How are you all doing on satisfying your clients that insist on having the survey/project done before the end of the year?
Plan to finish one completely on Monday. Should wrap up another on Tuesday. Will spend tomorrow wrapping up the deliverables on two other jobs. The good thing is all want to spend their money this year. There is one job that will not be done but that is the client's fault, not mine. His ex-wife is dragging her feet.
This has been a fairly quiet December. Only had to run off two potential jobs last week where the demand was to be done by December 30. I don't pay much attention to demands anymore. It is wonderful to have reached that level of comfort.
Just tell em to go ahead and pay up front if they want to pay before the 1st.
Big shopping center with a mess of new easements and many old easements that should have been released years ago. They need it quickly because of the $25M loan, and I'll have my part done today. Everyone is scrambling. The title officer worked until 7 pm last night to get me the last of the easements. I love this kind of work.
Finished up a biggy last week for a nouveau riche fella. His family's income from a natural gas field has burgeoned the trust's coffers..They needed to bleed some money off and he decide a 1500 acre cattle ranch was up his alley.
Need to close by the end of the year...yadda yadda.
Finished it up a week ago. Title company's happy. Won't deposit the check until Jan. 2. Phone is off the hook. Looking at the snow this morning, I've pretty much taken the rest of the month off. 😉
> How are you all doing on satisfying your clients that insist on having the survey/project done before the end of the year?
Around noon on Christmas Eve I set my email out of office response and my voice mail message to say that I will be out of the office until Monday January 5th. Screw 'em. 😉
I've had a policy since 1976 - We're closed from Christmas to New Years. No exceptions!
Lack of planning on your part does not make an emergency on my part.
And besides, doing last minute stuff invites problems and very seldom generates client loyalty.
"Phone is off the hook. Looking at the snow this morning, I've pretty much taken the rest of the month off."
Yes, that stuff you Eskimos call snow is certainly “entertaining” to watch. Kinda like staring at fresh paint, and watching it dry. 😉
Happy Holidays! 🙂
PS: Are you going to drag Norman out of the “icebox” and de-thaw him for the Holiday Season???? Oh, and the Nun says hey!
> Won't deposit the check until Jan. 2.
Note that the IRS considers income to occur in the year in which payment is received, not the year in which it's deposited. I investigated this a few years back when a large payment came in right at the end of the year. I was advised not to try the January 2 trick.
Between the title company's computers going down the week before Christmas and everything being closed the week of Christmas and the Clerk's office at a dismal standstill as everyone is being replaced by the newly elected Clerk that is bringing in her own people, IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN HERE THIS YEAR.
:-O
> Lack of planning on your part does not make an emergency on my part.
>
> And besides, doing last minute stuff invites problems and very seldom generates client loyalty.
I 100% agree with this. Rushing through a project usually invites errors.
> Note that the IRS considers income to occur in the year in which payment is received, not the year in which it's deposited...
I believe that depends on whether your accounting is kept on a "cash" or "accrual" basis.
> I believe that depends on whether your accounting is kept on a "cash" or "accrual" basis.
Yes, I was referring to cash accounting. With accrual accounting, I think the income posts when the invoice is sent, but I'm not sure.
:good: I'm spending the last three days of the year in the deer woods. I haven't hunted as much as I would have liked this year so I'm going to attempt to make up for it.
> With accrual accounting, I think the income posts when the invoice is sent, but I'm not sure.
I'm definitely cash accounting. Posting income at invoicing would allow unpaid invoices to be considered a loss, which I (unfortunately) cannot do.
As for the 2JAN15 deposits, I'm running with it. Have for years. Since I haven't (and won't) check the office mail P.O. Box until after 1JAN, I guess it would boil down to the postmark.
Of course I've learned that scoffing at the tax police shouldn't be taken lightly. If you're unlucky enough to piss one of them off, they will chase you until they retire, or you pass on...whichever comes first. 😉
> Yes, I was referring to cash accounting. With accrual accounting, I think the income posts when the invoice is sent, but I'm not sure.
With "accrual", it posts when you book the hours. If billing fixed fee it would post when you invoice.
With "cash" it posts when you bank the check. Most small shop surveyors will be using cash accounting.
With the economy on the upswing many may find 2015 a better year that 2014 was. It may be well to put that income into 2014 if you have the option and intend to work the full coming year.
> With the economy on the upswing many may find 2015 a better year that 2014 was. It may be well to put that income into 2014 if you have the option and intend to work the full coming year.
Gonna sell out in 2015 but stay on as a consultant. I've had the deal in front of me for a year and just haven't acted on it. There's still a bookkeeping hurdle or two to finalize...then I see long motorcycle rides in my future and large pepper patches in spring...
But I do hope 2015 is a good year for my new bosses! 😉
Has the drop in oil prices affected the survey business in Oklahoma?
But I remember an Okie surveyor who went motorcycle riding too much and ended up in Kentucky or somewhere, found the gal of his dreams and has fell right off of Beerleg. We will not let that happen to us again. Capiche?
> Has the drop in oil prices affected the survey business in Oklahoma?
Not that I can tell. 75% to 80% of my work is power utilities, kind of a "solid" niche.
But properties (larger tracts, not residential) are actually starting to move it seems. I kinda think real estate is more tied to interest rates than gas prices around here. But if Chesapeake or Devon takes a dive, I'm sure it would affect the local economy.
> But properties (larger tracts, not residential) are actually starting to move it seems.
Gas may be down, but beef - at least at the supermarket - is way up.