F3. Projects Administration

Internship Project for Engineer or Management Major

Southern DataStream has a several on-going projects.  Coordinating the tasks, schedules, and personnel for these scientific and business projects is always a challenge.   This involves working with scientists and project managers from various companies and government agencies.  Southern DataStream uses Internet web pages as a project management tool.  These sites require maintenance and innovative development.   The intern must have good organizational and verbal communications skills.

F5. Personnel Management

Internship Project for Management, Public Relations, or Information Technology Major

Southern DataStream receives a large number of internship applications each week.   The on-line system for managing these applications requires improvement and maintenance  Also, there is a need for improved scheduling and project assignment coordination for all the internships.  At any given time Southern DataStream may have as many as 10 interns from various countries working on assorted projects and residing in company housing.  There are a variety of personnel issues that arise and require attention.  In addition, there is a need for someone to coordinate weekend recreational trips as well as community service projects for the interns

Added to these projects are other tasks like:

1. Alpha Epsilon Lambda : communications, fiscal, and clerical assistance
2. Administration:  procedures development, corporate fiscal and other records, and  Capece scheduling
3. Personnel: recruitment and special programs

The Daily (routine) tasks include the following:

• Capece Scheduling and Special Programs
• Checking of the mail boxes.

DETAILS.

Corporate Fiscal and Other Records

I spent a week learning about the QuickBooks Pro, a software system based on Accounting procedures. I watched  six video tapes in a series on the use of the QuickBooks software. QuickBooks program is a small business accounting software created for small and medium sized companies. It allows customization and personalization to make best banking solutions and to manage business finances. It streamlines financial tasks and help to have an easy information access to different companies.

This aspect of my internship I started by sorting out documents, especially Bank Statements of the different companies ( Intelligentsia International Inc., Grad Services Inc., Alpha Epsilon Lambda Inc., and Intellitemps ) with the goal of separating the materials by company. Having done that, I had to match deposits with withdrawals, photocopying one company's check against the other. Photocopies of these transactions are made and filed in their respective folders. The checks were sorted out  and packed in ascending order. The numbers of the  missen checks are written down in order to enable me do a thorough search on them before I call the respective banks for photocopies of those checks. 

After this, I loaded the most recent version of the existing QuickBooks files from some floppy diskettes into my computer. I went through all these files in order to get started. However, one does no get started just like that, I had to look at the last transaction date recorded together with the number of the last check used. Thereafter, I started the entering process.

In recording the transactions, I updated the register with the oldest Bank Statements first and worked through them until I was current. The checks were  arranged on a date sequence rather than a number sequence. All bank Statements  data are entered to the QuickBooks for each company, on a monthly basis. . From the menu bar, (on opening the Company's file) you go to COMPANY, then CHART OF ACCOUNTS  to display the chart of accounts. Browse through the different Accounts and then double click on CHECKING to open the Register. Having opened it, you enter the different fields as required ( i. e Date,  check number, etc)

Procedures For Entering Bank Statements Data to Quickbooks and Reconciling Account  

I spent a great deal of time sorting files with the goal of separating the materials. Having done that, I assembled the complete sets of bank statements for each of the companies I was dealing with. Date sequence rather than numbers was used to  pack the checks. This is mainly because, there has been gaps in check number sequence.

You can enter checks and deposits directly in a bank account register instead of using the write checks window and the make deposits window to create the transactions. The reason why you may like to use the Register is because:

1. You can work more quickly in a Register
2. You can see the entire record of the account.

A register shows you all the transactions in the account to date.

To open the Register and enter transactions,

• Choose Chart of Account from the Lists menu
• Double click the name of the Account you want to use (in this case, it is Checking)
• Enter the Date, check or Deposit number and Payee in their fields.

A payee is the name of the person or company who received the amount. To enter the name,

·        Choose the name from the drop-down list. If the name is not on the list,

·        Enter the name by clicking “Add new”, and then you enter the name. Or, you may enter the name on the Payee field and press Tab. Quickbooks informs you that the payee is not on any list. Then click one of these buttons: “Quick Add” or “Set up” and the name will be added on the list. Quickbooks does not require you to enter a “payee” for bank deposits.

·        Enter the amount. For checks and fees or charges, enter the amount in the “Payment” field. For deposits, enter the amount in the “Deposit” field.

·        Enter the name of the account you use to track this type of expense, that is, for checks and fees or charges. For Deposits, enter the name of the account that is the source of the funds you are depositing. Choosing the account name from the drop-down list does this.

·        Click Record.

Since the register has been sorted by date, if you dated your transaction earlier than today, the transaction may disappear from view after moving to its correct chronological position in the register. 

Before reconciling an account, make sure your Quickbooks records agree with the bank statements you regularly receive on a monthly basis.

·        From the Banking menu, choose Reconcile and the reconcile window will display.

·        In the Account to Reconcile field, enter or select the account you want to reconcile. In this case, select “Checking”.

·        Compare the opening balance amount shown on your bank statement for the month you are reconciling, with the amount shown in the “Opening Balance” field in the reconcile window. If the opening balances are different,

·        Find the ending balance on your bank statement and enter it in the “Ending Balance” field.

If the service charges have been entered in the register, you don’t need to bother with the “Transactions to be added” section of the Reconcile window.

·        When you find a transaction in the reconcile window that matches a transaction on the bank statement, click the transaction to mark it as cleared. For each transaction you select, verify that its amount matches the amount listed on the statement.

·        If you find a transaction on your bank statement that is not shown in the Quickbooks list of uncleared transactions, quit reconciling and enter the transaction in the register.

·        When you have finished selecting the transactions, look at the difference amount in the bottom right corner of the Reconcile window.

·        If the amount is 0.00 click “Reconcile Now”. It means you’ve reconciled that account with the bank statement

·        If the amount is not zero, it means your account does not balance for the period of time covered by the bank statement. At this point, you can have Quickbooks adjust for the difference so that you’ll start with accurate totals for the next month you are going to reconcile.

·        Having reconciled the account with the bank statement, you can have Quickbooks print a reconciliation report.

·        Select the level of details you want in the report from the fields provided. Since it is a monthly reconciliation, you can choose “Summary”

·        Enter the Statement closing date as shown on your bank statement.

·        Click OK.

Classification of Transactions

Classification of transactions requires a great deal of consulting with John Capece to know the nature of the transaction. Each company has a chart of all its accounts from which you can switch transactions within the company.

Classification of transactions give you a way to track and classify your income and expenses by categories, location or any other meaningful breakdown of the expenses incurred and /or income you receive.

This involves the creation of new accounts. Theses new accounts may be sub accounts to an already existing account. For instance, Intern Expenses is an expense account that entails a lot of expenses. In order to track them down, I created sub accounts under it by classifying the transactions. Since the interns are living in separate houses, I classified all expenses as relating to each house. Separate Utilities, Telephone and Rent expense accounts. You can do thorough classification when you receive the bills and the check stubs.

To create a new account, make sure the Chart of Accounts window is open. From the Edit menu, choose “ New account” and then select the type of account in the Type drop down button. If the new account is a sub account of another account, select the “Sub account of” checkbox to activate it. Then, select the parent Account from the drop down list and after, you click OK.

At times, you may be required to change the information on an existing account. To do this (that is to edit the account), go to the Chart of Accounts on the Company menu and highlight the account you want to edit. Then click the left button on the mouse. From the list, select “Edit” to edit the account and when you are through with the editing, click OK.

 In dealing with AEL accounts, you may need to know what the payment i