Solving Mysteries in May Numbers

Kites single-handedly led May to another round of big black numbers.

May

Total income: +31.5%
Total COGS: +27.7%
Payroll: +10.5%

Marketing: +39.9%
Net Income (Profit): +313.8% (+$574)

Year to Date

Total income: +9.5%
Total COGS: +13.9%
Payroll: -48.4%

Marketing: -5.8%
Net Income (Profit): +85.7% (+$8,276)

I think I know why the YTD numbers are squirrelly. A "general journal entry" that my CPA instructed me to make for 12/31/12 added $4,400 to 2013's payroll.  

I don't know what the accountant's "correction" corrected, but I do know that this year's payroll is not really 48% behind LY's; in fact, payroll is running a little ahead of LY. At least $4,600 of the dramatic bottom-line improvement is an illusion. My actual YTD "profit" is (-$1,384) vs. (-$9,660) at this time LY. It's normal for a retailer to run in the red until November, btw; May was unusual in actually ending $391 in the black. The only thing these numbers tell me is that this year is likely to finish profitably.

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My Mastercard security problem is theoretically solved. Back in March I got several charges for either $59.95 or $32.94 from GNC vitamin shop. I called Citizens Bank to dispute the charges and cancel my card. In April, those same charges appeared on my replacement card. I called Citizens again, disputed the charges again, and got yet another new card along with a snippy little lecture about internet security. Despite carefully refraining from entering my credit card info on any vendor websites, another $32.94 charge from GNC appeared yesterday. 

So I phoned Citizens yet again and insisted that we get to the bottom of this. Their fraud person rang up GNC's customer service department while I was on the line. Turns out that the thief opened a GNC account back in February with my credit card and was getting automatic shipments. GNC kept charging my original card number. Merchants who make ongoing charges can subscribe to an optional Mastercard service that forwards charges to a cardholder's current account regardless of whether the card has expired or been canceled. GNC never saw the replacement account numbers; they just kept charging the original card, and Mastercard kept pushing the charges forward. Citizens Bank and I were powerless to stop them.

I didn't know that merchants could do that, and neither did the fraud department at Citizens. GNC closed the thief's account and deleted my original credit card from their system, and that should be the end of that.