Payday :D

Just gotten my pro-rated pay for this month. Nothing to describe how good it is to get half a month pay that is equivalent to a month pay when working part-time during school terms.

This week is research week, the topic is grouting. For people who do not know what is grouting, it is basically a construction material to embed in wall and fill the cracks. It may sound simple but it is not. The PDF file that I had referred to is ninety-one pages long article. The following is the cover page of this article and its origin;

The origin of this article is just amazing, USA (Department of Defence).

The main content of this article highlights three areas; which is the types of grout, grouting method, and grouting equipment. I had briefly read through the types of grout and grouting method as it is required for me to have some background knowledge before i head down to meet the contractors.

At site, the waterproofing specialist took some photos of the affected areas and briefly informed me of the method of solving this issue. Since i had some knowledge beforehand, i am able to ask why they are using certain grout (e.g. Polyurenthane) instead of another (e.g. Epoxy). From their explanation i am able to understand better and also aware of the nature of different grout to be used in different situation.

Overall, i am satisfy with my performance for this week and hopefully Mr Chan is glad with my performance too :D Hope to do better than the "B" i had gotten last week...

2nd Week of Internship

Generally I will rate this week's productivity as satisfactory. I had met new people and learnt new things. Mr Chan also brought us to lunch on Wednesday.

The lunch makes me so bloated that I don't have to had my dinner. We went to Ang Mo Kio Ave 5 to eat western food. "Aston" had an outlet in the coffeeshop and I ordered double chicken for my lunch. The bloated part came in when Ms Lily split half of her plate's chicken to me and the baked potatoe.

The real reason why we came to the coffeeshop is because an agent introduce and wanted us to buy over this coffeeshop. Mr Chan told me that the company can never prosper if we just stick to buying land to develop and sell. Rental from commercial building or coffeeshop can sometime be an alternative when the residential market is quiet.

Knowing the plan to explore into coffeeshop, I started studying the operation of coffeeshop and get some information from my relatives and friends that knows this market. I also drafted a feasibility study report on this particular coffeeshop with its proposed price. The only factor now is the lease period of this coffeeshop. Normally the coffeeshop lease period is the same as the HDB building it is under. Hence knowing that the building left 60 years, the profit margin greatly reduced as compared to 99 years lease for new buildings. Ultimately Mr Chan still put this into consideration as it is feasible with a lower return of investment.

I had decided to write an entry every week instead of the usual day by day. This is because is it too tiring to blog after work and it will affect the next day work attention. I hope the school will understand and pardon me on this change. For every week's entry I will highlight one task that is most engaging or interesting. I will also blog my unpleasant encounter if I ever encounter one.

Stay tuned and look forward to my next entry :D

Accounts - Le Marican

Today I have been appointed to update/tally the accounts for Le Marican. At first I thought I would have to apply balance sheet/ Profit&Loss/ etc that was learnt in EFM (Essential of Financial Management). In the end it is just the update of accounts using a Excel Worksheet, the worksheet have two major tabs.

Accounts Tab, it shows the items that will incur cost and maintenance fee that is collected from the resident. Basically under the cost would be SP services/ cleaning/ pest control/ insurance/ etc, once the bills comes in I will typed it into the worksheet. I will also write cheques and make payable to the respective companies and record the cheque number on the bills. The bills is then filed into our accountant's folder so that she can keep track on her side.

Inflow/Outflow Tab, it shows the cheque number in respect to the purpose of payment. It also shows the summary of the balance left in the maintenance account. The account must always be positive and I had to make sure the outstanding balance can last for as long as possible. In order to do so, I had to factor out which is fixed costs and which are variable cost. Fixed cost cannot be avoided hence to cut cost I had to reduce the variable cost. For example, SP services. We can put a timer on the light system so that it will not be on the whole day or put water-saving device on taps. Until CSC (Certificate of Statutory Completion), we as the developer will have to be responsible for the estate's accounts.

I had learn new terms and how accounts can be kept in worksheet instead of balance sheet. I look forward to next week's work and hope to acquire more and more knowledge from Mr Chan and Ms Lily :D