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sorry for rambling here, but in bullet form/chrono order is what happened. would like to know your opinion on this:
*applied to a temp company and got a call on a friday (late) afternoon for an assignment that began the following monday. terms/pay sounded good, and i said yes.
*initially was told that i was to help w/the accounting group with some of their reconciliations (beginning in january of the current year) and using the software they use in-house.
*first week/10 days i was doing work as requested and was asked to focus on some account reconciliations. was given the cliff notes on how to do the reconciliation and no kind of desktop procedure/manual existed for the reconciliation existed at that time.
*i did 2 of the 3 reconciliations.
*ytd (year to date), i matched exactly to the general ledger with no variance. what i did find out was that there was a variance in both of the accounts that i was looking at. since i matched year to date, i presented to the person/s i reported to that there is some kind of variance to prior periods.
*the other accounts as well i was able to match year to date, but history to date, there were variances that existed prior to when i picked up the reconciliation
*SOOOO, as a temp and was told to work on the reconciliations beginning with January, is it my responsibility to find the variance/cause of variance?
*as I presented to whom i reported to, the variances that I had come up with, i did so via email (i.e. so that I have an audit trail) i mentioned that the variances are traceable to prior periods. if requested, i'd be able to research and try to find the cause of the variance
*on my way home today, i get a call from temp agency that today, friday (today) is the last day of my assignment there. (what a surprise)
*so basically in a nutshell, i was told to do a rec, prior to me picking up the variance, everything 'matched'. however, year to date i matched exactly to the GL. but history to date, there is a variance - would it be on me, after i presented to management that i'd be able to look up the prior history and see what caused the variance or did i do wrong?
*my guess is that they weren't too excited with my findings and as a result did not 'need' my services anymore.....
*i'm back on the job hunt again (after almost 7 weeks at the assignment).
sorry for rambling, but that's my story. anyone care to comment ..... DO KEEP IT CLEAN.
Last edited by tdredi; 08-08-2014 at 08:42 PM..
Reason: updated post
The issue is something you need to take up with the temp agency.
If the company wasn't happy with your work, they'd take it up with you and/or the temp agency. So you need to follow up with them and also ask if you're still eligible for other assignments with the temp agency.
i am guessing that since mgt wasn't tooo happy w/the reconciliation findings prior to when i picked up the task, they don't want to show such 'small' variances.
i'll talk to the temp agency on monday and i'm sure i'll hear only 40% of the story, i can only report back here, what I am told.
@luckygirl15 and @sweeptheleg and @3littlebirdies......yes, i think they're not too happy w/a temp finding such variances. btw many of the account recs have not been done since 12/2013! i am just saying......
should they ask for my assistance in correcting the variance or finding out the variance, shall I go back? and again, given i'll be paid the same rate when i was on assignment there is a requirement!
Since I do not know the details, I guess I can only guess based on the facts you provided.
It can be like others said, they are hiding something, OR they think you are slow/not able to complete the job as they expected.
Fact 1: "was given the cliff notes on how to do the reconciliation and no kind of desktop procedure/manual existed for the reconciliation existed at that time."
Question: Are you new in accounting field? It seems like you are not familiar with the reconciliation?
Fact 2: "i did 2 of the 3 reconciliations."
Question: You did 2 of the 3 recon per day? or you only did 2 of the 3 recons for 7 weeks? Maybe those are big messy accounts?
Fact 3: "*SOOOO, as a temp and was told to work on the reconciliations beginning with January, is it my responsibility to find the variance/cause of variance?
*as I presented to whom i reported to, the variances that I had come up with, i did so via email (i.e. so that I have an audit trail) i mentioned that the variances are traceable to prior periods. if requested, i'd be able to research and try to find the cause of the variance"
Question: The variance you are referring to is account month-to-moth, Qtr-to-Qtr variance? For example, June YTD = $1MM, July YRD = $2MM, variance due to xx transactions? Or the variance you are referring to is GL has $1MM, Supporting docs only have $500K and you are trying to find the variance? In this case, the variance can be caused by system/reporting issues or someone process an incorrect entry.
I can only guess here. Your best way to find out why you are let go is to ask your tempt agency. Good Luck with your new job search! Next one will be better :-)
i am guessing that since mgt wasn't tooo happy w/the reconciliation findings prior to when i picked up the task, they don't want to show such 'small' variances.
i'll talk to the temp agency on monday and i'm sure i'll hear only 40% of the story, i can only report back here, what I am told.
@luckygirl15 and @sweeptheleg and @3littlebirdies......yes, i think they're not too happy w/a temp finding such variances. btw many of the account recs have not been done since 12/2013! i am just saying......
should they ask for my assistance in correcting the variance or finding out the variance, shall I go back? and again, given i'll be paid the same rate when i was on assignment there is a requirement!
thanks guys/gals!
Definitely give us an update on what the temp agency says. I am interested in hearing the companies fabrication on the situation. Something tells me they were not expecting you to not only find the variances but also let them know you can trace them back and can be more precise upon further research.
i sat down w/someone who was doing the rec before and was shown how to 'click here' and 'run this report' and 'populate this value' in 'this field' in 'the reconciliation' with regard to the desktop procedure, it didn't exist, even in bullet form....which was quite a surprise to me. although the company was private, imagine if sox documentation was requested....the other person who was there to help me was new to the dept as well. she was there about 1 1/2 months prior to my 1st day there.
from what i saw, 2 of the accounts were basic - run the rpt from the acctg system bring into excel, and populate the amounts from running subtotals. apparently they are not too fond of pivot tables.
the rec that i did which was from jan to june was to the dime. i did look say at dec and nov of the prior year to see if something was missing but those 2 months looked ok. if i were to do the whole year, that would def take time.
the variance that existed was from a prior year. so as a temp am i responsible for prior periods/years reported amounts?
btw, prior to this postion, i was at a large telecoms firm, that was part of worldcom and eventually was to become a company with the letter Z in it's name. I was there for 8 years and did various reconciliations whilst there.
No matter what the temp agency tells you, always assume that everyday you're on a temp assignment it might be your LAST day.
I was on a temp assignment once and was told it would be for a few weeks. I was there for two days before I was told that the person that was out "sick" would be returning the next day. I didn't believe them. I have my reasons why I don't believe them which I won't go into here, but I appreciated the fact that the person I was reporting to at the company told me early enough, so that I could call the agency to get something else. They even let me go early, but paid me til the end of the day.
There was no hard feelings. I just learned my lesson not to take anything as official on a temp assignment. Ever.
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