"Sir! You have a noble heart. In keeping with your philanthropic nature, you donate money to several good causes. That is commendable, no doubt. But, when our finances are not in a good shape, should you not cut down the donations?" said Kannan, reluctantly.
"Mr. Kannan! We cannot reduce any item of expenditure like rent, electricity etc. Nor can we reduce the salaries payable to our employees. Should we cut down only the donations we give?"
"Sir! Please don't mistake me. As the Accountant, I deem it my duty to tell you this. As you have said, we can't cut down any of our expenses, since they are not under our control. But deciding the quantum of donations is within our - your - control. You have been giving donations very liberally for certain causes. When our income was high, we were able to do so. But, when our income has come down, should we not reduce the quantum of donations we give? Nowadays, we face a cash crunch quite often. We are forced to delay the payments due to our suppliers. Some of the suppliers have called me up and expressed their concern about the payments getting delayed."
Kannan looked at his Proprietor, hoping that he would understand the situation.
After thinking for a minute or two, Purushothaman said, "We will continue to give donations only to those whom we have already committed. We will not make any new commitments. Is it ok?" smiling at Kannan, in a friendly way.
Kannan felt relieved that his Proprietor had at least agreed to not consider new requests for donations
However, Purushothaman continued to give donations to some new people and organizations that approached him.
After issuing cheques, Purushothaman would write the details in the counterfoil and send the cheque book with the counterfoils to Kannan. Arranging funds to clear those cheques was a challenge to Kannan.
"Sir! Some untoward incident has happened" said Kannan.
"What has happened?" asked Purushothaman, apprehensively.
"As you know, our funds position has been tight for the past few weeks. On several occasions, I had to plead with the bank manger, requesting him to clear a cheque, when there was no sufficient balance in our bank account. Yesterday, the bank returned the cheque we had issued to one of our suppliers. Normally, the bank manager will call me and tell me that he is going to return a cheque and after I plead with him, will pass the cheque, grudgingly. But since this has been happening repeatedly, this time, the bank has returned the cheque, without calling me and informing me. I came to know of this only after the supplier, upset by the cheque getting returned, called me up and expressed his anguish, pointing out that such a thing had never happened before. I pacified him saying that it had happened by mistake and that it won't happen again."
"Oh, how embarrassing! Such an event should never occur again" said Purushothaman.
After reflecting for a moment, Purushothaman opened his drawer, pulled out the cheque book and gave it to Kannan.
"Let the cheque book remain with you. If I want to issue a cheque to someone, I will tell you. you can write the cheque and I will sign it. If a cheque can't be issued due to our financial position, just say so. I will accept your judgement" said Purushothaman.
Kannan hoped that his employer would follow the system outlined by him. What else can Kannan, the Accountant do?
Knowing One's Strength
pORRi vazhangu neRi.
No comments:
Post a Comment