Customer Reviews

Computerized Bookkeeping in Laymens Terms

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As corny as this sounds, reading this book saved me two thousand dollars making only one point on donations. Being self employed, I need every right off I can get. I give quite a bit to charity, but when it came to buyng a new car, I thought I would donate my old car to charity for a tax deduction - it sounds so good, right? WRONG! The book value of my car was $3,800. I was in the process of giving my car away while I was reading this book, and I couldn't believe was I was reading. After talking to my CPA, I discovered that my $3,800 car would have been worth just over $500 in tax reduction to the IRS. It made me sick! I don't mind helping charties, but I am not made of money. I sold the car for $2,500, which is obviously a much better deal than a $500 tax reduction. I would have never known about this until after the fact. I am so glad I read this book!

This author is very funny, sarcastic, and a matter of fact. I got very upset reading the chapter on taxes, but the truth is the truth. The IRS get's there share - and the author makes her jokes. It is refreshing. This book is more than explaining Quick Books, it gives so much more information - especially for small businesses. I have a mortgage company and want to keep my books as simple as possible. This book is very easy to read and understand. I would recommend this book to everyone - especially the small business owner!

Julie:

I started to read your book and I found that I could not put it down. When I told myself that, I felt like a nerd. What kind of person gets their kicks out of reading tax and bookkeeping stuff.

Well I guess I do! Your book is candy for someone that is interested in bookkeeping.

This book is just the thing to let me have the confidence to face that bad bookkeeping world out there. I knew 95% of everything that I was reading but, I read all of it anyway and you had things in there that I was completely unaware of. When I read these I just sat in awe of what I had just learned.

I went through a wonderful bookkeeping course that taught me everything there is about bookkeeping and the course even had something about getting bookkeeping business but I always felt as if something was missing. I kept searching all over the place for months and I eventually came upon this book.

I have re-read this book a couple of times and use it constantly as a reference. I do not know what my confidence in this business would do without it.

I cannot thank you enough for writing this.

This book is a lifesaver. Our accounting was in such a disarray that we couldn't even give our books to an accountant. We ordered Computerized Bookkeeping in Layman's Terms - it's in plain english and so easy to understand that and we were able to clean up our books ourselves. Now our balance sheet actually balances!

Hi - I read the other reviews for this book, and it sounded like exactly what I was looking for, so I bought it. Even though it did contain some good information, I was so distracted by the wording, grammar and spelling mistakes that I had trouble reading it, and finally gave up. So I returned it.

I'll start out by listing some of the grammar and spelling mistakes (with page numbers):
10: All's it takes is one human error.... (All's? Short for what?)
38: Consultants are really all indirect expenses such as overhead if any. (huh?)
38: Think of it as a "Cost of Service" account if your Joe Standard.... (you're)
50: ...because that is what list you are at. (ending sentence with a preposition)
51: QuickBooks is not automatically set up with it's own icon. (its)
55: An Employee is someone in whom you pay an hourly rate or salary to, in which you deduct and pay their payroll taxes.
57: We are going to make the business pay for it's own debts.
57: Click on the Pay to the order of screen and type in the name of the company in whom you wrote the check out too. (in whom? Too?)
61: When I'm posting these entries, I cannot expense them because we would have to track them as a fixed asset. You can only expense them at the end of the year when you post your depreciation. (Changing from "I" to "we" to "you.")
79: If your entries are wrong, alls you have to do is, from the report your in, double click on the entry that is incorrect, it will open you up to the original entry, and you can change the account it's posted too. (alls? wait, I remember this word... your? Run-on sentence?)
175: I know it's a pain and doesn't seem fair that you have to write something off that you buy over a period of time, but we didn't make the rules. (Misplaced modifier: she was trying to say: "I know it's a pain and doesn't seem fair to buy something, and then have to write it off over a period of time, but we didn't make the rules."
177: He used $1000.00 out of the Companies checking account by writing a check. (company's)

Misspelled words: curser (63: for the little blinking thing on your screen), loose (70: lose), ketch (70, 90, 175: catch, the first time a came across this spelling, I thought she was just trying to be funny, but alas....)

Political views: "Way to go Arnie!!!!" Distracting. If you want to say something like this, put it in the forward. Whether I agree with you or not, it distracts me from what I am trying to learn.

All of these mistakes make me wonder how good her accounting advice is. No, I don't expect her to be an expert at vocabulary and grammar, but if she expects me to pay $70 for this book, I expect the grammar and spelling to be right. I don't think I'm asking too much.... If the grammar had been perfect, I probably wouldn't have gone looking for the publisher. But it wasn't, and I did, and so now I really am not sure if I should trust the advice of an unknown author who wrote a book that was then published by an unknown publisher. So from now on, if I buy a book that has the potential to change the way I do business, I will look for the known publisher, whose advice I feel I can trust.

Computerized Bookkeeping in Laymen's Terms was written with my clients questions and needs in mind. My clients are the blue collar workers throughout the US who are not Harvard Graduates, but Self-Trained Entrepreneurs and tradesman who don't speak proper english. I welcome the notation from the no so favorable review and unfortunately I made a mistake. Each puplication is re-edited due to the templates and size of files throughout the book causing Word to change what it believes to be correct spelling to what I did correct or change. The wrong print file was sent to the printer with the un-edited changes to the book in which I did not realize until the review was posted on Amazon regarding the typos and gramatical errors. That mistake has been corrected. Any reader will be able to locate a typo or grammatical error in just about any publication, mine included. As far as changing the "slang" or grammer, I wrote the book in "Laymen's" Terms which defeats the purpose. Try explaining to a non bean counting professional how to do accounting in accounting language, and you will loose them. This book is the only Laymen's Term guide for the other 70% of the US Small Business population to finally figure out. The biggest question asked is, "If my small business has QuickBooks and I use the instruction manual that comes with the program, WHAT do I set up my books with? What do I need, and what are the Chart of Accounts?" Every QuickBooks instruction book has templates, how to set up accounts, how to bill customers, etc. What they don't have is Why, With What, and How do you read a financial report and what does it mean? What do I do to keep on top of my bookkeeping so my Accountant doesn't charge me a fortune at the end of the year? It is a wonderful tool that helps the small business owner answer the questions in a language that they speak.
Julie A. Mucha-Aydlott

I received the book in a fast delivery without paying for premium shipping. The book itself is very through and complete. I am very excited and happy that I purchased this book as it is helping me get started with my own bookkeeping services company. The author is clear, concise and straight to the point. I would recommend it to others who are already using Quickbooks software and need that extra helping hand with their understanding of the software. It is not tailored to every person using Quickbooks, but offers great tips from an expert who was always putting out fires for her clients. I highly recommend this book over Quickbook's for Dummies because it gets to the point and you don't waste your time looking for what your looking for. My favorite chapter is chapter 9: Mistakes to Avoid, Trouble Shooting Guide, and Stupid Questions (that are not stupid at all). My best to anyone who is starting a business of their own and need to learn something about Quickbooks and how to manage their finances, remember it's better to hire a bookkeeper eventually once you get things started, save yourself time and frustrations down the road and before tax time.