Alpha Teach Yourself Accounting in 24 Hours [Paperback]

Carol Costa (Author), C. Wesley Addison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Alpha Books Teach Yourself in 24 Hours | Publication Date: May 1, 2001

Prentice Hall Teach Yourself in 24 Hours will teach readers the basic principles of the monthly accounting process-- from the chart of accounts to financial statements. Ideal for bookkeepers, accounting clerks, students and small business owners, lessons include accounting procedures, assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, accounts receivable and payable, payroll and cost of goods sold. Accounting software programs are also discussed.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Prentice Hall Teach Yourself in 24 Hours will teach readers the basic principles of the monthly accounting process-- from the chart of accounts to financial statements. Ideal for bookkeepers, accounting clerks, students and small business owners, lessons include accounting procedures, assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, accounts receivable and payable, payroll and cost of goods sold. Accounting software programs are also discussed.

About the Author

Carol Costa is a professional writer with a business background in accounting and real estate. She has written for numerous business publications and has worked as a correspondent for The Phoenix Business Journal and The Tucson Business Chronicle. She has owned and managed a bookkeeping and tax service, worked as a staff accountant at a CPA firm, and worked as an accountant for a variety of businesses.

C. Wesley Addison is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Masters Degree in Accounting from the University of Arizona, and is a member of AICPA and ASCPA. With over twenty years of experience in all aspects of accounting and taxes, he is the senior partner of Addison and Gadea, a respected public accounting firm in Tucson, Arizona.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 1st edition (May 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028641582
• ISBN-13: 978-0028641584
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,323,577 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Costa is an award-winning playwright and the published author of both fiction and nonfiction books. With a business backgroung in accounting she has written five financial titles for The Penguin Group. She has also combined her financial knowledge with her love of gaming and written a book on video poker. Her other books include mysteries, romances, a biography of a nationally-known psychic, short-story collections, and an inspirational book co-authored and edited with Maggie TerryViale and Liisa Kyle.

Carol has also worked as a newspaper correspondent and editor and a theater critic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CPA's favorable comments, September 4, 2001

By 

Janet K Spangler (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpha Teach Yourself Accounting in 24 Hours (Paperback)

Having looked for a good, simple, in layperson's language book to give to beginning entrepeneurs, this is it. Very well done, understandable, but factual at the same time.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great concept. Confusing execution., December 1, 2004

By 

Eric A. "Fledgling Accountant" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpha Teach Yourself Accounting in 24 Hours (Paperback)

This book has a great idea, and it's exactly what I needed, a crash course on accounting. It's nicely broken up into brief lessons, so you can digest small portions.

Unfortunately, while the examples are generally clear and easy to understand, this text too often showed without telling. You need to follow the authors' logical leaps and work backwards to guess some of these accounting concepts.

Worse, in several examples, the ledgers have typos, with numbers in the wrong columns, along with incorrect arithmetic. I hope the next edition will be better proofread. Aside from losing credibility for the book, these errors made it even harder to follow.

With so many accounting crash course books on the market, next time, I would investigate other titles.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Accounting Overview, January 6, 2003

By 

"mike_thompson" (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alpha Teach Yourself Accounting in 24 Hours (Paperback)

It has been over 15 years since I had Accounting in college. I am starting a new business and purchased Quickbooks 2003 to keep track of the books. I was having a hard time grasping Quickbooks and realized that I needed an overview of Accounting to learn how the software should be used. This book is easy to read and provides a good overview to bring someone up to speed on Accounting methodology, how to read financial statements, etc.