consequence, but to draw against my equity position (profits) was a different matter, meaning it was taxable as income.

Mr. Deutschmann, you are quite mistaken. Distributions to owners, to the extent of earnings and profits in the corporation, are taxable dividends to the owners.

Response:

Hi Bryan Did you put money into the corporation to get it started? It’s been a long time since I have had , inc. behind anything. But if I recall (although the laws may have changed by now), anything I put in became my equity and the profits of the company became my equity position over initial investment. I could make draws against my initial equity without consequence, but to draw against my equity position (profits) was a different matter, meaning it was taxable as income. Now if I need to draw money from the company, I just set up a dummy account and let the attorney figure out where and how it should be handled each quarter.  And it usually means I owe taxes, FICA and other things on it.  So if I need 5 grand, I’ll pull 6 instead and drop the 1 grand into a savings account to pay the income taxes when they come due each quarter. TTUL Gary

Response:

Wow you are so funny. I never heard anyone refer to an accountant as a bean counter. But I guess you are right because we can’t help you we are busy counting them beans. 1, 2 3, 4, etc. It’s such a hackneyed term I wouldn’t think that anyone would take it as a disparaging remark. It would be like going into a medical forum and saying I’m not a "sawbones" – or telling a guitarist I’m not a "picker". In other words, it’s merely a nickname.

Bryan, The term does little justice to the profession and is certainly inappropiate when asking for help. Not that it mattered. Hell you could have started your post with screw all accountants or worse and you probably would have had twice as many responses. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Bryan

Response:

Credit the Bank Account and Debit the Suspense account.  Later on when you talk with your accountant he can tell you how to best classify the expense.  We don’t know the particulars of your company nor do we know of your personal finances so we can’t say if it’s best that you take it as salary, bonus or dividend.  Your accountant will be able to figure that out for you.  If you don’t have a Suspense account create one, it’s a balance sheet account, place it in the liability section toward the end of the Balance Sheet accounts, after the payables but before dividends, Capital/Share accounts and retained earnings.  You have to remember when you look at your financial performance that the amount in the suspense account is not accounted for, so your results will be lower than reported. John John. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi – I own the company and I want to take money out. No employees, no payroll. What account do I take it from, and what do I apply it to? As you can tell, I don’t count beans for a living Thanks Bryan

Response:

Suggest you go talk to a professional bean counter in your area. Thanks, but if that’s all this group has to offer, I’ll figure it out in about ten minutes.

It’s not the "group"’s fault if you don’t like following good advice. Ever hear the expression "penny wise and pound foolish"?

Response:

Hi – I own the company and I want to take money out. No employees, no payroll. What account do I take it from, and what do I apply it to? As you can tell, I don’t count beans for a living Thanks Bryan

Response:

Hi – I own the company and I want to take money out. No employees, no payroll. What account do I take it from, and what do I apply it to? As you can tell, I don’t count beans for a living

Wow you are so funny. I never heard anyone refer to an accountant as a  bean counter. But I guess you are right because we can’t help you we are busy counting them beans. 1, 2 3, 4, etc. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Thanks Bryan

Response:

Hi – I own the company and I want to take money out. No employees, no payroll. What account do I take it from, and what do I apply it to? As you can tell, I don’t count beans for a living

What legal form is "the company"?

Response:

Wow you are so funny. I never heard anyone refer to an accountant as a bean counter. But I guess you are right because we can’t help you we are busy counting them beans. 1, 2 3, 4, etc.

It’s such a hackneyed term I wouldn’t think that anyone would take it as a disparaging remark. It would be like going into a medical forum and saying I’m not a "sawbones" – or telling a guitarist I’m not a "picker". In other words, it’s merely a nickname. Bryan

Response:

What legal form is "the company"?

At this point a straight Corporation. I might opt to an "S" corp, but haven’t as yet. regards, Bryan

Response:

Suggest you go talk to a professional bean counter in your area.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi – I own the company and I want to take money out. No employees, no payroll. What account do I take it from, and what do I apply it to? As you can tell, I don’t count beans for a living Thanks Bryan

Response:

there are tax implications when an owner takes money out of a corp –  if it’s payroll there’s FICA, medicare,etc.  If withdrawing from the "cash account" then it could be called a dividend, if it’s from a shareholder’s loan account there are other considerations. —  you might want to visit a professional this year!

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What legal form is "the company"? At this point a straight Corporation. I might opt to an "S" corp, but haven’t as yet. regards, Bryan

Response:

Suggest you go talk to a professional bean counter in your area.

Thanks, but if that’s all this group has to offer, I’ll figure it out in about ten minutes. Bryan

Response:

Suggest you go talk to a professional bean counter in your area. Thanks, but if that’s all this group has to offer, I’ll figure it out in about ten minutes. Bryan

yes, withdrawing money takes just a few minutes ——    you’re be paying for it a lot longer !!

Response:

Question:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –  CALLED TO ACCOUNT Citigroup to Expense Options, Improve Disclosure on Deals By PAUL BECKETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc., which has been under fire for its dealings with Enron Corp., unveiled a raft of corporate-governance initiatives, including expensing all stock options and requiring companies for which it arranges financing to disclose more information to investors. <snip http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028760527915079120,00.html?mod=ho… This is indeed a positive development as Citigroup is in the financial sector.  Now we need a big IT corporation to take the lead in this sector.  e. g. Sun Microsystems, whose customer satisfaction rating, at least here in Switzerland, is very high.  Perhaps they will do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices.  ;-) Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling. And if leaving options off the income statement was a mistake, causing companies to be wrongly over-valued, this _IS_ supposed to be the result. I can imagine people wanting options to get applied as expenses; to want that, and for share prices _not_ to be depressed as a result, seems pretty inconsistent.

I think you have summed up the problem pretty well.  As I said before, some of these folks like Buffet who are selling the expensing of options have another agenda.  {Then there are those that have a really nasty agenda, a political one, but the market will in the long run prevent that one.} I am pretty sure that the consequences of expensing options will be negative and have not discernible benefit.  You can get back to me in a couple of years and correct me if I’m wrong. — *             Ronald Lee Todd M.B.A., C.P.A.                  * *  Unemployed for six years, mistake of being an accountant.  * *   Students, when someone tells you of your great future as  * *       an accountant, ask him to show you the job.           *

Response:

If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling.

GM also announced it would do this. I suspect the powers that be will soon mandate it. If not, those that don’t do it should find that uncertainty causes the biggest stock market cuts. This will show that a few companies, like Microsoft and Cisco, reported wildly phony profits. Cisco is already way down so I am thinking of buying puts on M$. It might have the effect of initially lowering values to bring them more in line with earnings, but I don’t see the long-term effects changing much. Analysts will simply take into account the options when making their predictions about earnings.  If everyone were doing it, it would be expected and already figured into the prices.  When SFAS 142 did away with amortizing goodwill, stock prices did not go up simply because people though earnings would rise.  Analysts simply bumped up their estimates to reflect the "expense that never was".

   Mike Block, QuickBooks Tax Cut CPA, 954-566-7540 Lowest QB Prices   http://blocktax.com/lowest_QuickBooks_prices.htm Free 462p QB Book  http://blocktax.com/free-quickbooks-book.htm Error Codes/Fixes  http://blocktax.com/quickbooks-errors.htm Shortcuts Download http://blocktax.com/quickbooks_shortcuts.htm 200 QB Add-ons http://blocktax.com/quickbooks-addons/quickbooks-add-ons.htm

Response:

Christopher, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make, although, reading the post against, I understand your looking at it the way you did.  Nothing like such feedback to encourage clarity and precision. Sun Microsystems shareholders may doubt if the share price will rise significantly in the near future, especially compared to 2000 levels. However, Sun Microsystems could meanwhile improve shareholder trust in its management by recording personnal expenses – including the appropriate value of employee stock options, as has been explained repeatedly and exhaustively here in another thread – as incurred in the income statement. BTW the at the end of the previous post was supposed to underscore this meaning. A. Lucien Meyers, CIA, CMA — If you receive this by error, please delete it and inform the sender. PGP key fingerprint=F1C0 D9AE 1B18 1405 4DFA  B4CC 6DC7 FF78 C76E FB15 To Big Brother Echelon from "spook": Ortega genetic domestic disruption Libya Mossad Semtex Kandahar DES PLO

Response:

If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling.

It might have the effect of initially lowering values to bring them more in line with earnings, but I don’t see the long-term effects changing much. Analysts will simply take into account the options when making their predictions about earnings.  If everyone were doing it, it would be expected and already figured into the prices.  When SFAS 142 did away with amortizing goodwill, stock prices did not go up simply because people though earnings would rise.  Analysts simply bumped up their estimates to reflect the "expense that never was". — Todd Stephens

Response:

I said what I said.  I think you are trying to force an issue that is really of no importance.  Microsoft’s equity price reflects current operations and future expectations.  The market is very efficient at discounting the real problems and potential of the company. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – So you are in favor of keeping the present system under which half of Microsoft’s GAAP net income is contributions from taxpayers for the Federal and State income tax deductions Microsoft takes when options are exercised? But no expense in the income statement to shareholders? MICROSOFT Year Ended June 30      1999        2000        2001 Net income          $  7,785    $  9,421    $  7,346 Stock option income tax benefits           3,107       5,535       2,066  CALLED TO ACCOUNT Citigroup to Expense Options, Improve Disclosure on Deals By PAUL BECKETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc., which has been under fire for its dealings with Enron Corp., unveiled a raft of corporate-governance initiatives, including expensing all stock options and requiring companies for which it arranges financing to disclose more information to investors. <snip http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028760527915079120,00.html?mod=ho… This is indeed a positive development as Citigroup is in the financial sector.  Now we need a big IT corporation to take the lead in this sector.  e. g. Sun Microsystems, whose customer satisfaction rating, at least here in Switzerland, is very high.  Perhaps they will do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices.  ;-) Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling. And if leaving options off the income statement was a mistake, causing companies to be wrongly over-valued, this _IS_ supposed to be the result. I can imagine people wanting options to get applied as expenses; to want that, and for share prices _not_ to be depressed as a result, seems pretty inconsistent.

– *             Ronald Lee Todd M.B.A., C.P.A.                  * *  Unemployed for six years, mistake of being an accountant.  * *   Students, when someone tells you of your great future as  * *       an accountant, ask him to show you the job.           *

Response:

So you are in favor of keeping the present system under which half of Microsoft’s GAAP net income is contributions from taxpayers for the Federal and State income tax deductions Microsoft takes when options are exercised? But no expense in the income statement to shareholders? MICROSOFT Year Ended June 30      1999        2000        2001 Net income          $  7,785    $  9,421    $  7,346 Stock option income tax benefits           3,107       5,535       2,066

No, that would be a "strawman argument," where the arguer tries to put words into other peoples’ mouths with the intention of later ridiculing them for ’saying’ something that was intentionally constructed as a stupid statement. We were instead discussing the fact that there would be _further consequences_. — http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/lsf.html Rules of the Evil Overlord #25.  "No matter how well it would perform, I  will never  construct any  sort  of machinery  which is  completely indestructible  except  for   one  small  and  virtually  inaccessible vulnerable spot." <http://www.eviloverlord.com/

Response:

So you are in favor of keeping the present system under which half of Microsoft’s GAAP net income is contributions from taxpayers for the Federal and State income tax deductions Microsoft takes when options are exercised? But no expense in the income statement to shareholders? MICROSOFT Year Ended June 30      1999        2000        2001 Net income          $  7,785    $  9,421    $  7,346 Stock option income tax benefits           3,107       5,535       2,066 – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –  CALLED TO ACCOUNT Citigroup to Expense Options, Improve Disclosure on Deals By PAUL BECKETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc., which has been under fire for its dealings with Enron Corp., unveiled a raft of corporate-governance initiatives, including expensing all stock options and requiring companies for which it arranges financing to disclose more information to investors. <snip http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028760527915079120,00.html?mod=ho… This is indeed a positive development as Citigroup is in the financial sector.  Now we need a big IT corporation to take the lead in this sector.  e. g. Sun Microsystems, whose customer satisfaction rating, at least here in Switzerland, is very high.  Perhaps they will do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices.  ;-) Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling. And if leaving options off the income statement was a mistake, causing companies to be wrongly over-valued, this _IS_ supposed to be the result. I can imagine people wanting options to get applied as expenses; to want that, and for share prices _not_ to be depressed as a result, seems pretty inconsistent.

Response:

Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? Sure.  And the fact that World Con actually didn’t make any money in years 1999 thru 2001 would have undoubtedly depressed its stock price. But the relevant point is stock prices should be based on ecoconomic reallity (or as close an aproximation as accounting will allow) not on accounting fiction. At present, companies like Microsoft pass options out like candy, becasue they are essentially free, from an accounting atand point. Actually they are BETTER than free under curent rules, since they get a tax benifit when excercized.

You want to expand on how the options issue ties into the outright fraudulent earnings reporting at WorldComm?  I don’t see the your logic.  Well options aren’t FREE and this economic fact should be reflceted on the income statement so investors know the score and managements don’t give away the store without the results of huge option grants hitting the bottom line where everybodys attention is focused.

I still think options should only be applied to fully diluted earnings per share.  Letting them get anywhere near operating income is, IMHO, a distorting practice.  OTOH, the folks doing the analysis know this and will take them out of the income statement.  So, as with most of these tempests in a teapot, nothing will be accomplished. — *             Ronald Lee Todd M.B.A., C.P.A.                  * *  Unemployed for six years, mistake of being an accountant.  * *   Students, when someone tells you of your great future as  * *       an accountant, ask him to show you the job.           *

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? Sure.  And the fact that World Con actually didn’t make any money in years 1999 thru 2001 would have undoubtedly depressed its stock price. But the relevant point is stock prices should be based on ecoconomic reallity (or as close an aproximation as accounting will allow) not on accounting fiction. At present, companies like Microsoft pass options out like candy, becasue they are essentially free, from an accounting atand point. Actually they are BETTER than free under curent rules, since they get a tax benifit when excercized.  Well options aren’t FREE and this economic fact should be reflceted on the income statement so investors know the score and managements don’t give away the store without the results of huge option grants hitting the bottom line where everybodys attention is focused.

Whatever.  I wasn’t addressing that issue. I was addressing the issue that this would "… do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices…" The only thing I can see the change in reporting policy doing is to _further depress_ the already depressed share prices. If people are dismayed at depressed share prices, and don’t want them further depressed, then changing reporting policy to throw options into the income statement surely _isn’t_ what they’d want. You may think it’s the "necessary thing to do;" that presumably means that you find it necessary to see stock prices further depressed. — http://cbbrowne.com/info/internet.html "Java and C++ make you think that the new ideas are like the old ones. Java is the most distressing thing to hit computing since MS-DOS." — Alan Kay

Response:

Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income?

Sure.  And the fact that World Con actually didn’t make any money in years 1999 thru 2001 would have undoubtedly depressed its stock price. But the relevant point is stock prices should be based on ecoconomic reallity (or as close an aproximation as accounting will allow) not on accounting fiction. At present, companies like Microsoft pass options out like candy, becasue they are essentially free, from an accounting atand point. Actually they are BETTER than free under curent rules, since they get a tax benifit when excercized.  Well options aren’t FREE and this economic fact should be reflceted on the income statement so investors know the score and managements don’t give away the store without the results of huge option grants hitting the bottom line where everybodys attention is focused.

Response:

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –  CALLED TO ACCOUNT Citigroup to Expense Options, Improve Disclosure on Deals By PAUL BECKETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc., which has been under fire for its dealings with Enron Corp., unveiled a raft of corporate-governance initiatives, including expensing all stock options and requiring companies for which it arranges financing to disclose more information to investors. <snip http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028760527915079120,00.html?mod=ho… This is indeed a positive development as Citigroup is in the financial sector.  Now we need a big IT corporation to take the lead in this sector.  e. g. Sun Microsystems, whose customer satisfaction rating, at least here in Switzerland, is very high.  Perhaps they will do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices.  ;-)

Ah, but isn’t the effect of expensing options to add expenses to the income statement, thus depressing reported income? If the result of making options expenses is to _eliminate_ Microsoft’s profits, and to seriously diminish other companys’ incomes, isn’t this going to have the opposite effect? If a whole lot of companys’ incomes are diminished, this will lead to lowered confidence in their values, and in stock prices falling. And if leaving options off the income statement was a mistake, causing companies to be wrongly over-valued, this _IS_ supposed to be the result. I can imagine people wanting options to get applied as expenses; to want that, and for share prices _not_ to be depressed as a result, seems pretty inconsistent. — http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/wp.html "In America,  we have   a  two-party system.    There  is the   stupid party. And there is the evil party.  I am proud to  be a member of the stupid   party.   Periodically, the two  parties   get together and do something   that   is  both stupid   and  evil.     This  is  called – bipartisanship."  – Republican congressional staffer

Response:

Now if they just get rid of Robert Ruben. Attempting to get the Bush Treasury to apply pressure to credit rating agencies to provide false ratings to investors.  If it isn’t a crime, it ought to be. You can just never get rid of the corruption of the Clinton administration; it will be following people around 20 years from now… It is laughable that, while the Bush Administration has been accused of all manner of malfeasance in connection with Enron, so far as I can see the only people who might be accused of fraud or other illegal activity would be the CPAs and former Clinton Administration officials. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –  CALLED TO ACCOUNT Citigroup to Expense Options, Improve Disclosure on Deals By PAUL BECKETT Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL NEW YORK — Citigroup Inc., which has been under fire for its dealings with Enron Corp., unveiled a raft of corporate-governance initiatives, including expensing all stock options and requiring companies for which it arranges financing to disclose more information to investors. <snip

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1028760527915079120,00.html?mod=ho… ats%5Fnews%5Fus – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – This is indeed a positive development as Citigroup is in the financial sector.  Now we need a big IT corporation to take the lead in this sector.  e. g. Sun Microsystems, whose customer satisfaction rating, at least here in Switzerland, is very high.  Perhaps they will do something for their shareholders as well, especially in view of the depressed share prices.  ;-) A. Lucien Meyers, CIA, CMA — If you receive this by error, please delete it and inform the sender. PGP key fingerprint=F1C0 D9AE 1B18 1405 4DFA  B4CC 6DC7 FF78 C76E FB15 To Big Brother Echelon from "spook": Qaddafi Treasury cryptographic Bin Ladin colonel domestic disruption NSA

Response:

Question:

Yes, you can convert Quickbooks to Peachtree.  Since Quickbooks seems to only allow list processing it probably isn’t up to the quality standards of other accounting packages in this regard.  Why not stay with Peachtree.  It is a much better program. Bill Couture

Response:

Yes, you can convert Quickbooks to Peachtree.  Since Quickbooks seems to only allow list processing it probably isn’t up to the quality standards of other accounting packages in this regard.  Why not stay with Peachtree.  It is a much better program. Bill Couture

QB has long allowed transaction imports. Even PT sister companies, ACT and Timeslips, are using the new QBXML exchange.      Mike Block – Tax Cut CPA      #1 QuickBooks Top Tester Lowest QB Price, Free 462p QB book, error codes, shortcuts, 120 Add-ons  http://blocktax.com/ 954-566-7540

Response:

I’m used to open programs like Cougar Mountain, ACCPAC Pro and others. Peachtree with DDE comes close and now  with Crystal Reports is open on the output side.  Frankly, I figure any accounting package with closed tables is junk. Bill Couture

Response:

Does anyone know a way to convert a Peachtree file to QuickBooks? I have a client that is using Peachtree in a system which is way too complicated for their simple business. I have another client who was way too complicated for a simple QuickBooks program. Someone must have created a way to convert one file type to another.  I think I can convert QuickBooks to Peachtree, but I want to convert Peachtree to QuickBooks.  Does anyone know how to do this conversion?  Please?

Response:

Hi again! Perhaps this time I can help you!  I’m not an expert but I found this from the QuickbooksPro online help: If you’ve been using another financial software product, and you’d like to import information from that product into QuickBooks, you can do so if the product allows you to export to a spreadsheet or text file. You can import lists that correspond to QuickBooks lists, budgets, and individual transactions. Tip: The easiest way to see and understand the format QuickBooks needs to import data is to export some of your QuickBooks lists and view the resulting file in a spreadsheet. If you don’t already have a QuickBooks company, you can export lists from the sample data (SAMPLE.QBW). 1 Open the spreadsheet that contains the data. 2 Move the contents of all the cells in your spreadsheet one column to the right so that the first column is blank. 3 Move the contents of all the cells down by one row so that the first row is blank. 4 Check the structure of the spreadsheet. If it contains more than one type of listor a mixture of lists, budgets, and transactionsmake sure that each type of information has its own block in the spreadsheet. The blocks should follow each other vertically. Insert a blank row of cells to separate the blocks. For example, it you have a list of customers and a list of vendors, all the customer data should be in one block and all the vendor information should be in another block. 5 In the first cell in the blank row above each block of information, enter one of the keywords shown in this table. Be sure to include the exclamation point (!). Type this text. . . If the block contains !ACCNT Details about your chart of accounts. !CUST A customer address or phone list. !VEND A vendor address or phone list. !EMP A list of employees. !OTHERNAME A list of names you’d like to add to QuickBooks Other Name list. !BUD Budget details. !CLASS A list of general classifications you’d like to add to QuickBooks Class list. !CTYPE A list of customer classifications you’d like to add to QuickBooks Customer Type list. !INVITEM Details about the line items you use on sales and purchase forms. !INVMEMO Messages you’d like to add to QuickBooks Customer Message list. !PAYMETH A list of payment methods you’d like to add to QuickBooks Payment Method list. !SHIPMETH A list of shipping methods you’d like to add to QuickBooks Ship Via list. !TERMS A list of payment terms you’d like to add to QuickBooks Terms list. !TIMEACT Details about activities you timed with the QuickBooks Pro Timer. Works with !TIMERHDR. !TIMERHDR QuickBooks Pro Timer data. !TODO A list of upcoming "to do" tasks you want QuickBooks to remind you about. !TRNS Transactions. !VTYPE A list of vendor classifications you’d like to add to QuickBooks Vendor Type list. For example, if the spreadsheet contains a list of customers and then a list of vendors, the structure of the spreadsheet would be as follows: !CUST [List of customers] !VEND [List of vendors] 6 Fill in the remaining cells of the first column with the keyword you entered in the first row for each informational block. This time, omit the exclamation point. In our example, the first column would look like this: !CUST CUST CUST [etc.] !VEND VEND VEND [etc.] 7 Complete the first row for each list by adding the headings that QuickBooks expects to find for that type of information. To see a list of the headings you can use, click the type of information you are importing: Chart of accounts  Payroll Item list Budgets  Ship Via list Class list  Terms list Customer Type list  To Do list Customer:Job list  Vendor list Employee list  Vendor Type list Item list  Transactions Customer Message list  Distribution lines in transactions Other Names list  Activities timed with the QuickBooks Pro Timer Payment Method list For example, the first row for a list of vendor names, addresses, and phone numbers would look like this: !VEND NAME ADDR1 ADDR2 ADDR3 ADDR4 ADDR5 PHONE1 PHONE2 8 Make sure that the content of the columns in each block matches the headings you just added: If you have a vendor’s entire address in one column, you need to break it up so that the first line of the address appears under the ADDR1 column, the second line under the ADDR2 column, and so forth.  You may have some columns that are filled with information, but you could find no heading that matched the information. In this case, consider moving the material in those columns to the NOTES column. 9 Save the spreadsheet as a text file. (The columns must be separated by tabs or commas.) Add an .IIF extension to the filename. 10 Start QuickBooks. From the File menu, choose Utilities. Then choose Import and enter the name and path of the file you just created. Click OK. What happens QuickBooks adds the data to your company file, updating any lists as needed. For example, if you have imported a list of vendors, QuickBooks adds the new vendor names to your Vendor list.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Does anyone know a way to convert a Peachtree file to QuickBooks? I have a client that is using Peachtree in a system which is way too complicated for their simple business. I have another client who was way too complicated for a simple QuickBooks program. Someone must have created a way to convert one file type to another.  I think I can convert QuickBooks to Peachtree, but I want to convert Peachtree to QuickBooks.  Does anyone know how to do this conversion?  Please?

Response:

Question:

I use Pattern Maker.  I have it easy to use and reliable to work with! Donna – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Yet another vote for EasyGrapher 2. I have been using this program for a while now, and really like it. I use it mostly for hardanger designs, but just tried a photo-to-chart design recently, and that feature works very nicely in this program. Cindy Brown http://itsastitch.homestead.com/index.html

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Oh Yes Teri…I wanted to replace it …I wanted to throw it out the window or nail it to my driveway BUT then The Angel David came and gave me the support and cleared up the problems and added new features. All of which calmed my soul. All of the replacement options were so chunky looking, this program is like a fine stereo compared to all others. It "clicks" as fast as I can think. I like to see it small then up close then out again and flip it and this has to happen in split seconds or I lose my train of thought. What it does is like the way I think when I design. Thank all of you who helped by sharing your experience with me. I added the best pieces to make this one the ultimate available and I do want to share it with all of you. Marilyn – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –  Some of you may remember me talking about the program my son wrote especially for me. Recently I had some problems with it and had to have some work done on it. This "Angel" named David appeared and not only updated the program making it solid for my use but he has said it wouldn’t be a problem to make it work on a Mac!!!!!! Glad to hear that things are working well for you, Marilyn.  (:  I didn’t realize that you wanted to update your program.  Last we talked, I thought you’d said you were looking for suggestions on a substitute. Yes, as I remember, when you and Chris talked in email about the program your son had created for you, he (Chris) told you that it would be possible to port the program over to a Mac because that program language was independent of the operating system. (Or something to that effect.  Sorry, I’m not *that* computer literate, myself.)  Glad to hear that someone else agreed with that and might be able to help you with it.  (Wish we had a Mac.  There are a lot of things we’ve been wanting to do where Macs were involved but until we can get one we have to put all those things on the back burner.) Best of luck with getting the program ported over! Teri ~~ http://www.craftsoft.com Spring freebies are up at In the Realm of Dreams! **Announcing two new design lines and the free, downloadable CraftGrid graph paper program**

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We’ve been Mac users since 1987 and have five machines plus a laptop I use all the time. Finally broke down last year and bought myself a good PC laptop just to use two charting programs – have the professional version of Il Soft and Compucrafts for the PC. Unfortunately, I don’t use either program much as I’m not crazy abou using a PC but will do if forced to. In today’s business world it’s best to be knowledgeable on both platforms. BTW – SoftWindows is known as SLOWindows for the Mac – this emulator software was never good for my Macs from experience.  I used it with the IL Soft charting program and had it bomb regularly. — Lula http://www.woolydream.com Needlework Adventures

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As long as the program that Sandy is talking about lets you determine the # of colors why couldn’t it be used to create ANY grid based pattern?? Susan p.s I used to use macs for everything (when I was a prof at a major univeristy)-loved them!; when I started my own business, I shifted to a pc machine (for most everything, I still use the OLD powerbook for some graphics and stats work) — I had to, the most critical piece of software for my business didn’t have ANY alternative to pc – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Hi Cheri… What a shame there isn’t a decent stitching program for the Mac.  I have a beadshop and we had the opposite happen here…  the bead design programs that are PC based are really shabby… but there’s a great one for the Mac. We bought an iMac, and iBook, scanner/printer combo, and digital camera. It’s an absolutely wonderful setup.  I’ve been doing about 3 custom patterns a week for my customers.  From silly cartoon like stuff to pictures of their pets. You have to just scan the picture… size it to the desired finished size… save it as a pict… then pop it into the bead program.  The bead program will either figure the beads for you or you can click each bead into place. It’s so fun to use. Are you absolutely positive there isn’t a decent program for the Mac?  I haven’t checked for stitch software…  I cross stitch just as a hobby, and I’m not super interested in designed stitch patterns… at least yet…. but this is something I’m interested in learning more about. Can you tell me what programs you’ve tried already for the Mac? (if any) I’d like to know what you’ve thought of them. Sally Organization: http://www.remarq.com: The World’s Usenet/Discussions Start Here Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles.needlework Hello.  It’s me again, the designer of National Park Needlework, still trying to decide which charting software to buy.  I have always done my designing and charting by hand, and we had an old IBM for accounting.  Last spring we upgraded to an iMac, not realizing that Mac design software was very limited.  I can’t quite bring myself to buy a Mac program when the PC ones look so much better.  I have tried to run PC programs on SoftWindows for Mac, but it hasn’t worked very well…so now we’re considering getting a PC for the business.  I want to be able to scan photos, then rework it to suite my artistic eye.  I want to have clear, easy to read black and white charts.  I want to be able to do typesetting within the software to produce charts for publication.  I have been reading the reviews of software in Just CrossStitch magazine, and have downloaded what I can on my iMac. But I would like to ask for your opinion… What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider? Thank you sooooooo much for you help. Cheri Fulmer FulmerCraft www.vistek.com/html/fulmer.htm Nationa Park Needlewor * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

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Hi Trish, There’s more mac lovers out there than you think. Macs are considered the superior machine in my line of work-graphic design. Michelle

Ah (sadly), but Michelle I live in Australia, where competition from cheap south east Asian clones has really dented the Mac market. People want champagne and are only willing to pay for beer! If I mention Macs in my circles, I get sneers: ‘why pay for that when my PC cost chickenfeed?’ It’s an old argument and one that’ll probably never be resolved. I just love ‘em, though, for the easy way any drongo can do Real Computer Stuff with hardly any effort at all! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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Hi Everbody, I am starting to use StitchPainter Gold by Cochenille. Up until recently, I’ve just drawn freehand on my canvas and winged it from there, but since I plan to offer charts from my web site I need to be a little more regular in my designing process. I like SPG, it is adaptable and if you are familiar with Photoshop, it is based on the same ideas, it has a stitch counting feature that is very handy. It would work for beading, knitting and even quilting. It comes with a DMC pallette but i have had to build my own pallette as i use Paternayan yarns but overall, I would recommend it. Thanks, Polly M. Law/Thrums End Art Studio in the beautiful Mid Hudson Valley of NY, USDA zone 5 Look for the Flying Teapot, your assurance of Delight! <http://www.thrumsend.com Our motto: "Insolitores Res Contiguerunt!" All P.M.Law/T.E.A.S. email is meant to be read in a spirit of calm joviality, not the LIVID ANTAGONISM usually inferred to electronic discourse

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If I mention Macs in my circles, I get sneers: ‘why pay for that when my PC cost chickenfeed?’ It’s an old argument and one that’ll probably never be resolved. I just love ‘em, though, for the easy way any drongo can do Real Computer Stuff with hardly any effort at all! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

There will always be non-believers out there. )  We are die-hard Mac people, though. )  For a while, though, I think they did price themselves out of the market.  I know people who really loved their old Mac, but could replace it with a Pee Cee for less than they could upgrade to the modern Mac at the time.  When it came to the decision between food on the table or a Pee Cee over a Mac, the food and the Pee Cee won.  :-))  If only DH had had extra money that day those guys in the van drove around asking for people to invest in their "new" computer company. )))))) Liz from Humbug

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Smiling at the few Mac lovers coming out of the woodwork: Cut us and we bleed rainbow! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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Smiling at the few Mac lovers coming out of the woodwork: Cut us and we bleed rainbow! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

  Some of you may remember me talking about the program my son wrote especially for me. Recently I had some problems with it and had to have some work done on it. This "Angel" named David appeared and not only updated the program making it solid for my use but he has said it wouldn’t be a problem to make it work on a Mac!!!!!!  The newer ones…… but still if you could see this program you would cry to own it. I have downloaded all of the sample programs and mine is like lightyears ahead. High resolution and many magic features. I have considered making it so that a stitcher could make color changes to my designs…that’s in the dreamstage but it is possible that I may have this software ready to sell soon. E-mail me if you would be interested in something like this? If you peek over my shoulder you can see the new design all finished and ready for the stitchers…….Marilyn

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<BG never heard the "bleed a rainbow" before… too cute. I’ve had a Mac since 1987… and I paid about $3,000 to $4,000 for every one of them… until the iMacs and iBooks came out.  I have one of each here at the shop, and I love ‘em!   I have an ethernet connection so that I can easily plug in my iBook to get design work off the iMac.  We also have a DSL connection (256k) that both of the Macs can use at the same time… and even my Compaq PC laptop  (boy how I hate that thing compared to the Macs!) It’s such a joy to use these things.  It’s almost embarrassing to bring the iBook out in public (coffee houses, etc).. it still gets lots of looks and people are always coming over to see if it’s a "real" computer.  <G. More fun than a computer should be!  <G Sally – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Organization: University of Newcastle Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles.needlework Smiling at the few Mac lovers coming out of the woodwork: Cut us and we bleed rainbow! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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Smiling at the few Mac lovers coming out of the woodwork: Cut us and we bleed rainbow! — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Hi Trish, There’s more mac lovers out there than you think. Macs are considered the superior machine in my line of work-graphic design. Michelle

Response:

 Some of you may remember me talking about the program my son wrote especially for me. Recently I had some problems with it and had to have some work done on it. This "Angel" named David appeared and not only updated the program making it solid for my use but he has said it wouldn’t be a problem to make it work on a Mac!!!!!!

Glad to hear that things are working well for you, Marilyn.  (:  I didn’t realize that you wanted to update your program.  Last we talked, I thought you’d said you were looking for suggestions on a substitute. Yes, as I remember, when you and Chris talked in email about the program your son had created for you, he (Chris) told you that it would be possible to port the program over to a Mac because that program language was independent of the operating system. (Or something to that effect.  Sorry, I’m not *that* computer literate, myself.)  Glad to hear that someone else agreed with that and might be able to help you with it.  (Wish we had a Mac.  There are a lot of things we’ve been wanting to do where Macs were involved but until we can get one we have to put all those things on the back burner.) Best of luck with getting the program ported over! Teri ~~ http://www.craftsoft.com Spring freebies are up at In the Realm of Dreams! **Announcing two new design lines and the free, downloadable CraftGrid graph paper program**

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I’m not a designer, this said, I have used Patternmaker (not the pro edition) and PC Stitch.  As I’ve posted before, I don’t like the fact that in PC Stitch you can only have one window open.  I like to have a couple of doodle windows going so you can cut and paste between them. Other posters have said you can work around this by opening the program more than once – well, yes, you can, but I don’t think you should have to!  Also I find the backstitch on PC Stitch is very hard to line up with the cross stitches.  I do like the specialty stitch feature of PC Stitch, that’s quite cool.  I liked Patternmaker though the version I had (1.0, free with printer) didn’t have anything much beyond cross stitch, backstitch, and picture importing.  But I think both the versions I had were a little too simple for professional work.   Alison

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Hi Cheri… What a shame there isn’t a decent stitching program for the Mac.  I have a beadshop and we had the opposite happen here…  the bead design programs that are PC based are really shabby… but there’s a great one for the Mac. We bought an iMac, and iBook, scanner/printer combo, and digital camera. It’s an absolutely wonderful setup.  I’ve been doing about 3 custom patterns a week for my customers.  From silly cartoon like stuff to pictures of their pets. You have to just scan the picture… size it to the desired finished size… save it as a pict… then pop it into the bead program.  The bead program will either figure the beads for you or you can click each bead into place. It’s so fun to use. Are you absolutely positive there isn’t a decent program for the Mac?  I haven’t checked for stitch software…  I cross stitch just as a hobby, and I’m not super interested in designed stitch patterns… at least yet…. but this is something I’m interested in learning more about. Can you tell me what programs you’ve tried already for the Mac? (if any) I’d like to know what you’ve thought of them. Sally – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Organization: http://www.remarq.com: The World’s Usenet/Discussions Start Here Newsgroups: rec.crafts.textiles.needlework Hello.  It’s me again, the designer of National Park Needlework, still trying to decide which charting software to buy.  I have always done my designing and charting by hand, and we had an old IBM for accounting.  Last spring we upgraded to an iMac, not realizing that Mac design software was very limited.  I can’t quite bring myself to buy a Mac program when the PC ones look so much better.  I have tried to run PC programs on SoftWindows for Mac, but it hasn’t worked very well…so now we’re considering getting a PC for the business.  I want to be able to scan photos, then rework it to suite my artistic eye.  I want to have clear, easy to read black and white charts.  I want to be able to do typesetting within the software to produce charts for publication.  I have been reading the reviews of software in Just CrossStitch magazine, and have downloaded what I can on my iMac. But I would like to ask for your opinion… What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider? Thank you sooooooo much for you help. Cheri Fulmer FulmerCraft www.vistek.com/html/fulmer.htm Nationa Park Needlewor * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

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Hello.  It’s me again, the designer of National Park Needlework, still trying to decide which charting software to buy.  I have always done my designing and charting by hand, and we had an old IBM for accounting.  Last spring we upgraded to an iMac, not realizing that Mac design software was very limited.  I can’t quite bring myself to buy a Mac program when the PC ones look so much better.  I have tried to run PC programs on SoftWindows for Mac, but it hasn’t worked very well…so now we’re considering getting a PC for the business.  I want to be able to scan photos, then rework it to suite my artistic eye.  I want to have clear, easy to read black and white charts.  I want to be able to do typesetting within the software to produce charts for publication.  I have been reading the reviews of software in Just CrossStitch magazine, and have downloaded what I can on my iMac. But I would like to ask for your opinion… What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider? Thank you sooooooo much for you help. Cheri Fulmer FulmerCraft www.vistek.com/html/fulmer.htm Nationa Park Needlewor * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

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Yet another vote for EasyGrapher 2. I have been using this program for a while now, and really like it. I use it mostly for hardanger designs, but just tried a photo-to-chart design recently, and that feature works very nicely in this program. Cindy Brown http://itsastitch.homestead.com/index.html

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I also use XSGold Premium Plus and I think it is the best-  I used EasyGrapher previously and I think XSGold is much better and more versatle. They have a demo at their web site too. Betsy Elizabeth Foster www.elizabethsdesigns.com

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Sally – I am not absolutely sure that there isn’t a decent charting program for Mac.  I just haven’t been satisfied with what I can find, once I compare it to the PC software.  I tried PCStitch on my iMac with SoftWindows.  It would probably work OK. The instructions were good. But the SoftWindows was driving me crazy.  So then I downloaded a Pro-Stitch demo for Mac.  There were no instructions.  I’m the type that likes to follow instructions.  I got frustrated.  I was really interested in ilsoft’s program for Macintosh.  But when I emailed them I was told the Mac program is only available on floppy disc, and wouldn’t work on my iMac. I love my iMac, but I want the most up to date charting software. (And our 10 year old son is campaigning for a PC so he can play a Scooby Doo game that is only for PC…along with other PC only action games.)  We can actually use 2 computers…one for the office and one for the home.  So it almost makes sense to have one of each…mac and PC. Anymore thoughts out there from the rest of you? Thanks for your help. * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

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I’m not a ‘designer’ per se, but I do like to chart my own stuff from time to time. I *really* like WinStitch too! It shares the same algorithm I have in my brain and I find it much better than most of the other programs out there. However, I hear a lot of people say they’re not so keen on it. This leads me to suggest that you’ll need to try a few programs to get a feel for what speaks to you. Kathy Dyer has many of the downloadable ones listed on her site. Why not go and twiddle with a few demos and see what you enjoy most? — Trish {|:OI} Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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(for some reason, when I post the message, I usually loose some of the last letters…we’ll see what happens this

Um… you lost them. Is it a remarq error, perhaps? –Kris (who uses Pattern Maker, non-pro version, for my freebies) Free Needlework Charts!   Moonshadow Stitchery: http://www.crosswinds.net/~msstitchery/

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I realize now that I should not have limited my request to "designers" in my topic sentence, but rather to "anyone" who uses charting software!  I hope more people add to this list.  I’m having fun going to the different web sites as I read each post. It was too mind boggling to look at the list of Software Companies and try to make heads or tails of it…but now there is a method to my madness.  Thanks a lot. Cheri Fulmer (for some reason, when I post the message, I usually loose some of the last letters…we’ll see what happens this * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

Response:

Another vote for Easy Grapher Professional 2.  Would love their Stitch Wiz but finances prohibit that at this time!!! Sue Ann — X/Can/ H+++/X25Y24Y22X19/ x4y2/HXNK/R~+10/ HarrisonFord/Catherine Cookson and mysteries/M&M’s.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider? I use Patternmaker Pro (for PC) and have been very happy with it.  I just recently got Easy Grapher Stitch Wiz to use for my diagrams.  I import the charts and diagrams into Microsoft Publisher to do my layout where I add all the words, etc. Barb SIC http://www.somethingincom.com

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Thank you for adding "another vote".  In reading past posts about this topic, I have usually seen each title mentioned only once…and what I"m interested in is a real tally on what everyone likes….I think other rctn members will be interested too! Best wishes, Ch * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!

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Hello, Elisabeth calling in from Sweden. I have used PC-stitch earlier, now on Win-Stitch – which suits me better – and have made a try on Easy Cross Enterprise, which I have decided to buy as soon as I can afford it. I both scan pictures and make them myself "free-hand". For this I like Win-Stitch best. When it comes to borders, PC-stitch is better. wbr Elisabeth WIP: Dream Catch! (own design), Violets Table Topper (Iltex Design). – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider?

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What software do you use?  Are you happy with it?  If you were buying a new program, what ones would you consider?

I use Patternmaker Pro (for PC) and have been very happy with it.  I just recently got Easy Grapher Stitch Wiz to use for my diagrams.  I import the charts and diagrams into Microsoft Publisher to do my layout where I add all the words, etc. Barb SIC http://www.somethingincom.com

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Question:

Not to mention the Oregon resident who went to register his new car with the DMV and when the title came back, he discovered he was the owner of a 1900 Buick! (not that I would mind having one of those!) Be sure yu have a manual pencil sharpener.

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Speaking of North America.  There are scenarios being pondered by DOD that involve war(s) generated by other countries against us due to our systems being down, their systems being down, or just as a good time to strike.  One that I consider a higher than nonsense probability is North Korea/China storming South Korea and extending on to the US territories.   Be an interesting world if someone fires their nukes at us and blames it on a Y2K bug. The third world countries have fewer computerized systems than the advanced countries, but of the computers they DO have, most of their software is bootleg.  Therefore, they can’t call up the manufacturer and require a quick bug fix. AI Nut – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – On top of everything else, I spent half a year fixing computer systems with problems. Some of them so deep in the system, it took Microsoft 6 months to admit that they were a problem. That aside, the typical problem I see will be everyone running to their phone 5 minutes after midnight to see if it is working. Along with thousands of others in the same area. Will there be enough current to create a dial tone for all these phones at the same time? If not – oh my gosh look honey the phones are dead!!!! Then the same people will run to the bathrooms, flush the toilets (as everyone else also does at about the same time) and wonder – oh honey the water isn’t refilling the toilet!!!! (Meanwhile out in the streets the sewers are flooded from a load that it was never intended. None of this is Y2K – this is just plain ignorance on the part of humans. None of the public information I have read has told people what not to do, and many still have no concept of what Y2k is about. There will be problems, and I think that is what has many of the doom sayers going. The lack of attention/care now to the potential problems are what is the problem, and as humans, our nature is to just say, ‘oh that won’t happen to me’. And since many people are not very good at problem solving when confronted with something new, they will either panic or ignore it. The problems which will surface could take days, weeks or even months. And even then, the direct association to Y2k may not be obvious. I’m sure that for the first few weeks, it will be the best excuse going. Ah it doesn’t work cause of Y2k. But much like working on the engine, finding the exact cause for a noise is given up for – ah lets just replace that part and see if that fixes it. Many problems may never truly be found. As for many stand alone processors and PCBs, most with chips like the Dallas date chip (which does have problems and millions are in use), everything you power down the circuit, providing there is not residual power, the clock will set itself back to the initial date. So for many of these systems to fail they may need to be running for 10 – 20 years straight. I think many of those in this NG, will have the common sense just like when they go on the road and take the precautions that they do in preparing, if you take the time to look at your own situation in terms of Y2k and do some basic prep. you should be find. Atleast here in North America. There probably will be some Y2K bugs but they will likely be more of the kind like I encountered last year at an AMC theatre in Florida which, at that time, had to manually process credit cards which had expiry dates like 00/08. You are right in that many companies already encountered and overcame their first Y2K "Event horizon" sometime in the past 12-18 months due to calculations involving future dates.  The most likely candidates for trouble now are older programs that were originally written in the early 80s or before.  The bug may lurk deep in code which has not been upgraded or tested since then because, surprise, it has always worked! Small to medium businesses and municipalities are the most likely candidates for problems.  Not all of them, but some. Glad to be out of the Y2K business, Greg Before you buy.

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Updated: January 26, 1999 These documents were written by ITL staff, or were reproduced with the permission of the original authors and are available for use within any organization. Documents referenced directly on this page include– Guide to Contingency Planning and Business Continuity Plans Short description of the Year 2000 computer problem

Etc.,etc.,etc. Good valid info!  ZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZ. Oops!, Is it time to get up?!?!?!?

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Sounds like the wife will be fixing you some rule three crow for you!  You WILL be telling her you’re wrong, right? Not so fast, Mickey may be able to skate through on this one.  The calendar may still not be Y2K compliant.  Check to see if the following months have been spelled correctly:  Januark, Februark, Mak, and Julk. Then there are the days, er, daks, of the week.

There probably will be some Y2K bugs but they will likely be more of the kind like I encountered last year at an AMC theatre in Florida which, at that time, had to manually process credit cards which had expiry dates like 00/08. — Don Dickson

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There probably will be some Y2K bugs but they will likely be more of the kind like I encountered last year at an AMC theatre in Florida which, at that time, had to manually process credit cards which had expiry dates like 00/08.

You are right in that many companies already encountered and overcame their first Y2K "Event horizon" sometime in the past 12-18 months due to calculations involving future dates.  The most likely candidates for trouble now are older programs that were originally written in the early 80s or before.  The bug may lurk deep in code which has not been upgraded or tested since then because, surprise, it has always worked! Small to medium businesses and municipalities are the most likely candidates for problems.  Not all of them, but some. Glad to be out of the Y2K business, Greg Before you buy.

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On top of everything else, I spent half a year fixing computer systems with problems. Some of them so deep in the system, it took Microsoft 6 months to admit that they were a problem. That aside, the typical problem I see will be everyone running to their phone 5 minutes after midnight to see if it is working. Along with thousands of others in the same area. Will there be enough current to create a dial tone for all these phones at the same time? If not – oh my gosh look honey the phones are dead!!!! Then the same people will run to the bathrooms, flush the toilets (as everyone else also does at about the same time) and wonder – oh honey the water isn’t refilling the toilet!!!! (Meanwhile out in the streets the sewers are flooded from a load that it was never intended. None of this is Y2K – this is just plain ignorance on the part of humans. None of the public information I have read has told people what not to do, and many still have no concept of what Y2k is about. There will be problems, and I think that is what has many of the doom sayers going. The lack of attention/care now to the potential problems are what is the problem, and as humans, our nature is to just say, ‘oh that won’t happen to me’. And since many people are not very good at problem solving when confronted with something new, they will either panic or ignore it. The problems which will surface could take days, weeks or even months. And even then, the direct association to Y2k may not be obvious. I’m sure that for the first few weeks, it will be the best excuse going. Ah it doesn’t work cause of Y2k. But much like working on the engine, finding the exact cause for a noise is given up for – ah lets just replace that part and see if that fixes it. Many problems may never truly be found. As for many stand alone processors and PCBs, most with chips like the Dallas date chip (which does have problems and millions are in use), everything you power down the circuit, providing there is not residual power, the clock will set itself back to the initial date. So for many of these systems to fail they may need to be running for 10 – 20 years straight. I think many of those in this NG, will have the common sense just like when they go on the road and take the precautions that they do in preparing, if you take the time to look at your own situation in terms of Y2k and do some basic prep. you should be find. Atleast here in North America. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – There probably will be some Y2K bugs but they will likely be more of the kind like I encountered last year at an AMC theatre in Florida which, at that time, had to manually process credit cards which had expiry dates like 00/08. You are right in that many companies already encountered and overcame their first Y2K "Event horizon" sometime in the past 12-18 months due to calculations involving future dates.  The most likely candidates for trouble now are older programs that were originally written in the early 80s or before.  The bug may lurk deep in code which has not been upgraded or tested since then because, surprise, it has always worked! Small to medium businesses and municipalities are the most likely candidates for problems.  Not all of them, but some. Glad to be out of the Y2K business, Greg Before you buy.

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Sounds like the wife will be fixing you some rule three crow for you!  You WILL be telling her you’re wrong, right?

Not so fast, Mickey may be able to skate through on this one.  The calendar may still not be Y2K compliant.  Check to see if the following months have been spelled correctly:  Januark, Februark, Mak, and Julk. Then there are the days, er, daks, of the week. Regards, Greg Before you buy.

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Bet to differ but this is how I see the definition of a "leap year." The calendar year is 365 days long, unless the year is exactly divisible by 4, in which case an extra day is added to February to make the year 366 days long. If the year is the last year of a century, e.g. 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, then it is only a leap year if it is exactly divisible by 400. Therefore, 1900 wasn’t a leap year but 2000 will be. The reason for these rules is to bring the average length of the calendar year into line with the length of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, so that the seasons always occur during the same months each year. ‘ello, The wife went out to do some Christmas shopping yesterday. As usual, she gets calendars for the young’ins and copies all the family’s birthdays and whatnot into them before wrapping them up. It seems that most (but not all!) of the 2000 calendars show it as a leap year and include February 29th. (2000 is not a leap year) I asked her why she bought ones with the leap year and got "Well, that’s all they had."  (<grumble) Mickey.

–    Dick Martin    http://home.cdsnet.net/~martin13

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By the way … A1 Sauce goes well with crow.

Maybe I can get by with some crow chili. With enough BEANS and peppers, anything tastes good. Chili – breakfast of champions! (Speaking of which, I finished off the last of the last chili batch this AM. The wife was having a cup of coffee and said "Next time you make chili, get some better meat. With that last batch, you could still see where the jockey was hitting it.") Mickey.

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It seems that most (but not all!) of the 2000 calendars show it as a

leap year and include February 29th. (2000 is not a leap year)

Mickey, you’ve stumbled again!!  2000 IS A LEAP YEAR!!! — http://homepages.go.com/~tomjanis/ http://homepages.go.com/~aviontravelcade/ Before you buy.

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Just for the ‘hay’ of it I went and looked at the 2000 cal. I bought and it does have Feb.29 on it. If its not a leap year, why? Websiter

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Updated: January 26, 1999 These documents were written by ITL staff, or were reproduced with the permission of the original authors and are available for use within any organization. Documents referenced directly on this page include–

Question:

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And after that free month, it’ll be cheaper than ADP or Paychex?  Hmmmm…… — Gina M. Dent BookSmart St. Louis, MO – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –     Tired of the high costs of Paychex and ADP? Do you need a payroll company but simply can’t afford one? Well thank goodness for Tax Cutters,     Tax Cutters, a full service accounting firm is offering one FREE month of payroll services with every new annual contract. Please call us at 609-401-1967 or reply to this message by e-mail for more information.

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Absolutely it will be. At Tax Cutters, our prices are normal lower and we don’t charge for things like W-2’s and envelopes. When you are an expert in an area as opposed to a dabbler, you can reduce your costs and thereby pass on the savings to your customers. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – And after that free month, it’ll be cheaper than ADP or Paychex?  Hmmmm…… — Gina M. Dent BookSmart St. Louis, MO     Tired of the high costs of Paychex and ADP? Do you need a payroll company but simply can’t afford one? Well thank goodness for Tax Cutters,     Tax Cutters, a full service accounting firm is offering one FREE month of payroll services with every new annual contract. Please call us at 609-401-1967 or reply to this message by e-mail for more information.

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Question:

There have been 16 new FASB statements since ‘92. I would recommend a newer edition. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I have a friend who is planning a review of Intermediate Accounting. The text book he plans on using is one from Kieso and Weygandt, a 1992 version. There is a 1999 version of Intermediate accounting from the same authors. Tell me, has financial accounting changed enough that he must buy the 1999 version or can he still use the 1992 version of Intermediate Accounting from the same authors?

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I have a friend who is planning a review of Intermediate Accounting. The text book he plans on using is one from Kieso and Weygandt, a 1992 version. There is a 1999 version of Intermediate accounting from the same authors. Tell me, has financial accounting changed enough that he must buy the 1999 version or can he still use the 1992 version of Intermediate Accounting from the same authors?

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Question:

I’d just appreciate it if you actually did some homework about what we actually do before mouthing off. Best Regards Charles Caldas GENERAL MANAGER SHOCK RECORDS

Howdy Charlie, You tell em! I hope alls going well for you in the music industry. It is a very small world indeed. All the best Bill Tolson

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You think Shock is not a major or good exporter.  Well, $11 million dollars last year was their exports from a total turnover of $27 million and they run rings around MDS and others.  As for their being appalling as you suggest, you’re obviously not one of the lucky ones who get a lot of return from overseas sales. But all labels in Australia should export, their own if they have to but through legitimate distributors when they can who do attend overseas trade shows and place product in major territories that lead to band tours. PHIL TRIPP

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I was interested to see your comments regarding Shock’s export arm. It may interest you to know that in the past year, Shock Export has sold over $10 million dollars of product out of the country, including a significant amount of Australian metal.         As I’m sure you are aware Shock does more than any other record company for Metal in this country, and particularly supports local bands in getting their product released. As part of this, we make as great an effort as possible to sell Australian Metal overseas. The fact that some titles are harder to sell than others doesn’t make us a shit exporter. it just means there is more demand for some titles than others. We do as much as we can to export Australian music overseas and have had some incredible successes. BODYJAR now has deals in the USA, UK, Europe, Japan and SE Asia and FRENZAL RHOMB are also on the verge of a huge US deal. I know that neither of these are metal acts, but there’s nothing to say that we won’t have success with Australian metal overseas.         Anyway, I hope this goes some way towards clearing up your misconceptions about Shock Export. By the way, we actually use Warhead to help us sell more metal overseas in case they have different contacts to us. A simple phone call or e-mail to us could have told you that.         Finally Mark, there’s no point slagging people in the scene off in a forum like a newsgroup. We try fucking hard to sell as much product as we can in Australia and overseas. The last thing we need is for people to be out there saying we’re "appaling" at our jobs, particularly without contacting us to get proper information!!. The metal scene is strong because people stick together and work towards a common goal. You have a perfect forum with your homepage to promote Australian metal overseas and we have supported you in the past with samples and information. Why you want to slag us off is beyond me. We’ll keep doing what we do to promote metal. I’d just appreciate it if you actually did some homework about what we actually do before mouthing off. Best Regards Charles Caldas GENERAL MANAGER SHOCK RECORDS

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: Refusing to follow the lead of Warner Music – who recently raised their : prices to $31 at retail – : Yeah. $31 is an absolute toss of a price to pay for a CD. Just say no. I’ve never spent more than $25 for a CD, that’s including top 40 CD’s (not that I buy them). JB-HiFi has several stores throughout Victoria (I’m not sure about the rest of Australia), they sell all new CD’s at this price; the only CD’s that are higher than this are imports and rarities (even then they’re cheaper than you’ll find anywhere else in the state). Ash.

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[ stuff about lower CD prices snipped ] : As the largest independent distributor of Australian labels and artists – : they have more Australian recording artists than all multinational record : labels combined – and the largest exporter of Australian music, Shock sells : 95% of their Australian CDs at $28 RRP.  They announce today they are : further reducing 10 top-selling titles to $25! Shock Records – Australias largest exporter of Aussie music? I find this a little difficult to believe. From what I’ve heard, they are quite appalling at this! I know this from one of the A&R guys, who also happens to front a band on that label. Their CD, amongst others also on the label, are being distributed overseas by local Sydney label Warhead, which is considering smaller in size to Shock. I’ve always considered Shock to be a great importer and distributor, not the other way around. [ more CD price stuff snipped ]          http://www.ausmetal.com.au/            

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In a move that will rock the music industry, one of the top six record companies in Australia – Melbourne-based Shock Music Group – has decided to lead the way in reducing record prices for Australian youth and challenges both the Federal Government and the multinational record companies to unite in lowering CD prices.

Well that’s good news, but not necessarily earth-shattering, since most independent labels offer their work for *significantly* less. All the hype is ignoring the progressive work being done by Australian (and for that matter world-wide) independent labels. Our (Transmission Communications) CD’s typically retail for Aus$19.95, not $25, $28, or even higher. Of course, we are working purely on consignment, pay our own sales tax, do our own distribution (successfully I might add, you don’t need to pay big $$$ to achieve decent coverage), advertising, etc. Problem is we don’t have the spare oil to grease up the popular media. That’s the main difference here, the majors can call the shots on radio, press, etc. It’s much harder to get the mindshare of a public, based purely on the merits of your activity. Independence works, and it gives the producers (and those in the public who actually take time to seek out new things) lots of satisfaction. As the largest independent distributor of Australian labels and artists – they have more Australian recording artists than all multinational record labels combined – and the largest exporter of Australian music, Shock sells 95% of their Australian CDs at $28 RRP.  They announce today they are further reducing 10 top-selling titles to $25!

That is to say they sell enough from these top 10 to cover the shortfall in retail price. It’s not hard to shop around your indy stores to get specials on the top 10 titles of anything. Still… mustn’t grumble… Refusing to follow the lead of Warner Music – who recently raised their prices to $31 at retail –

Yeah. $31 is an absolute toss of a price to pay for a CD. Just say no. Shock Records is calling on record companies to rationalise their prices and the Federal Government to totally eliminate the sales tax on CDs – deemed a luxury item, unlike pornography, rock t-shirts, books or software.  Further, Shock calls for a Music Industry Summit, similar to last year’s Canberra event where the new government and the music industry can engage in a meaningful dialogue for change.

That’s good, because our current rate of 22% is a hefty price to pay. Under GST we could have gotten away with it for 15%, but we won’t go into that because it had other problems. It all costs the end-consumer. If you have a summit, remember to ask the boutique labels OK… As Shock Records Managing Director David Williams details, "The Australian consumer – especially young music buyers – demands lower CD prices and we’ve been giving them Australian artists and making a profit at $28. So we believe the majors can too, if they only try.  

Thats’s a big ask Dave, because the majors couldn’t care less about anything other than the bottom line, which is a fair enough viewpoint from their perspective. Especially in Australia, where the concept of local talent is pretty low on the list of priorities. Take a look at our top 40 any week of the year. One day we’ll stop relying on the UK and (worse) the US for the bulk of our ear candy. If you’re going to ask the majors to try and adopt a reasonable pricing strategy, ask them to adopt a reasonable A&R strategy as well. But the biggest profiteer in music is the Federal Government who reap $100 million+ from the 22% records sales tax that inflate CD prices incredibly."

Right on there. It should be scaled to benefit local product. That’s too sensible I fear. "We also know that a few greedy record retailers are jacking up prices beyond what the record companies suggest.  

Yep, all the time. For consignment, we’re talking anywhere from 15% to 40% markup on wholesale prices, ignoring the suggested RRP which is usually based on a reasonable 27.5% markup. And we want the public to know that our Australian releases are sold at a reasonable price that benefits both our artists and company.  With our recent distribution deal with the 100% Australian artist rooArt label roster – along with our other strong homegrown labels such as Au Go Go, Rubber, Hot and our own in-house labels – we represent the majority of signed recording Australian artists with national and global distribution.  

That’s fine, but again I urge the reader to support your local band’s cassette release. It may be ultra-collectible one day. Get out and see a band. Ignore popular radio, ignore popular press. Subscribe to your public station, buy a fanzine. Support independent labels. A deal between the Government and ARIA last December effectively reduced the sales tax component on CDs from 22% to 18.3% on full price CDs – taking into account the CD booklet portion of the CD package & other considerations.  But those little record labels that self distribute or go through non-cluey distributors still pay the 22%.

TransCom self-distributes and pays 22%. We’re looking into what "full price" really means… Despite the sales tax effectively being lowered, Warner Music raised wholesale prices quietly January by about $.74.  Taking into account the retailer margin of 27.5% – their topline records retail at $30.95.

Again, just say no. Support alternative music and media in all its forms. Dennis Remmer Principal, TransCom     T r a n s m i s s i o n C o m m u n i c a t i o n s M C M X C V I      PO Box 30 Toowong Queensland 4066 Australia Ph (+61)-7-38705710

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EMBARGOED Press Release – Embargoed to June 12, 6 am – EMBARGOED Press Release     SHOCK TO MUSIC INDUSTRY – "DELIVER LOW CD PRICES TO CONSUMERS, OR ELSE!"       TOP AUSTRALIAN RECORD LABEL CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT & MULTINATIONALS In a move that will rock the music industry, one of the top six record companies in Australia – Melbourne-based Shock Music Group – has decided to lead the way in reducing record prices for Australian youth and challenges both the Federal Government and the multinational record companies to unite in lowering CD prices. As the largest independent distributor of Australian labels and artists – they have more Australian recording artists than all multinational record labels combined – and the largest exporter of Australian music, Shock sells 95% of their Australian CDs at $28 RRP.  They announce today they are further reducing 10 top-selling titles to $25! Refusing to follow the lead of Warner Music – who recently raised their prices to $31 at retail – Shock Records is calling on record companies to rationalise their prices and the Federal Government to totally eliminate the sales tax on CDs – deemed a luxury item, unlike pornography, rock t-shirts, books or software.  Further, Shock calls for a Music Industry Summit, similar to last year’s Canberra event where the new government and the music industry can engage in a meaningful dialogue for change. As Shock Records Managing Director David Williams details, "The Australian consumer – especially young music buyers – demands lower CD prices and we’ve been giving them Australian artists and making a profit at $28. So we believe the majors can too, if they only try.  In our economy of scale, we don’t have the bloated executive infrastructure with foreign sedans or limos, upper six figure wages & inflated expense accounts. We don’t hold sales or marketing conferences at trendy holiday resorts.  We record in Australia with local producers where possible at lower costs than the multinationals.  But the biggest profiteer in music is the Federal Government who reap $100 million+ from the 22% records sales tax that inflate CD prices incredibly." "We also know that a few greedy record retailers are jacking up prices beyond what the record companies suggest.  And we want the public to know that our Australian releases are sold at a reasonable price that benefits both our artists and company.  With our recent distribution deal with the 100% Australian artist rooArt label roster – along with our other strong homegrown labels such as Au Go Go, Rubber, Hot and our own in-house labels – we represent the majority of signed recording Australian artists with national and global distribution.  And the spectre of Government bringing in parallel importing as a quick populist fix to reduce prices is doomed to failure and may have fatal repercussions for local bands and songwriters." Williams points to the importation of records as not only depriving local artists and manufacturers of fair royalties and income.  It also will cause a massive payout in the balance of deficits.  "If the government eliminates sales tax and the music industry put their weight behind cost-cutting and retailer surveillance, the difference in prices for local release versus overseas parallel imports via the Internet or retailers would be brought into line.  The resulting boom in local product being sold through retail would boost industry jobs, profits for companies and taxes for the government, offsetting sales tax loss by real economic growth and money not pouring offshore." The10 top-selling Shock albums for $25 are Bodyjar "Rimshot", Lush "Lovelife", Glide "Disappear Here", Underground Lovers "Rushall Station", Rancid "And Out Come The Wolves", The Dam Builders "Ruby Red", Pennywise "About Time", Green Day "Kerplunk", NOFX "Heavy Petting Zoo" and Offspring "Smash". BACKGROUND PAGE FOLLOWS Interviews, photos etc – Phil Tripp (02) 557 7766         SIMPLE FACTS ON SHOCK RECORDS & THE AUSTRALIAN RECORD INDUSTRY An average Shock $27.95 CD album breaks down as follows:  Retailer $8.10 (29%), Distributor $4.20 (15%), Record Label $3.35 (12%) Marketing/Promo $3.00 (11%), Tax $3.00 (11% adjusted to retail price from wholesale tax level), Artist Royalty $2.75 (10%), Manufacture & Packaging $2.00 (7%) and Songwriter $1.55 (5.5%). Major multinational record companies often allow only 27.5% retail margins – down to 22% for TV advertised product.  Incentives (mobile phones, free tickets & t-shirts, full returns and other rorts) are given to retailers for chart reporting promotion. A deal between the Government and ARIA last December effectively reduced the sales tax component on CDs from 22% to 18.3% on full price CDs – taking into account the CD booklet portion of the CD package & other considerations.  But those little record labels that self distribute or go through non-cluey distributors still pay the 22%. Despite the sales tax effectively being lowered, Warner Music raised wholesale prices quietly January by about $.74.  Taking into account the retailer margin of 27.5% – their topline records retail at $30.95. Sales tax is paid by the retailer when they buy records from distributors – not when they are sold – and the distributors collect for government creating a huge bankroll. Consumers can buy through the Internet and order up to 10 CDs for under A$200, and thereby avoid sales tax and duty – delivered by air within days at an average price of A$17 including shipping costs.  This is becoming a massive drain on retail. Whenever an Australian artist’s recording is purchased from overseas (by Internet or import) they only get 50% of the royalty they’d get if it was sold here because of record deals.  The record company also gets less, the songwriter 50% of their royalty and the music publisher 50% of what they would collect.  It often takes a year to collect the money from the overseas sale due to industry accounting practises.  The local retailer gets nothing, the distributor loses a sale, the local CD manufacturer misses out, same with the printer of the booklet.  The government loses tax and loses out further by every dollar going offshore with little returning home through the Net. Under current copyright laws, record companies have the right to exclusively sell their artists’ recordings without commercial quantities being imported by others.  If the Government implements parallel importing, anyone can bring in any recording in any amount, including cheaper overseas releases of Australian artist recordings. The top retailers (and ones most likely to parallel import) are major foreign owned chains.  Mom & Pop stores and specialist retailers are dying – while major chains get hefty discounts, co-op advertising dollars, gifts, free goods & favouarable credit terms. Shock’s major concern is import of cutout or deleted records from other countries or pirate records where no royalties are paid to the artists or songwriters. Records are a cultural item, yet are taxed as luxury items. Hard core pornography with music in the background, computer software (even with music), t-shirts with rock band photos or album cover images, rock books, even sheet music are not taxed! Only eight years old, Shock Music Group turned over in 94-95 $27 million in sales  including $11 million in export sales.  It has 110 employees in Melbourne Sydney, Brisbane, Perth & Adelaide.  Shock Records distribute over 200 Australian artists, more than 100 overseas labels, 40+ Australian labels and a catalogue of over 10,000 recordings. Australian artists represent more than 30% of Shock’s top 20 best sellers. Shock Records and its affiliate labels invest largely in Australian artists whereas most major multinationals invest minimally locally – sourcing their major catalogue mostly from masters, art, videos and other material from overseas affiliates at neglible origination costs.  But the consumer pays the same high price for local or overseas product from the majors whereas Shock & local indies have a price economy of scale. For interviews, photos & further info on Shock, contact Phil Tripp (02) 557 7766.

Response:

Here in the US, where CD prices are fairly low compared to the rest of the world, I am still utterly incensed by the prices record labels charge for new releases. To make matters worse, the artist (as almost any educated musician will tell you) hardly makes a penny off the recording. As I understand it, the only way that an artist on a major label makes any profit from the sound recording itself is if the album is selling at full price… nothing less. If the album sells through a record club (even at full record club prices), goes into the cutout bins, or (god forbid) goes on sale, the artist does not see a dime except from songwriting royalties (in theory). CDs cost less than cassettes to manufacture these days, es- pecially in the bulk quantities that major labels manufacture. Yet the machine continues to sell at the same ridiculous price that they charged when the media first emerged thirteen years ago! And they wonder why the industry is in an 18-month slump. Record labels like Dischord in the US put albums out for $8 _postpaid_. (I picked up the latest Fugazi full-length for under $6 on sale.) They are (arguably; only Ian Mackaye could truthfully answer) still turning a good enough profit to stay in biz and maintain their reasonable prices. Mean- while, the trend in the majors is to sell a "risky" band at the "low" price of $11.98 or so for the first few months, while the price on big releases gets jacked up to $16.98 (but if you’re dumb enough to buy the new Mariah Carey you deserve to get stuck with that price tag). As someone who receives calls from record promoters on a daily basis, I have witnessed the trend of record companies throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks. If a record doesn’t stick in the first two weeks of its release, they usually stop promoting it, because they’re aware of how clueless they are about good music. The $15 price tag is simply a way of paying for these errors in the artist & repertoire division. Well, HERE’s a concept, record companies: if you charge half as much for a CD, you will effectively KILL the used market, because there will no longer be much profit in it. Consumers will be more WILLING to buy CDs, and will probably buy TWICE as much in gratitude. Remember, your main market is the 14-to-21 age group, who have little more than pocket change to work with. Money’s getting tighter all the time. Why should the kid check out that new Jesus Lizard record when he can get their back stock for $6.00 apiece used? Bring that price tag down by half, and EVERYONE will profit. According to my calculations, at roughly $.30 a CD (which is about what it costs for a production run of 500,000), you could still turn about 1000% profit before markup at a MSRP of $8 or so. So get with it, Hollywood lameasses! sorry so rambly bor —              …constructing music that will destroy the masses                              (coming soon to a major near you)

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: EMBARGOED Press Release – Embargoed to June 12, 6 am – EMBARGOED Press Release *looks at calendar* I won’t tell if you won’t . : In a move that will rock the music industry, one of the top six record Boom tish. : 95% of their Australian CDs at $28 RRP.  They announce today they are : further reducing 10 top-selling titles to $25! Great news! And I seriously do applaud this gesture. It’s a Good Thing. Don’t get me wrong. But I fear it is only a gesture. If they’d said "… reducing all albums to $25" I would have been over the moon. As it stands though, it’s a marketing exercise. : rationalise their prices and the Federal Government to totally eliminate : the sales tax on CDs – deemed a luxury item, unlike pornography, rock Nice idea, but I don’t think a government that’s just about to cut tertiary education spending by 5-12% is going to give away that nice little earner. : Government who reap $100 million+ from the 22% records sales tax that See? It’s an awful lot of money. They’re not going to give it back. A valiant effort, and I sincerely do hope that it wakes everyone up and CDs come down to $20 next week, but I can’t see it happening. Cheers, — | "Their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their   : :    superficial design flaws." — Douglas Adams on Microsof, er,  |                   the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation         – — —+   Join the NU Comp Sci Society! http://wwwcs.newcastle.edu.au/CSS/

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