Today's Morning Post: Financial Crisis Prompts Surge in "Online Accountants"
"What do you think has been the biggest impact of the financial crisis on my life? It’s that over these past few months, I've become increasingly meticulous in managing my daily expenses. Transportation costs 4 yuan, food costs 25 yuan, communication fees 3 yuan... Now, I keep a daily account, but not in a notebook; instead, I use an online method to record it. This has not only taught me how to manage my finances but also cultivated a healthy and positive lifestyle." Xiao Wu, who has just graduated from university for three years and works at a bank, highly praised this new way of keeping accounts online.
In the wake of the financial crisis, "accountant" groups have risen
As living costs continue to rise, especially against the backdrop of the global financial crisis not yet being over, more and more "moonlight goddesses" (women who spend all their monthly income) and "card slaves" (people heavily indebted on credit cards) realize that they should not complacently live paycheck to paycheck but should carefully organize their personal incomes and expenditures to increase revenue while cutting costs. The recent red-hot stock and real estate markets have made them even more aware of the importance of good financial management, leading many to switch to online accounting.
Thus, online accounting networks have become popular, and "Did you keep your accounts online today?" has gradually become a fashion. According to Mr. Mou Mingxing, CEO of China's largest online accounting website - Caike Online, the site currently has 450,000 users, most of whom were added during the financial crisis. Their ages are generally concentrated between 25-35 years old, with most having monthly salaries ranging from 2,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan. There are many students and recent university graduates among them. Users from Zhejiang province alone account for nearly one-third, including some large clients with monthly cash flows exceeding one million yuan.
No longer needing to carry or flip through notebooks, nor manually calculating complex statistics with a calculator, the revolutionary online accounting method was warmly welcomed by a wide range of netizens upon its launch: "Originally, I would find a notebook to jot down my expenses, but now it's much simpler," netizen DANGYUHUA8 praised online accounting.
With the rise of online accounting websites like Caike Online, this group of enthusiastic online accountants also gained their own trendy nickname - "Zhangke."
Big Propositions in Small Ledgers
"Originally, I didn't realize that I was spending 700 yuan a month unconsciously on drinks. After consciously saving money through online accounting, I managed to control my monthly beverage expenses to 200 yuan, effectively cutting unnecessary spending," said "Zhangke" Yu Qian.
Through Caike Online, reporters saw that apart from basic daily flow records, debt situations, asset conditions, and network accounting contents such as stocks and funds, individuals' membership cards, bus cards, recharge cards, etc., can also be managed through this website. Various revenues and expenditures can be displayed graphically via bar charts or pie charts, making them much clearer than traditional handwritten notes. In addition, the website aims to improve customer financial intelligence by hosting offline activities like "Hundred Yuan Week" and promptly publishing relevant articles, collections, and data online for "account friends" to learn and reference.
Many "account friends'" financial management experiences and stories are shared with other "account friends" online. According to Mr. Mou Mingxing, a loyal user from Wenzhou named "Wuyu" won a 450,000-yuan lottery ticket in late June, prompting numerous "account friends" to ask, "How did you buy it?" However, "Wuyu" does not recommend blindly buying lottery tickets. He explained that he spent 350,000 yuan on lottery tickets to win the 450,000-yuan prize, leaving him with almost no profit after taxes.
Besides these everyday financial functions, Caike Online also features special functions such as sub-user permission allocation, data export, and automatic bookkeeping.
Improving Financial Intelligence is Key
After the rise of online accounting, professionals in the financial management industry have given it a thumbs up. Mr. Yu Dongsheng, Director of the Wealth Management Center of the Agricultural Bank of China Zhejiang Branch Business Department, stated that if one spends 5-10 minutes each day on online accounting, summarizing at the end of the month by asking "why" can better arrange next month's expenses: "The initial stage of financial management involves increasing income and reducing expenditure to free up funds for investment."
It is reported that when the first version of "Caike Online" went live, online accounting websites were still rare in China. In just over a year, more than 100 online accounting websites sprang up like mushrooms after rain, but after the market's洗礼(baptism), some sites have folded, leaving only dozens still operational. "Therefore, although more and more people are joining the 'Zhangke' ranks, it's best to choose a relatively stable website. Ideally, the website should have 24-hour monitoring to ensure data security and prevent loss," Mr. Mou Mingxing warned against prevalent hackers on the Internet.
Moreover, Mr. Mou Mingxing emphasized that merely understanding the flow of every fund is insufficient: "Financial management is essentially about increasing revenue and cutting costs. Cutting costs requires diligent bookkeeping, while increasing revenue necessitates enhancing personal financial intelligence to achieve financial freedom sooner. In today's society, relying solely on cutting costs is not enough; we must also increase revenue. This requires netizens to enhance their personal financial intelligence through various means to better adapt to social development."