Accounting For Dummies [Paperback]

John A. Tracy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 3, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470246006 | ISBN-13: 978-0470246009 | Edition: 4th

Learn the basics of practical accounting easily and painlessly with Accounting For Dummies, 4th Edition, which features new information on accounting methods and standards to keep you up to date. With this guide, you can avoid accounting fraud, minimize confusion, maximize profits, and make sense of accounting basics with this plain-English guide to your accountant’s language. Understand how to manage inventory, report income and expenses for public or private companies, evaluate profit margins, analyze business strengths and weaknesses, and manage budgets for a better bottom line.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…insightful and well-reasoned…” (Money Matters, October 2004) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Back Cover

Features new information on accounting methods and standards

The fun and easy way to create great financials and boost your bottom line

Want to make sense of accounting basics? This plain-English guide helps you speak your accountant's language with ease, minimizing confusion as you maximize profits. You'll see how to manage inventory, report income and expenses for public or private companies, evaluate profit margins, analyze business strengths and weaknesses, and manage budgets for a better bottom line.

Discover how to:

• Read income statements and balance sheets

• Analyze profits and cash flow

• Evaluate accounting methods and business structures

• Use ratios to study financial statements

• Avoid accounting fraud

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 4th edition (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470246006
• ISBN-13: 978-0470246009
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John A. Tracy is an award-winning Professor of Accounting, Emeritus, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His other books include The Fast Forward MBA in Finance, Second Edition, Accounting For Dummies, Fourth Edition, and Accounting Workbook For Dummies, all published by Wiley.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

155 of 159 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not for you if your looking for a bookkeeping treatise. October 2, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is great (I mean great) if you need to understand what is profit, whats in a balance sheet, how to understand it, whats in an income statement. What are assets, etc, etc. This book will open your eyes. Like others have said its not about double entry bookkeeping, or how to prepare your balance sheet. Find that elsewhere. This book addresses what the numbers mean and how to follow them to come to conclusions and how to use that information.

Let me put it this way. If you have a small business, or are put into a position where you need to manage money for a business, or need to buy a business. This book will help you if your not accountant savy.

Its a great book, and is very well written. Another five star success for the dummies series.

260 of 271 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Not abt Accounting September 19, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

While the book does have an excellent layout and has been thoroughly and professionally edited, like almost all of the "for Dummies" books, it lacks content where it needs it most. There is surprisingly little about accounting. There are no examples of how to create any of the three basic accounting reports, the balance sheet, income statement, and the cash flow statement. Double-entry accounting, the foundation of modern accounting, is only given three short pages with, again, no examples. It is not written for those who want to know how to do accounting or how to assist their accountant with their own company's books, but for those who want to have a functional understanding of a small set of reports. This makes it wholly inadequate for someone who wants to learn about accounting. On the other hand, this could make it a good resource for the middle-level manager who needs to know a little about how to read a small group of reports.

70 of 73 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Adequate as a non-accountants' everyday reference February 4, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The content is simple with material presented in the usual 'dummie' tradition. It works great as a quick way to understand hard concepts, without going into too much distracting detail. A good reference for people who interface with accountants or accounting departments, but accounting students will find that the material is not detailed enough for cases covered in a typical accounting course. Is it the 'feel good accounting book of the year?' I dunno...but like any other dummies book, buy it for the funny cartoons.

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't know math? Need to know accounting? October 17, 2000

By K. Larrabee

Format:Paperback

This is the book. This book got me, a non-quantitative anti-numbers person, through MBA financial accounting. Particularly good are chapters 5-9, that help interpret and explain financial statements. By no means does this offer everything you need to know for accounting, but offers a great foundation (hence, Dummies). I have also used it in my personal life to review info on my stocks.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for people who want to learn how to crunch some numbers. October 9, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you are looking for a book that actually gives you good examples that will teach you to crunch some numbers on your own and prepare accounting statements and such, then this is NOT the book for you. It has a lot of writing about the different areas of accounting, but it did little for me. I was looking for a book that gave me real life examples that could help me understand how to do minimal accounting for my smal business. Some of the other introduction to accounting books are much better in this regard.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Good book for Financial and Mangerial Accounting November 16, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This is a great book for a person to use to suplment what is learned and practiced in Both entry level college accounting classes. It really will help you get a better grade in the class by reinforcing and explainations that are different then your typical college textbook. I highly reccomend this book for any college student that will be taking accounting, it is well worth it's price and I believe if read during the semester along with the practice in your class you will get a better grade. I did.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Overview July 10, 2006

By finance101

Format:Paperback

I am an entry-level financial analyst straight out of college with little accounting experience (due to a broad liberal arts education) and who had never read the 3 financial statements prior to working. This book was my savior. It explains accounting on a conceptual level, which has been perfect for me. Great for an analyst, not the book for an auditor, obviously. It's great for someone who wants to learn to analyze and become proficient/literate at reading the statements, not for someone who wants to know exactly how to do bookkeeping (which is exactly how the author qualifies his book in the beginning). I'm a big fan of John Tracy's writing, which is easy to read and concise. This book led me to read his other accounting book, "How to read a Financial Report," also a great read.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good explanations September 29, 2005

By Jack

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is suitable for those who want to understand what accounting is about. It provides good explanation for the dual-entry system and various ratios. After going through half of this book, my wife has gained some appreciation for basic accounting concepts.

Personally I think the book would be better if it includes some more exercises in number crunching. That is why it only gets four stars.

This book is useful for a casual person who wants to learn accounting. If you are an accounting student, don't expect this book to do better than your professor.