administrators and community accounts

Is it just me?

I'm not sure how many members here are invloved with the running of their communities, so maybe I won't get much feedback on this, but I'm curious. To me, accounting / book-keeping is black and white and should be pretty straightforward. You have some "ins", you have some "outs", take one from the other and you have your balance, and at the end of the quarter / year (or at any time for that matter) the balance should match whatever is in the bank, plus any amount held in petty cash. (I know this is somewhat simplified, but in theory it shouldn't be that much different)

So why does our administrator consistently confuse and confound and come up with year end accounts that NEVER quite balance? There is ALWAYS a mysterious amount allocated to "cash", which is impossible since EVERYTHING is paid into or out of the bank account. This "cash" amount is in reality just the admin's adjustment for the "error" which he cannot find.

And more importantly, why am I the ONLY one in our community who is concerned about this? Without wishing to sound prejudiced, the Spanish owners in particular seem to think I'm crazy and that unbalanced accounts are normal, and that it really doesn't matter because it's "close enough". NO!!! There simply cannot be an error, not 1 cent, if the accounts are done properly. Why do people just shrug and accept this? I'm sure Spanish businesses are not run like this. Mine certainly wasn't.

I spent several hours this week with our admin trying to rectify his errors and balance the books. We found several mistakes and corrected them, but in the end were still something like 75 euros out. After trying to baffle me with explanations / excuses, fancy computing programs (a simple spreadsheet would do) and countless scribbled bits of paper strewn over his amazingly disorganised desk, he beat me. The amount we disagreed over was not owed to the community, rather money to be paid out - to whom? The the admin, according to him, although he could not account for what. So in the end I just gave up and said "OK, leave it at that, but you ain't getting that money!"

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

I am not an owner so have no expierience but of course i have an opinion (i have an opinion on most things wether i know anything obout it or not).

By definition an Administrator administrates so every penny should be accounted for and all should be clear to be inspected at any time.

They are employees of the community so should be answerable to the community in my opinion.

A yearly independent audit would find any discrepencys and of course if it is even a penny out they should be replaced because their main task is balancing books (in my opinon).

Why dont the spanish owners care and consider this normal?

They have been conditioned to accept a thrd world system from the degrading and very long process of registering births right through to the painful experience of claiming benefits.

I belive that they are stil living in the shadow and first generation on from the dictator where questioning things got you residence in a mass grave.