Lilliworks Active Learning Foundation

          Lilliworks is a manufacturing non-profit organization, which makes therapeutic equipment for disabled children. Most of Lilliwork's customers are school district special education departments. Andrea Reichert is employed as a bookeeper, and manages almost all of the organization's financial responsibilites. She taught me filing and organizational skills, and showed me how to use quickbooks: a bookkeeping software. Quickbooks helps generate invoices, sales orders, packing slips, pay bills, balance checkbooks, and many more financial functions. Additionally, Andrea and I made deposits at the bank, mailed product orders, and emailed customers payment confirmations

 

Hours:

5/1/2014: 2 hours: Introduction/ overview; reconciled bank statement; went over ideas/goals for internship;details of sales orders

5/2/2014 2 hours: Logged invoices; bank deposit;  faxed acknowledgment; made packing slip; mailed orders at USPS; entered                                          deposits/reciepts in QB

5/5/2014 2 hours: Generated Sales Orders; logged invoices: packing slips for shipping

5/6/2014 2 hours: Check registry; invoices; packing slips; stamps

5/7/2014 2 hours: Logged invoices; bank deposit; generated sales orders; entered deposits/reciepts in QB

5/8/2014 2 hours: Generated sales orders; manufacturing assistance; entered deposits/reciepts in QB

5/9/2014 2 hours: Logged invoices; bank deposit; generated sales orders; made packing slip; mailed orders at USPS; entered                                          deposits/reciepts in QB

5/19/2014 2 hours: Logged invoices; bank deposit; generated sales orders; faxed acknowledgment; mailed order at USPS; entered                                    deposits/reciepts in QB

5/22/2014 3 hours: Report assignment on 501(c)(3) and Board of Directors

2/27/2014 2 hours: Review of report-Finalize

Total hours: 21

 

Weekly Journal Entries:

          Week 1: At first, I did everything really slowly and made a few mistakes, like putting the invoice number in the wrong spot, or forgetting to record when I've entered receipts. After the first few days, though, I made fewer mistakes, since I was getting more familiar with the software. Andrea is very helpful and patient, making sure I understand what we're working on before we move on to the next thing. I made sure to pay attention when she taught me how to file things properly; folders are filed alphabetically by the customer/vendor's name, and receipts are filed chronologically in the folder, from oldest to newest.

 

          Week 2: This week wasn't too diferent from the last; more invoice logging and sales orders, mostly. I'm relatively proficient at this now, and can do this without supervision. We also went over how to represent your organization in a proffesional way when emailing customers. Also, I helped Matt package some of the products, and I leanred that shipping things can be very rough on the product; we had to make sure the product was cushioned and immobile in the box, which can sometimes be challenging. Matt is the manufacturer for lilliworks; he makes and packages all the products.

 

Closing Report:

            The specific skills that I used in this internship include filing, using the quickbooks software, customer relations, invoicing; basically how to manage the financial side of a small business. This was great, because this is exactly what I hope to be doing in a few years. My daily duties were invoicing, logging and alphabetizing receipts, filing receipts and invoices, updating the quickbooks registry, generating packing slips, and mailing products. I helped Andrea with whatever she needed; she showed me how she did her job, then I helped her do it.

            During this internship, I learned a few new skills that were very useful, and developed other skills I had already learned. I learned how to organize a massive amount of receipts and invoices, which was not exactly easy. We had to make copies, track invoice numbers, and chronologically alphabetize those receipts and invoices into different folders and binders, making sure everything was tracked. Then, after the product was shipped we had to check that the shipping cost equaled what the customer paid, and if it didn’t, we had to enter the actual amount in quickbooks and notify the customer. Andrea also had to notify Matt, the manufacturer, when we got new orders. I also helped Matt mail some orders, and learned how to cheaply package products by using recycled cardboard and a little bit of bubble wrap.

            Honestly, I didn’t really overcome any obstacles during this internship. I learned some valuable skills, but it wasn’t particularly challenging. I think that part of the reason I didn’t find it too challenging is because of the YEAH program; I was very well prepared and not at all unfamiliar with many of the concepts that Andrea taught me. At first, I thought this internship would be a lot more filing, and basically the work that Andrea didn’t want to do. While there was a lot of filing, she actually showed me how to use quickbooks, and how organizations interact with the bank. I liked that a lot, because that’s the side of small business that YEAH can’t really show you. I loved getting experience with how to financially run a small product based business. This is knowledge that I am positive will be useful in the future as I try to start and grow my own business, which will most likely be a product based business. I’m very grateful that I got a chance to see this side of business, and I am glad I could work with someone I know and respect