And If a Life’s Not Long What Matter Does it Make If There’ll Be Favorite Songs Playing in My Head

Thursday. Eh. It's been a typical Thursday so far. I came in, followed up on some things, and then I spent the greater part of the morning uploading the receivables website. Right now I am working on more collections and fending off suppliers looking for payment. Speaking of collections... the Big Boss Lady called me this morning. The district financial manager out in California has been trying for a long time now to write off a large bulk of the company's past due receivables. I'm not talking about stuff 60 days old; I mean we still have stuff on the books from 2001. I can't blame him for wanting to get rid of it since it affects his profit center (I work for corporate, which is a non-profit district. We redistribute our profits/losses to the field. It's hard to explain). I mean anything sitting out over a year cannot be considered a current receivable by GAAP standards. Plus, we have to borrow money from the bank to cover these unpaid amounts. So, there has been a lot of heat from executive management to get this oldie moldy stuff off the books. However, since stepping into her current role, the Big Boss Lady has assured senior management that she would take care of everything. She asked me to join her project in November 04, and in August of 05 she asked me to go back into collections to chase down these previously uncollectible amounts. The Big Boss Lady warned me that she was going to give me the nastiest, most problem-ridden accounts she had out there. I was up for the challenge despite inheriting a horrific $2.3 million in my prior column (invoices over 120 days old). Well, 8 or 9 months and a lot of hard work later, I am carrying about $1.1 million in my prior column. That's still horrible as far as stats go, but (if you all can please excuse my own horn-blowing) to bring in $1.2 million of receivables that no one has been able to collect for years in 8 months' time is pretty remarkable. I don't even think I'm doing anything special. Just working with people and getting it done. Anyway, back to the story. The Big Boss Lady called this morning to advise me that the DFM in CA is trying once again to write off about $460k of aged receivables. The Big Boss Lady responded back to senior management advising that of that $460k, $198k is currently being processed for payment, $94k has been scheduled to pay, we have secured proper documentation to get payment for another $132k, and we are currently researching the remaining $36k so there was no need to write anything off. Awesome. Anyway, the Big Boss Lady called to read me an email that she received from the VP of Operations congratulating her and her team for the amazing work we've done, etc. Thanks to our (my) efforts we have reduced California's DSO (days sales outstanding) from over 90 days to 49.5. We've made the district more profitable, etc, etc. The Big Boss Lady then took time to relay that executive management has noticed the work that I have done in cleaning up these old accounts. That made me feel pretty good, honestly, even if it was written superficially. It's nice to have validation once in awhile that all of your efforts are actually worthwhile. Of course, the Big Boss Lady ended the phone call telling me to go out and get the rest of those dollars and where I should start. At least she trusts that I can do it, and that's pretty cool.

Still no new music to review today. Sorry. You know, yesterday I mentioned something in my post about The Smashing Pumpkins being one of the worst bands I have ever seen live (twice, actually). Then I went over to Light Strikes a Deal’s blog and he said the same thing. I found that to be a very strange coincidence, but at least there seems to be a consensus. Today's post however, is not so coincidental. On Hubris' blog (aka Green Hedonist), he had elicited readers to send in seven songs they are listening to right now. Well, I'm sure you all can probably guess what was on this list (no, it was not 7 Modest Mouse songs). Of course I had to include some Pixies, but which one out of so many good ones? I went with Dig for Fire, and ever since then I have had that song in my head. So, I chose Bossanova to listen to this morning on the way in order to indulge my brain's request. While Bossanova doesn't get as much recognition as Surfer Rosa or Doolittle, it is still pretty darn good. My only complaint is that it needs more Kim Deal. Not necessarily more tracks like Gigantic (although that would be nice), but Bossanova doesn't even have her doing backup vocals. What is the deal (or Deal, as the case may be...)? Anyway, this post is going WAY too long. Time to end now.