The Struggle Between Spreadsheets and Sky Towers.

I wanna be a billionaire so freakin' bad... Buy all the tings i never had. Maybe even...finally understanding accounting?

While Bruno Mars was dreaming of Forbes covers and standing next to Oprah, I am over here just trying to survive another week of financial statement and operating costs. If i were a billionaire, I would skip the yachts and first-class flights (okay, maybe not skip them) and instead hire someone to invent a pill that makes accounting feel like a Netflix drama. You know, addictive, exciting - and with fewer spreadsheets.

Lately, I have been reading the same two paragraphs on operating and financial costs like it is the back of a shampoo bottle. It is a blur. A loop. Maybe I actually have shampoo in my eyes. "OF" is supposed to stand for Operating and Financial, but to me, it stands for Oh Freaking' no. Trust me, i do not recommend it.

In the middle of all this academic haze, my mind is already flying to New Zealand. Literally. I have barely left Queensland in my life, (except that time I flew directly to Perth, jetsetter status: unlocked), and suddenly i am planning an entire international holiday. My first step? Google maps! I had to check where New Zealand actually is. Real traveler vibes right? Gold start parenthood.

From there, the list began. Flights. Passport. Accommodation. Easy Stuff. but then came the real planning, food, cultural activities, wine tours, because wine tastes different every day, and science cannot prove otherwise, car hire, insurance, fuel, internet access, weather-appropriate clothing, a larger suitcase and somewhere in there, time to study.

This is not just a holiday, it is a small production. One that includes sipping cocktails in the Sky Tower and visiting the Maori Rock Carvings at Lake Taupo. Fancy? Yes. Realistic? Side note; may need to remove Solitaire Lodge from my accommodation list and insert "backpackers".

Back to the spreadsheet. With my holiday plan open and accounting key concepts and questions looming, i had an idea - what if I looked at this like a balance sheet?

Operating costs = Directly part of the holiday (car hire, fuel, accommodation)

Financial costs = Necessary but secondary. Insurance, luggage, may wine?

For a brief moment, it made sense. Then I stared at it too long and nothing made sense again. Click. CLOSE!!!

Just as i was recovering from swapping out luxury for economy, I log into my next lecture with Mr. Turner. He casually asks for someone to volunteer, as tribute, their spreadsheet to go though step 2. Silence. Crickets. Felt like a season. Probably was less then 10 seconds. so i volunteer, thinking this will be a nice class chat. O.F. how wrong was I...

My spreadsheet gets projected onto the screen for the entire class. Together, we start going through it line by line, assigning "O" or "F" to each entry. Welcome to spreadsheet therapy 101.

What have I learnt about "my firm Qube and classifying its financial statements? Simply put: there is more OOO then FFF. There is more memories made then unsentimental photos taken. The more operating cost, the more product.

And if anyone invents that passion-for-accounting pill. let me know. I will take TWO.