We're in Hong Kong now. Matthew returned home from school yesterday afternoon and we bolted for the airport. The Proctor & Gamble integration is going full speed ahead and I had to be in Hong Kong to meet with the representatives of HSBC Bank to open up a new bank account with Tony. Effective October 1, 2006, Tony's pay will be switched to Hong Kong Dollars. Under the current Gillette plan, most of Tony's pay is being deposited into our US bank account in US Dollars and a small portion of it is being deposited into the Bank of China in Chinese Yuan (or RMB) in Shanghai. I wasn't wild about taking Matthew out of school and asked if there was some way that we do this over the weekend? How about a Friday? Can't you send the documents to me and I'll sign it and get someone to attest that it's my signature? I tried everything and the answer was NO. That meant, I had to take Matthew out of school for two days and bolt for a flight out of Shanghai. Tony was in Dongguan on business and arrived directly from South China. Matthew and I arrived at 11:30 at night. We were late due to the inclement weather that Hong Kong is experiencing. It was pouring cats and dogs.
This morning, we met with Rachel, the representative at HSBC. She explained the different bank accounts that were available to us. We had a barrage of questions and by the end of the "orientation" my head was spinning. HSBC offers quite a bit of options for the expatriate. All of which I appreciate. However, when you're trapped in a small room with the bank representative and a nine year old who is constantly asking "When is this going to be over?", you're ready to blow your brains out. There are so many things that I have to watch over...the currency float, the service fees, the transfers to be made to the US on a monthly basis since we still have ongoing obligations that need to be paid, we will need money to be converted from Hong Kong Dollars to RMB in order for us to buy the day to day necessities in China and then there's the travel expense reimbursements.
The most frustrating thing for us since we've moved here is that Tony can't get a corporate credit card. Why? Who knows? Finance tells him that it isn't offered and it is expected that all employees who travel use their personal card. So, he uses our personal credit card to pay for his travel expenses. He charges his trip- either in Korean Won, Chinese RMB or Hong Kong Dollars to our credit card. The bill is then billed out and paid in American Dollars. He then prepares and submits his expense report and he gets reimbursed in RMB. Got that? Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep track of what goes out, what comes in and then I have to convert it all back to see if we're missing anything.
So, now that I am "unemployed", I have become Tony's full time "administrative assistant". It's my job now to keep track of the expense reports, go to the bank and see if the money has been deposited and then track it back to the expense report and see what other open items there are.
Tony does have an administrative assistant at the office. Since he's arrived, she just doesn't want to do anything for him or for anyone for that matter. Every time she has submitted an expense report for reimbursement, there has always been an issue in getting payment. Why? Let's see, perhaps she doesn't attach all the receipts that he's given her, loses somes of the receipts, forgets to submit the expense report altogether or even better, just doesn't prepare it for him.
So, I'm lobbying for a position as his personal assistant at P&G now. I even told him that I would get him coffee too (without an attitude... maybe).
