From “Why Am I Doing This?” to “Okay… Now It Makes Sense.”

Somethings you need to learn to become an executive director of a nonprofit...

So, I started Accounting classes........

and when I started Accounting Fundamentals I...

I had a LOT of questions

Actually, question might be putting it nicely.

I remember learning about T-accounts, debits and credits, journals, ledgers, and all the different ways transactions had to be recorded.

I kept thinking

Why are we doing all of this?

Why do I have to record this transaction here?

Then record it somewhere else?

Then keep track of it in another ledger?

Why am I doing what feels like three times the amount of work when we have computers that can literally keep track of everything for us?

I understand the purpose of checks and balances. I understand wanting to be able to find mistakes. I understand needing records that can be traced back to the original transaction.

But while I was learning Accounting Fundamentals I, it still felt like an absolutely ridiculous amount of work.

There were definitely moments when I thought,

"Who decided accounting needed to be this complicated?"

Then came Accounting Fundamentals II.

And somewhere along the way, I started thinking...

"Ohhhhhhh."

Now I'm working through Lesson 4: Plant Assets and Depreciation and Chapter 3: Purchasing and Recording Plant Assets, and something has started to change.

The things I learned in Accounting Fundamentals I are starting to make more sense.

The T-accounts make more sense.

The ledgers make more sense.

The reason for tracking transactions the way we do is becoming clearer.

I'm starting to understand that Accounting Fundamentals I wasn't just teaching me how to move numbers around. It was teaching me the foundation I needed to understand what comes next.

It's kind of like building a house.

When you're laying the foundation, you don't necessarily understand what the finished house is going to look like. You're just digging, measuring, leveling, and wondering why you're spending so much time on something nobody is even going to see once the house is finished.

Then you start putting up the walls.

And suddenly...

Oh. I see why we needed that foundation.

That's how Accounting Fundamentals II feels right now.

I'm looking back at things from Accounting I and realizing that some of the things that drove me absolutely crazy were actually preparing me for what I'm learning now.

I still think there are moments where accounting seems like an unnecessarily complicated way to keep track of money.

I still look at some of the processes and think, "Surely there is an easier way to do this."

And there probably is when you have accounting software doing the work for you.

But now I'm beginning to understand why it's important to know what the computer is actually doing behind the scenes.

If the software records something incorrectly, I need to understand enough about accounting to recognize that something isn't right.

If the numbers don't balance, I need to understand where to look.

If a transaction affects multiple accounts, I need to understand why.

And that's something I couldn't fully appreciate when I first started.

So now I'm sitting here in Accounting Fundamentals II, working through plant assets and depreciation, and I'm realizing that Accounting Fundamentals I wasn't nearly as pointless as I thought it was.

It was preparing me.

It was giving me the pieces.

Now I'm finally starting to see how those pieces fit together.

And honestly?

That feeling is pretty amazing.

There's something really satisfying about looking back at something that once made absolutely no sense and realizing:

"Wait... I actually understand this now."

So I'm going to keep going.

Accounting Fundamentals I — survived. ✔️

Accounting Fundamentals II — currently in progress. 📚

T-accounts — I finally understand why you're here. 😂

Plant assets and depreciation — actually making sense.

And me — still learning, still questioning, but definitely not throwing in the towel.

Sometimes understanding doesn't happen when you're first introduced to something.

Sometimes you have to keep learning until you finally reach the chapter where you look back and say:

"Ohhhh... THAT'S why they taught me that."