h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since getting rid of my comfy office chair a couple of years ago because it was going bald and looked awful (but was still VERY COMFY) - (stupid, stupid Mina) I've since dumped the computer desk because I couldn't get comfy anymore.

So today I've been sitting on the floor since about noon, as I'm trying to get my accounts off to the accountant and the laptop is on the coffee table and need to do all the bits I lazily didn't do as I went along. My backside's gone numb from sitting on the floor - even though I started sitting on a dog's bed after about 2 hours.

I'm seriously considering next year just giving the accountant a carrier bag full of receipts (I can just about manage the sales ledger after a very helpful thread on Ask) and leaving him to it.

I could have spent that time doing something more constructive that would have earned me more money in the long run than would have saved in accountant's fees.

Now I have to go to bed after sitting on the floor for 9 hours and although I had breaks where I Did Stuff with The Dogs and we had a 2 hour walk this morning I expect the inactivity will mean I just won't sleep until about 2 am, then I'll be awake at 5.30 cos that's a good time to be awake. Apparently my brain thinks so anyway.

I don't know how much accountants cost in your neck of the woods, but when my Father was properly self-employed and having to do all the tax return stuff he just couldn't be bothered (and he can't/won't use a computer), so he used an accountant, and albeit a few years ago now it didn't seem much, I think* it was something like £90 per year and he pretty much just gave the accountant a bag full of reciepts and a 'book' where he'd written down his 'accounts', in terms of each week waht came in and went out...

Mine too After 13 years of spending part of the week working nights and part of the week working days and part of the week working both, I have no body clock any more. My body wakes me up whenever the hell it feels like it, which seems to getting earlier and earlier (5.30am today), and sometimes it decides that it doesn't want to go to sleep until 4am.

As far as the numb bum, I can help with that

I do all my computing on the sofa these days, with the keyboard on my lap, a trackball by my side and the monitor an the coffee table. And I often spend the whole day working on spreadsheets. Damn, I love those things. Is there anything they can't do? Well, yeah, obviously, but you know what I mean. And never a numb bum.

Spreadsheets are most definitely the work of the almighty BoB

If I'm typing up notes I sit on the sofa with it on my lap, but doing the accounts I need more space to have stuff (ie all over the floor). Fred helps out by fetching paper from the printer if I have to print something - probably half the problem, I'm not getting up and moving around!

Last year my accountants bill was about £300, but he is very good, and made the small amount of profit I thought I'd made completely vanish! So likely to be more if I don't create the spreadsheets, but every time I do it I get a bit faster and things go a bit smoother.

What I've been finding is that dog trainers NEVER give receipts! Well, one does, but most of them don't despite constant nagging, so from now on, no money handed over without the receipt being given at the same time.

Didn't wake up until the alarm, which was good.

Which management system are you using Mina? Mictrosoft Office Professional? I still use Microsoft Office Professional 2000, cost me as much as your accountants bills when I bought it 10 years ago, but I'm an old stick in the mud and it works for me
When I did my degree back in 1995, we didn't have that

Management and Business Studies 2:2

There's no real substitute for the comfy old office chair and the desk with a gel wrist rest. Try your local secondhand shop, or if you're fussy and rich go to Staples.

Managment system? If you mean what version of spreadsheet I'm using it's Microsoft Office student.

Not going back the route of office chairs and desks in my home, there's no room anymore - too much and stuff. I just need to not sit on the floor at the laptop for 9 hours at a stretch.

I'll be taking the dogs out for a walk shortly, then get back to the last three months of my last year's accounts. After that I can sit on the sofa with it on my lap because I'll just be using what's in my head, not folders and bills, and statements and boxes of stuff - and remind myself to do the accounts every month, then reconcile every month as well, instead of leaving the reconciliation until the end of the year!

Uh oh, student editions are usually very basic. See if you can blag a corperate edition Office Professional, just don't tell Bill Gates.

I really couldn't condone pirated software, unlimited fine and if Bill finds out. So ignore that blagging statement

There you go Microsoft, all my software is kosher and I'm not encouraging anyone to dent Bill's multi-millions.

I can't see any difference between it and the copy I had of the previous version, which was professional. Except this one has powerpoint.

Odd? Does it include "Microsoft Office Small Business Tools" they do do varying versions, the more you pay the more you get
It should include publisher, front page, access as well as allthe financial planning spreadsheets in afore mentioned Small Business Tools?

Not that I noticed, but I wouldn't have been looking for them, I just use Word and Excel mainly, but did miss powerpoint.

If it was the all singing, al dancing version I have it would have had powerpoint, naughty microsoft - they do different packages. It's like their 2007 edition Office, there's student edition £60 right through to Ultimate £500, though you may want to try software4students, they do really good deals. I don't want to fall foul of advertising rules here.
Sounds liike you do need the small business software, makes life so much easier. I remember doing gearing ratios and why there are so amny tescos lorries on the road during my studies, all high finance, fascinating stuff though I don't recollect hardly any of the detail now

Nah, excel is enough for me. It does everything I want, I can list my outgoings and income and it adds the colomns up for me. I was thinking about Quickbooks as I used to have a personal version of that and it was good, but my accountant just likes the spreadsheets.

Which reminds me, I have to print them out.

Is J still a student? If so, you can upgrade any software by ordering here: http://www.software4students.co.uk/ It's for students and parents and is the Professional versions. The deal is totally legit, done in partnership with Micro$oft.

And I always sit on the floor to do my marking. A desk just isn't big enough sometimes.

Yes, he is still at school, but I'm fine with the student version.

If all else fails, get Open Office. Just as good as MS Office and it's completely free

I use it every day It's better than MS Office in some of the things it can do.

I've been using Office for so long I'm set in my ways and too old to change.

Tis why I stick to my dog-eared Office 2000 Pro, I'm just an old fossil

Bum's gone numb again, and I'm on the sofa this time, but I have been typing up notes for 5 hours (in a kind of vague keep checking the internet to make sure it's still there and I'll just have a quick chat here, or a quick game there kind of way).