Chapter 20: Factory Worker Working As A Bookkeeper (1)

Gun-Ho’s life working in a gas delivery company started.

Once the gas was sold to a customer, Gun-Ho issued an electronic tax invoice and added the record to Excel. If an expense was incurred, Gun-Ho documented it and recorded it in Excel.

“Goo Jooim, you can purchase the form to document business expenses from a stationary store. I had seen the previous bookkeeper attach the receipts to the back of the form to document the expenses.

“Yes, that’s how we document the expenses. We have to write down the amount of the expense along with a brief explanation about its business purpose. We, then, attach the receipt on the back of that form. We keep these records on a monthly basis and bring them to the tax accountant.”

“You do what you have to do. I will be back later.”

The owner sometimes took a short trip to somewhere in his small truck with his tools. Every time he did it, his wife stayed in the office.

“Where does he go with his tools?”

“Wouldn’t you just know it by looking? He is visiting customer sites for gas pipe repair.”

“Oh, I see.”

“He is the best in repairing gas pipes. Hahaha.”

The owner’s wife boasted indirectly of her husband even though they argued a lot when they were together.

“Oh, doesn’t he give you the money he received for gas pipe repairing to deposit?”

“Yes, he does.”

In fact, the owner didn’t deposit the money as often as he received for the repair job. He deposited only the ones that were substantial and required tax invoices.

Gun-Ho could hear the engine sound of a 1-ton truck; the owner must have come back.

“Any news?”

The owner always asked whenever he came back to the office.

“No, nothing special. There were requests from Duksoo store and Shinchun Food for gas. I sent Driver Kim out for delivery.”

“Good. I believe we have to pay value-added tax (VAT) next month. Goo Jooim, don’t forget.”

“Yes, sir.”

Gun-Ho had never done VAT reporting before. A guideline for VAT report could be found on the National Tax Service HomeTax website, but he hadn’t tried it yet.

“For a VAT, it’s an estimated tax payment this time, right?”

Gun-Ho was perplexed; he remembered he had heard there were two types of payments for VAT: an estimated payment and a final payment. He couldn’t be totally honest by saying he didn’t know about it since it was part of a bookkeeper’s job.

“Yes… that’s correct.”

He just responded for now.

“It will cost me again.”

The owner left the office. Gun-Ho opened the National Tax Service HomeTax website right away. Fortunately, the VAT they had to pay next month was the estimated payment.

“Whew, thank God.” Gun-Ho marked the calendar with the VAT tax deadline. “This is how one learns”

Gun-Ho made a call to the tax accountant office which had been handling tax preparation for Bangil Gas. A lady answered the phone.

“Tax accountant office? I am calling from Bangil Gas.”

“Bangil Gas? Give me one moment, please. I will get you the person who is in charge of Bangil Gas.”

After a while, another clerk picked up the phone.

“This is Bangil Gas. I am the new bookkeeper in Bangil Gas.”

Gun-Ho felt abashed at introducing himself as a bookkeeper because he hadn’t handled any computerized accounting or journalizing yet.

“Oh, Bangil Gas? Hi.”

For the tax accountant office, Bangil Gas was their client, so she was nice on the phone.

“For the VAT reporting next month, what do we have to prepare?”

“We will need a set of tax invoices for each month. Please do not attach them to the expense documents. We also need receipts and simplified tax invoices attached to expense documents.”

“Oh, okay. I will do that.”

“You can group them all by date and bring to us.”

“Then, are you coming to pick up the tax invoices and expense documents?”

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“Well… we can do that… but the previous bookkeeper used to bring them to our office…”

“Oh, then I will do that too. Can I have your name please?”

“You can ask for Manager Gang.”

“I am Gun-Ho Goo. I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“It will be our pleasure working with you. Thank you.”

Gun-Ho felt encouraged after talking with the lady. When he worked at a factory, he didn’t really have a chance to talk with a young lady at work.

Gun-Ho became better and faster at his job documenting expenses and handling Excel; real-world work experience helped him learn faster as expected. If that was all he had to do at work, Gun-Ho would have been happy. He had to call clients to demand payment, who hadn’t paid a bill on time, and he hated doing it.

“Duksoo store? This is from Bangil Gas. I’m calling to let you know we haven’t received the payment for the gas we delivered last time.”

“I will pay tomorrow.”

Usually, the customers on credit firmly promised to pay within a fixed time, but they didn’t keep their words.

“You said you would pay by today.”

“Hey look, I will pay you, okay? Do you really have to do this in the morning? Let me talk to the owner!”

Some customers raised their voices and Gun-Ho often had to argue with them. For customers who failed to pay for several months, a certification of contents had to be sent to them.

“Goo Jooim, send a certification of contents to Shinchon store. Shitty people!”

“Yes, sir.”

Gun-Ho said he would, but he didn’t know how to do it. He searched the internet but he still couldn’t figure it out.

“Haven’t you done a certification of contents before? There is a file in the first drawer of the cabinet over there. It’s the certification of contents file. Leaf through the file; it will help.”

Gun-Ho took out the file from the cabinet.

“I should have taken a look at this file already.”

When Gun-Ho was in Noryangjin, he had written countless self-introduction essays for job applications. After multiple attempts and following failures in level-9 government job exams, he ran out of money; he, then, tried to find a private sector job only to find out there was no company which would invite him for an interview. No company would hire a low ranked college dropout with a cyber college degree for an office job. That was why Gun-Ho started working at a factory. He just didn’t have any other choice.

“I’ve written more than 100 self-introduction essays. Preparing a certification of contents is a piece of cake.”

Gun-Ho typed the certification of contents with excitement.

“Are you done? Then make a quick visit to the post office before they close.”

Gun-Ho headed to the post office close by the Township office carrying the certification of contents. He found himself humming in his car.

“Bookkeeping work is easy.”

Gun-Ho even started singing while driving.

“That is why one has to have brains. If I chose to learn welding or forklift driving instead of computerized accounting from the vocational school, I would have still worked at a factory.”

Gun-Ho arrived at the post office. There was a person in front of him with parcels. Gun-Ho had to wait.

“He has a lot of parcels. Damn it. Why doesn’t he just go to a parcel delivery service company?”

After a while, it was his turn. Gun-Ho handed over the envelope with the certification of contents in it to the clerk lady at the counter of the post office.

“How do you want to mail it?”

“I want the certification of contents.”

The clerk took out the certification from the envelope to take a look and then looked at Gun-Ho.

“Why is this only one page?”

“Excuse me?”

“There have to be three pages for certification of contents.”

The post office clerk gave the envelope back to Gun-Ho, and then called the next person in line.

“Really?”

Gun-Ho headed back to the office scratching his head.

“It is embarrassing. What should I tell him?”

Gun-Ho felt down on the way back to the office while he had felt cheerful enough to sing on the way out of the office earlier.