Engineeringtalk newsletter issue 474

Engineering or accountancy?

Written by the Engineeringtalk editor Jul 1, 2009

The sales representative needed some help explaining the advantages of his company's new system to one of his clients. So he asked the engineering manager if he could spare one of the company engineers to accompany him on a sales visit.

Being the benevolent fellow that he was, the engineering manager was only too pleased to oblige. And so one morning, the sales representative picked the young engineer up from his house and then headed off on the one hundred mile journey to see the customer.

But due to the number of road works that they encountered along the way, it looked as if the dynamic duo would be hard pressed to reach their destination in time - unless they could make up some time. To complicate matter's, a pit stop was in order to fill up the tank of the sales representative's Ford Mondeo which had started to run low on petrol due to the hours they'd spent sitting in traffic.

They pulled into the nearest filling station well aware that time was not on their side. But being used to optimising procedures, the engineer suggested to the salesman that he would queue and pay for the fuel while the sales representative filled up the car at the pump. The trick was to shave at least five minutes off the trip, allowing them to reach the client with just minutes to spare.

Back at home base, the young engineer was congratulated by all and sundry on what was seen by the management as a very successful endeavour that had resulted in a large order being placed with the company for its new system.

But when the young engineer tried to reclaim the money he had shelled out on the petrol for the sales representative's car, it was another matter. For after spending at least half an hour filling out an intricate expenses form, the young engineer waited for weeks before he finally heard back from the company's assistant accountant.

And when he did, it was bad news. In a rather terse email, the assistant accountant informed the young engineer that company policy dictated that only the owners of company vehicles, or individuals who had rented a car specifically for the purpose of a business trip, were allowed to claim fuel for their vehicles. And since the engineer fell into neither of those categories, he was not entitled to the money.

Feeling a bit miffed by the whole affair, the engineer brought the issue up with his superior, who duly approached the accountant and then his superior to resolve the issue and to gain the necessary remuneration for his engineer.

Sadly, the affair took a lot more time than the chief engineer had bargained for. In fact, it took almost half a day to write the emails and make the necessary phone calls to resolve the matter.

But at long last the engineer did receive a cheque for the GBP40 that he had spent filling his sales colleagues tank. But do you know, when he did, he didn't even bother to cash it! Instead, he framed it and hung it up in a prominent position on the wall in his office. It's there to remind him every day he comes to work why he chose engineering as a career rather than accountancy.