Tag Archives: Excel

Group Motivation!

Our study sessions look like this.

Here at McCombs, we’re in the home stretch of the Spring semester, preparing ourselves for that one. last. exam (per course) before summer. Sigh, time passes so quickly.

Some Updates: Work at Greenlights is going well. I have been doing quite a bit of  data analytics using Excel (putting those concepts I learned in our Information Technology in Accounting class to work). I just completed a project that involved performing calculations of retention rates and general stats using our donor database. Now, I’m transitioning into a very (but not so) different project – grant writing! Also, next week I’m going to be attending a Board Essentials workshop, run by Greenlights, where I will be learning about the basics of putting together a strong nonprofit board and possible opportunities for me to be involved when I start working full-time at an accounting firm. CPAs are actually a real (desirable!) asset to any nonprofit board.

My internal audit team recently wrapped up a project with the City of Austin (Office of the City Auditor), where we performed a follow-up audit of the Controller’s Office regarding their hotel occupancy tax collection process in regards to Short Term Rental (think HomeAway and AirBnB). A report on that audit is now available to the public here. During the length of the project, my team communicated with the City Auditors as well as accountants at the Controller’s Office, interviewed Short Term Rental Owners, and got a first hand account of the hotel occupancy tax collection process. We wrote engagement letters and work papers and came up with a final deliverable report. Much was learned, I should say.

Ah, on the side, I’ve recently taken on the role of being an assistant editor at a literary journal and have been interviewing authors about their writing (authors that fall into the science-fiction and fantasy genre). Last night, I had a wonderful conversation with a sci-fi writer about her concept of “the alien.” And, while I’m being tangential, today in the parking lot of the Korean grocery store, I found a patch of mimosa ferns! I used to live in Hawaii and haven’t seen mimosa ferns since those days.

As for school work: What are we doing in this last stretch to motivate ourselves, you ask? Well, group study is at an all-time high! Otherwise, we find ways to enjoy our diminishing time here in Austin. The weather is temperate – Barton Springs is thriving again. We gather together to watch Game of Thrones on Sunday evenings and eat cupcakes with cadbury egg centers.

A fellow MPA delighting in a Cadbury Egg.

Signing off!!

Greetings from Chicago!

Downtown Chicago!

Greetings from the Windy City!

I’m writing from a friend’s couch in downtown Chicago, enjoying the warmth of the indoors. This weekend, I am away from dear Austin to attend a three-day-long writing conference hosted by AWP. It’s going really well. And when not sitting in on panels entitled “Beyond Pulp – The Futuristic and Fantastic as Literary Fiction” and “Wilderness Writing: Theory and Practice,” I’m working on some Excel assignments for my ITAC (Information Technology Accounting Control) class, where we complete tutorials, create our own macros, and use conditional formatting to perform data analysis. I’m also wrapping up a work paper for an internal audit project which has my audit team working closely with the Office of the City Auditor (OCA). It’s a great, though at the moment overwhelming, combination of all sorts of activity.

I can speak a little further about my ITAC assignment in that it’s proving amazingly useful towards the work I’m currently doing for my internship at Greenlights. I am working with our donor database and trying to get good data from our archives to provide the development director with information. Learning about conditional formatting (IF functions and whatnot) and macros has really helped me finesse my approach to data analysis. I’m hoping by the end of the internship to produce a macros for the organization that sorts out information about our donors that will be really valuable for planning. Continue reading Greetings from Chicago!