Making it all add up

One of the other things I never imagined was turning into an accountant, (as well as a dodgy electrician). I’m actually better at accounting because it’s a computer thing. At least it is now. It probably says a lot about me but I do really enjoy setting up spreadsheet packages. I have spent some time fine tuning our books so that they are easy to enter and audit. It took a long time but we finally bit the bullet and stopped keeping any paper-based accounts in Kosele this July. I think I was probably more nervous about the switch over than anybody else. Up until July we’d been keeping a dual system – entering the data in job lots onto the computer from the paper based system. It was a bit labour intensive at times but did at least provide the reassurance of being more or less computer proof.

We have had somewhat mixed experience with computers since starting our work in Kenya – hence the reluctance to trust a completely computer based system. For one thing it’s a much tougher environment for electrical equipment. The amount of dust that clogs everything up is incredible. We’ve had a couple of hard drives collapse under the strain. We also seem to have had more than our fair share of problems with power packs and USB drives. This has, in the past, been compounded by relying on solar power, (though our present system seems quite robust). Our current accounts manager, Mary is much gentler with most of our electrical equipment than all of her predecessors. So far we’ve only had to replace one power pack, (and to be fair to Mary Judi’s own laptop in the UK, which is the same type, suffered a similar problem).

The hardest thing really has been the amount of support needed to make sure all ICT related eventualities are covered. Anybody who has had the dubious pleasure of trying to solve a computer problem using a telephone or email based support system will know how easy it is to get to the ‘throw it out of the window’ stage in this situation. If you add the problem of the computer user, (in our case mostly Mary), being fairly new to the task you will begin to appreciate the problem of maintaining our mission critical ICT systems at a distance, (in our case about 4,000 miles). Until very recently It has been easier to trust the low tech, (but very reliable), approach of paper, pen, tippex and a regular trip to the local photocopy shop. It’s not quite Staples but it does a wonderful job.

So, today I’ve been burning the midnight oil convincing myself that we have a dependable system. I’m fairly happy with it so far. We should be able to give Mary the required amount of support between us over the next few months without resorting to the call centre solution. Next step in our rapid march into the twenty first century will be the school systems. Onwards and upwards into a ‘data rich’ future.