Miscommunication

Two summers ago I was filling in for the office manager at a non-profit organization. It was the summer after my freshman year and I was a little inexperienced in the setting that I was placed in. I took on a lot of responsibility and had a lot of new tasks that I had to learn how to do and remember doing. I am a pretty quick learner but have a terrible memory and sometimes it takes me a little bit to catch on to something. Since it was a non-profit organization we received several checks in the mail. With each check I had to record them, stamp them, and deposit them. I did this for several weeks. About half way through, the president of the organization asked me if I had been making copies of the checks. Ofcourse my heart sank and I was mortified. I had not been making copies of the checks that I had been depositing. I thought I was only supposed to make copies of the checks that we wrote. Somewhere there was some miscommunication in either it ever being given to me or me receiving it correctly. Fortunately, this was not too big of a deal and she was able to go back through and cover my steps but this could have been an ordeal. The miscommunication could have been prevented by either me writing down those important steps and following a checklist until I had the hang of it or her emphasizing the importance of this to me.