Okay, so sometimes, an accountant will look up my LinkedIn or online presense to see, do I do business with this guy?
And what if I don’t have a linkedin account? What if I just live in Romania, but my online presense doesn’t reflect that? Then I can write a blog article for Hey Cluj on types of business that I might do.
Wine
First, I am not in the wine making business. I don’t even drink wine. But a lot of people in film end up there. I don’t know why, but film investment firm managers and the guy who directed Godfather both went into wine. And these people live in English speaking countries, not known for grapes.
But everyone knows that wine takes time to age. So, the production cycle of wine might be 24 months, or 36 months. People will say what year wine is from. Therefore, grapes in the wine production process can be current assets even if they will not be consumed within the calendar year.
Why do I say wine first? Because even though I don’t drink, make, or buy wine, I know that making wine is a long process. In so many American and British movies and TV shows, a character gets wine from “a good year” or even “a good decade.”
Zalmoxis apparently banned wine among his people, which along with the belief in eternal life, is said by Dan Roxin to be one of the secrets to Dacian power during the ancient times. Even Julius Caesar was afraid to fight against Dacia, according to Roxin.
Well, maybe their belief in eternal life meant that the Dacian aged wine for even longer than we do now. Perhaps they didn’t drink it in this life because they were saving it for the eternities. If anyone offers me wine, I will try that excuse. I don’t drink wine that is aged for less than 30,000 (thirty thousand) millenia.
Cheese and other foods
Most cheeses age in less than a year, often a month is a long time. But there are a few specialist cheeses that have longer production cycles, of over a year. Some types of Gouda, Parmesan, and even vintage cheddar might be aged more than a year (although you won’t find those in most normal supermarkets.)
Sbrinz, Grana, Peccorino, and other hard cheeses can be matured for more than a year. And gruyere can be aged for over a year, in certain varieties.
While Romanian cheeses aren’t normally aged over a year, Italian cheeses are pretty popular here, and it wouldn’t be inconceivable for a Romanian business to have part in the long term cheese business.
Other things in the food industry might have a long production cycle.
Films and entertainment
Another item that can often take a long time to develop is films. A screenplay might be optioned many years before it is produced. And a film might take a while to complete, in some cases a documentary can take years to edit. The production cycle can be short for some films, but it can be incredibly long for others.
Now, Mircea Bravo seems to churn out films rather quickly, but we don’t know how long it takes to develop the large blockbusters that are partially shot here.
What really shocked us here was seeing adverts for concerts that would be more than one year in the future. I forget the name of the DJ, but he’s swiss. Does he eat Sbrinz?
Farming, gardening, zoos, and animals
The gestation period of certain animals is over a year, and a lot of plants take many years before they grow fruit. Depending on why you are growing certain species, and at what stage they need to be developed to be commerically viable, the range from current asset to non current asset is not as cut and dry as a crash course in accounting might tell you.
The botanical garden has many varieties of plants that are hundreds of years old. Some flowers might be interesting to look at in the first year, but others might need to be incubated for awhile before they can be shown to the general public.
Chickens grow rather quickly, so the chickent at KFC is probably much less than a year old when it is turned into a nugget. I don’t know how long it stays in the freezer, however.
Software and tech
While the production cycle for software is much shorter than it used to be, I still know firms who do not advertise for the first year because they are in the development phase. Patches might be developed regularly, but it can take a long time to build the first working product.
It might even be a longer process for some technology products.
Construction
Do you know how long it took to build some of these churches in Cluj? Some were relatively quick, but even then, it often takes longer than a year to build a church, a museum, a stadium, an appartment block, or a university building. They recently opened that massive cathedral below the Romanian theatre was in construction for over six years before it opened.
Yes, there are those that are built in less than a year, but what about airports? There’s one airport in Germany that took over 12 years to build.
Education
It takes most people more than a year to earn their degree. Okay, so while that might not be on a balance sheet as a current asset, there are university programs and departments that are developed over time.
The Cluj Metro
Well, we assume it will take longer than a year, because we’ve heard about it for years…
etc
I am starting to wonder whether the one year rule for current assets idea is that relevant outside of certain kinds of retail. Almost any industry I can think of has at least one product that takes longer than a year to develop.