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Re: AdminRest: Finances and Accounting

2004-11-18 03:32:03
Fred Baker wrote:
At 10:15 PM 11/17/04 +0100, Harald Tveit Alvestrand wrote:

The effect of section 5, if I am reading it correctly, is to transfer these budgetary bumps and grinds to the IASA rather than allowing the ISOC to help out, making "oops, we're low on cash" something that has to be discussed as opposed to ISOC simply backstopping things as we have heretofore agreed. By treating them on a cash basis rather than an accrual basis, this section seems maximize the pain they cause.


I think we need to find a reasonable way to budget & expense stuff.... you sure make an accrual basis sound tempting, but we do have to have cash in hand too.


If you don't have any cash, how you account for it is somewhat academic :^)

What I'm saying - and I'm no more an accounting whiz than you are - is that when an accountant looks at these things they tend to be a little different than your Quicken checkbook makes them look. So lets make sure the accounting folks look at it.

I wonder whether the IETF would consider talking with ISOC's accounting
office to normalize these issues now, and whether the problem really
needs to be this tightly constrained?


I think this is a very valuable piece of advice. I know that I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to accounting methods.... I'd hoped that the transition team (once it's set up) could go into this - the IESG and IAB are hoping to finalize picking the transition team Monday of next week.


That would be a good thing. My point is to not overconstrain the problem, but let them address it.

This relates to my previous comment in response to Geoff. It's
all about how to smooth cash flow, given that both income and
outgoings are bumpy.

If, in practice, some help from the IASA account is needed to smooth
ISOC's cash flow temporarily, that is fine by me but I'd like it
to be transparent and explicit. It should show up in IASA's accounts
and in ISOC's IETF pillar as a debt from ISOC to IASA (or the
opposite, if it's IASA that has a cash flow issue) but it would
be a wash externally. However, it should be constrained in such a way
that it is only for smoothing, and cannot be used to cover a real
cash shortfall. I agree that some accounting type person should
review the text.

    Brian

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