The Accountant's Song

A little light relief for the Bank Holiday weekend!

My thanks to Pete McLaren for giving me permission to reproduce "The Accountant's Song" from his site Idiot Husband's Blog.

The following words fit to Lily Allen’s – The Fear

The Accountant's Song

I’ve passed my exams and I’m now fully ready,
To be an accountant but I’ll keep things quite steady.
I’ll wear business clothes and do things right and proper
I’ll follow procedures to avoid a show stopper.

I’ll keep to the budget, I won’t take forever,
I’ll not use a taxi, I’ll walk in all weather
I’ll hand in reports and my boss will just love them
I’ll bend over backwards for clients to help them.

CHORUS
John Majors my hero, he’s so cool.
He left the circus he’s no fool
He’s an accountant, he’s a, star
He chose the best profession by, far.

At the weekend I’ll go out let my hair down,
I’ll hit the clubs with my friends when we’re in town
I’ll put on my make-up, make sure not to smudge it,
And of course when I’m out I’ll stay well within budget.

Some of my friends think accountings a bit sad,
They’re talking stupid, according to my Dad.
He says they know nothing and they spend too much money.
When their card bill comes in, that’s when they start to worry.

CHORUS
I know what’s right and what’s wrong,
Accounting is where I belong
When will my friends see the light?
Agree that I’ve got things right.

There are times when I dream about fast cars,
Or of living the life of those Hollywood film stars.
But I’m an accountant and I earn not bad money,
In the summer I might go somewhere quite sunny.

CHORUS
I’m an accountant, I do my best, all the time.
I’m ambitious which is not a crime.
My partners an accountant too
Being an accountant could be right for you

Running Scared II - A Question of Ethics

Further to my earlier article today about the dispute between Mike Pallot and the ICAEW.

It seems that the ICAEW managed to pay Mr Pallot the £1500 twice by mistake.

Fortunately for the ICAEW (which did so much to block Mr Pallot receiving a refund), Mr Pallot is ethical and told them that they had paid him twice!

Ethics should of course work both ways, so I look forward to hearing that the ICAEW has told all the members who are overpaying their subs that they are entitled to a refund and that their subs have been reduced accordingly to suit their circumstances.

Running Scared

Accountancy Age report a rather interesting story about a long running and acrimonious dispute between Mike Pallot (a retired PwC senior partner) and the ICAEW.

Mr Pallot was awarded £1,500 against the institute in a small claims court for overpaid subscriptions. He successfully argued that the ICAEW's subscription notices failed to make it clear that he was due a reduced subscription due to his retirement.

He is quoted:

"The ICAEW certainly seems to have gone to great lengths not to set a precedent by refunding me the amounts I paid as a result of what I see as a clear lack of transparency on its part, although I am at a loss to understand why it didn't seek to settle my claim in a sensible way before the matter reached court."

The case, and the fact that the ICAEW went to so much trouble to try to avoid setting a precedent, gives rise to a number of questions:

1 Why did the ICAEW not simply settle out of court?

2 Why did the ICAEW waste so much time and money on trying to prevent the claim succeeding?

3 How much money did the ICAEW waste by being so intransigent?

4 What is the potential liability facing the ICAEW from back claims made by retired members, and others (eg unemployed), who now realise that they have been overpaying their subscriptions?

5 If the ICAEW knows the answer to 3, why hasn't it done the ethical thing and alerted the members who have overpaid that they are owed a rebate and that they are overpaying their subs?

It seems to me that the ICAEW is running scared, I advise all members to double check their subscriptions.