Some of you appear to have noticed my sudden appearance, so a bit of background, etc, seems like a good idea.

I'm actually a computer programmer and an (unpublished) writer, but I've been working in accounts now since 1985. I started out doing incomplete records work at a firm of accountants ('85 until '91ish), and I set up the software business while there ('89), initially doing that on a part time basis. (Social life? Sleep? Relaxation time? What are these strange concepts?)

When I left the accountants, hoping to be able to devote my full week to programming, and actually have a real, bona fide social life, I ended up getting approached by various people to look after their books. Which I did - at first thinking I'd only be doing it a couple of days per week, which would be my bread and butter income, while I spent the rest of the time programming... except it wasn't long before I became fully occupied doing this sort of work (trading under my software business name, which often throws people).

There's a lesson in there for people: Word of mouth works. I've never advertised to do this sort of stuff, but I've never been short of work - I've actually turned it away countless times.

The IT angle:

Being a computer geek type, when the accountants modernised and bought PCs, I became the firm's computer guy. When they bought Sage to use on behalf of a client, for example, I was tasked with learning to use it, so that I could teach/oversee the girl that would actually be doing the work. That would have been around '89 or '90, and I've been pretty much using Sage in various forms ever since. I've used a few other accounts packages, as well, but Sage is my own preference. (Even though I dislike the company itself for a few reasons!)

I've written various pieces of software used in an accounts context - from a cash book (my first commercial product, back in '89, running on an OS most people here probably won't have heard of) to a very, very nice invoicing program, running on XP for a self storage company - which they paid for, but never actually started using, because the person doing the invoicing had already started doing manual invoices, and didn't want to change - even though, as the business grew, that would become a huge chore. Oh well.

Oh, and despite that long background - I have never studied anything in the accounting field, and therefore have absolutely no qualifications. Just lots, and lots, and lots of experience.