Data Entry Angony

I walked into the milk house the other day after seeing an unfamiliar car down there, thinking someone might need help. The elderly lady greeted me with "Oh, are you new here?"

That happens sometimes. Folks don't always see me as much as Keith because I am often stuck at the computer doing the other farm work...data entry.

 

 

I HATE data entry.

The majority of it is related to our farm store. When folks make a purchase they fill out a sales slip, wrap th appropriate payment in it and shove them both into our lock box at the end of the counter. If Keith or I are nearby we help them but most of our sales are self-serve. Most sales slips are easy to read like the ones Keith fills out.

 

 

But then their are the ones done by the slobs always in a rush that make my life total hell. Ones like this one. Completed my herself I am embarrassed to admit.

Each item purchased is then entered by me into our Quicken system

I HATE Quicken

I have never taken an accounting class in my life or a typing class let alone a word processing class. I basically have no class. I did have ten years of Hospice nursing management experience but with a full time CEO to help me. Without her I would have never made it through  the horrors of balancing a budget on the backs of the terminally ill.

I HATE Budgets.

But in order to keep this farm alive and well so that we can sell it to some one else (Please God) or keep it alive and well so Keith and I can remain here in the future without killing ourselves (Please PLEASE God) I have to do those tasks that I abhor. I will reward myself based on the number of entries I complete. For every twenty sales slips I get a cookie, or another  cup of coffee or a walk outside.

For every 30 slips I get to surf the net for "Hobo Tunics in Plus Sizes" or  " How to Make a pillow from an Old Grain Feed Sack" you know, really important stuff I need to know. I set all kinds of data entry goals like, I'll work on Quicken every morning for two hours first thing...as soon as I get this weeks soap orders wrapped and mailed...or as soon as I go brush my horse...or as soon as we put away four hundred pounds of frozen meat in our farm store.

There is always an excuse NOT to do Quicken. But if I do not do it then we can not cash the checks or use the cash for those trivial things like paying our bills. So I  plunge through day after day reminding myself that when we get our tiny little farm where we are producing food just for the two of us, all data entry will be done with a pencil in an old fashioned ledger book.

I LOVE old fashioned ledger books.


PS Saponification Sunday will return next Sunday