FY2020 - A year to remember

Recently, humanity is threatened  by a virus named Covid-19 aka Corona virus. The virus is highly contagious and the number of cases had exceeded 1 million cases. 

Source: Worldmeters.info

A person may be sick with the virus for 1 to 14 days before developing symptoms. The most common symptoms are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Most people (about 80%) recover from the disease without needing special treatment. More rarely, the disease can be serious and even fatal. Older people, and people with other medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, or heart disease), may be more vulnerable to becoming severely ill.

Closer to home, Malaysia has more than three thousand cases and sixty over death cases. Commencing from 17 March 2020, Malaysian government had implemented Movement Control Order ("MCO") for two weeks until end of March. The MCO was further extended until 14 April 2020 as the number of cases surges each day and Health Ministry needs time to complete contact tracing of all patients. The main purpose of MCO was to detect patients with Covid-19 after its 14 days incubation period and to prevent the spread of the virus within its incubation period.

Source: KKMputrajaya twitter

Many sectors worldwide are badly affected by Covid-19 virus. Small Medium Enterprises ("SME") took the greatest hit as all non-essential services were instructed to close during the MCO period. Bankers also implemented 6 month loan moratorium for all loans to help ease the financial burdens of borrowers. Prices of disposable surgical mask soared from RM20+ per box (50 pcs) to RM80 and above. Hand sanitisers and vitamin C also out of stock for most pharmaceutical stores. #stayathome #dudukrumah became trending hashtags on Instagram and social distancing is now the new normal.

In this difficult times, food delivery and online shopping apps are really a saviour to mankind. As most of us cannot travel more than 10km radius from our home, delivery services provided convenient means for us to procure essential supplies. 

Personally, I am glad that auditors can work anywhere and anytime. Our firm had implemented Work From Home ("WFH") policy since the implementation of MCO. With the assistance of G suites, virtual meetings and sharing of documents are done without much difficulties. Audit working papers are also synced virtually and reviews can be done offsite. I can proudly say that I have no difficulty in reviewing a financial statements without physical printouts. Go green, go virtual. :)

Hopefully, we will be able to survive FY2020 and end Covid-19 disaster. It will certainly be a tale to tell to our next generation in the foreseeable future. 

2017 Year in review

As the year is coming to an end, it is time to look back on my past achievements and unresolved resolutions to date. Fortunately, the Timeline in Facebook helped a lot in sorting important events chronologically. In 2017, I'm proud to say that I have achieved quite a number of new year resolutions despite the ups and downs throughout the year.

Resolutions achieved:

1. Attended my first CPD event

2. First solo trip to neighbouring country, Singapore

3. Resigned from PwC for a change in working environment

4. Planned and organised my annual trip to Japan

5. Signed up for gym and successfully completed 10 personal training session by 2017. (Certainly one of the long overdue resolutions)

Unexpected rewards during the year:

1. First overseas working trip to Jakarta

2. Great hang out with college friends in Seremban

3. First successful attempt for milo latte art (That's the only successful attempt though :/)

4. Conducted training for a class of 42 students

Unresolved resolutions:

1. Attend a concert

2. Learn music, cooking and swimming

3. Buy a house

I kinda believe the Law of Attractions. You can achieve your aims if you worked hard enough to get it. It all depends on the time and efforts you choose to put in to achieve your dreams. 

What's next for 2018? Need some time to figure it out...

Ethics: How much does it worth?

In recent years, the role of accountants has evolved due to digitalisation and other disruptions. However, ethics remained as an important emphasis for accountants as they need to make value judgement and safeguard public interests. The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants ("IESBA") constantly updating the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants to ensure that the Code remains relevant to current economic environment. In Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Accountants ("MIA") has issued similar code of ethics known as MIA By-Laws (On Professional Ethics, Conduct and Practice) to govern the ethical conduct of accountants in Malaysia.

Since young, we are instilled with moral education to do the right things and be accountable for our actions. I believe that all students will know what's the ideal answer for Moral Studies examinations although we might not  be practicing them in reality. Notwithstanding that, how many of us would actually do the right thing if we were put into a conflict of interests in workplace? Is it worthwhile to uphold our ethical conduct? I never thought of the answers for these questions until I faced one few months ago.

Four months back, I resigned from my first job as an auditor to return back to my hometown as an accountant in a public listed company. Everything seemed fine at first, albeit few months of losses and high gearing level of the company. After settling down for more than a month, I went for holiday in Japan for a week. It was a great trip solely planned by myself and I certainly enjoyed my first autumn experience there. When I returned from my trip, I started to notice something fishy about my new company. The losses turned into profits for all subsidiaries within a week. Did they increased their sales rapidly? I wondered.

Fortunately, my accounts executives trusted me and voluntarily disclose some of the wrong doings done by them as instructed by the Chief Executive Officer ("CEO"). I was appalled by the way they manipulated the accounting figures. What should I do when the CEO, CFO and the account staffs colluded to cook the books? I consulted a few friends and ex-colleagues for their opinion and I received diverse feedback from them. Some thought that I should leave my company whereas others mentioned that it is a norm for commercial clients to do so. I ended up in a dilemma and I had to decide my next move. After due consideration, I left my company and joined my present organisation. 

But..at what costs? 

I officially ruined my CV by leaving my new job within 2 months. In addition, I have to leave my hometown again to start afresh in urban city. Everything was a mess. Everyone advised me to remove my two months experience in my previous company from my CV as they do not mean anything to recruiters and interviewers. True enough, no one contacted me ever since I updated my CV with the two-months experience in my previous company. Is it wrong to be honest in my CV? 

Sometimes, I wonder whether it is wrong to do the right thing. I admit that I was too desperate for a change after the incident and landed myself with a mundane job. Hopefully, 2018 will treat me better and provide me with better opportunities. 

My forsaken haven

Dear blog,

You used to be a place I visit frequently. A comfortable zone for me to voice out my opinion, to vent my frustrations, to share my happiness and to remind myself of my failures. Now, everything seems estranged....

                           I stopped visiting you every now and then

                              You are not being updated at least once a month

                                     Broken links are not updated 

                                          And, my friends stopped writing as well...

Everything changes. Things are no longer the same as they were before. What caused such drastic change, I pondered. There is only one main reason that came to my mind - work! Undeniably, the amount of time and commitment we spent in coping with our new stage of life has indirectly forced us to set aside some hobbies, be it blogging, gaming or reading. Weekends became my favourite time to sleep late, have a nice meal and enjoy doing nothing because the work loads in the week days can be overwhelming at times.

Somehow, people tend to get busy over the years. Some of us are obsessed in climbing the corporate ladder whilst others are occupied with their own start-ups or business. The competitive environment in current year has forced many young working adults to work longer working hours without significant increase in salaries. Weakening of local currency and spike in living costs further add salt to the wound. Gradually, I have neglected the little things in life that makes me happy as well.

Hence, I am writing to you once again to remind myself that certain things are worthy of my time. I should not procrastinate my plans without any reason nor giving up my hobbies easily. Life is not just about work. :) Perhaps I can start off by updating my upcoming US trip. Hopefully, I can be disciplined enough to keep you updated more than once a year.

Yours sincerely,

--c3r0--