Accounting Savvy for Business Owners: A Guide to the Bare Essentials
Author: Philip B. Goodman, CPA
Price: 34.95
Perfectbound
ISBN: 978-1932925180
272 pages
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Click here for an excerpt from Accounting Savvy for Business Owners
Addressing a common problem for small-business owners, this
accessible accounting book is the key to understanding the ins and outs of
business accounting. Demonstrating how to correctly maintain records and apply
bookkeeping rules, this guide demonstrates how to keep track of all
financial matters and monitor the overall health of any business.
Avoiding complex and burdensome accounting jargon, this clear and
concise overview translates the essentials into practical business
language, answering the most frequently asked accounting questions from small-business owners today. Topics covered include
accounting components such as sales, expenses, assets, liabilities, and
owners' profits.
This accounting book teaches you the bare
essentials of accounting principles. It won't teach you enough to pass a CPA
exam, and it isn't even designed to provide enough depth of knowledge to get a
job as a bookkeeper. It is, in many ways, an oversimplified series of
explanations that are only intended to help you understand how accounting
principles work.
As a business owner
you should understand how transactions should be created, how records should be
kept, and how to interpret the totals you see when you look at financial
reports. Without this knowledge, it's difficult to track and understand your
business finances.
The topics covered
represent the questions that are most often asked of accountants by their
clients. Thousands of business owners write to www.cpa911.com (part of CPA911
Publishing, LLC) to ask how to resolve problems, understand reports, and create
transactions accurately. Thousands of accountants write also; to ask how to
explain bookkeeping tasks to their confused clients, and also to ask how to
straighten out books that are totally inaccurate because business owners have
entered transactions incorrectly. Therefore, this book could accurately be
called an FAQ of the ABCs of accounting.
Being able to rely on accurate
financial records is absolutely crucial to the success of any business.
Accounting figures aren't just for preparing tax returns. You need to keep an
eye on the amount of money owed to you by your customers, you must be able to
see where your highest profits are made, and you must be able to determine
where your expenses may be inappropriately high (or perhaps too low; you may
not be spending enough to grow or to manage growth).
Lastly,
if you don't understand accounting principles, and you don't know how to "read"
your books, you're a potential victim of anyone who wants to cheat you. Sadly,
this happens more often in small businesses than most people realize, even in
businesses that employ family members to manage the finances.
Brief Table of Contents for Accounting Savvy for Business Owners
Chapter 1: Basic Accounting Rules
The Ledger
Accounting
Categories
Cash Basis Vs
Accrual Basis Accounting
Fiscal Vs
Calendar Year
Chapter 2: Accounting Components
Chart of
Accounts
Transactions
Journals
General
Ledger
Chapter 3: Tracking Income
Creating
Customers
Invoice
Journals
Customer
Invoice Payment Journals
Cash Sales
Journals
Customer
Refunds and Credits
Posting
Customer Discounts
Posting
Miscellaneous Income
Chapter 4: Tracking Expenses
Creating
Vendors
Tracking
Vendor Bills
Paying Vendor
Bills
Direct
Disbursements
Tracking
Electronic Payments
Tracking
Vendor Credits
Managing
Vendor Refunds
Petty Cash
Expenses
Tracking
Debit Cards
Chapter 5: Managing Assets
Tracking Cash
Tracking
Accounts Receivable
Tracking
Loans Owed To You
Vendor
Deposits and Prepaid Expenses
Inventory
Asset
Fixed Assets
Intangible
Assets
Chapter 6: Managing Liabilities
Accounts
Payable
Customer
Upfront Deposits
Client
Retainers
Tracking
Escrow
Sales &
Use Tax
Loans to Your
Company
Line of
Credit
Chapter 7: Managing Equity
Understanding
Equity Accounts
Proprietorships
Partnerships
LLCs and LLPs
Multimember
LLCs and LLPs
Corporations
C
Corporations
S
Corporations
Chapter 8: Inventory 151
Tracking
Inventory Items
Inventory
Accounting Tasks
Manufacturing
Assembled Products
Adjusting
Inventory
Work In
Process
Chapter 9: Payroll & Independent Contractors
Employee Vs
Independent Contractor
Payroll
Independent
Contractors
Chapter 10: Year End Tasks
Depreciation
and Amortization
Adjustments
for Cash Basis Tax Reports
Allocating
Overhead Expenses to Divisions
Allocating
Equity
Tax Forms and
Tax Returns
Chapter 11: Important Reports
Balance Sheet
Profit &
Loss Report
Accounts
Receivable Report
Accounts
Payable Report
Inventory
Reports
Bank
Reconciliation
