Customer Reviews

Radically Simple Accounting: A Way Out of the Dark and Into the Profit

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I used QuickBooks at my previous job but it was all setup for me. That owner retired so I got a new, better paying job, but I thought I might be in over my head. The owner was disorganized with papers everywhere. He didn't seem ready to want to get rid of all that paper.

I thought I'd give this book a try. I went directly to the section titled, "From Disaster to Organization in One Day Straight," in the chapter on "Filing Systems".

What a big help this was to me! The whole book is great! Spending $20 to keep my job-the author would call that profitable! I call it wonderful.

I found this book very useful. It is easy to understand. There is not a lot written for small business people that has so much good information that is so easy to make sense of. I used the book to change our accounting structure and it all makes much more sense to me now than it did.

I am a CPA in public practice and I highly recommend this book. Radical Accounting amazed me with how simply Madeline explains accounting for small businesses. She captivates the reader with charm and humor while enlightening non-accountants with the basics necessary to running a business. I have encountered huge disasters in client's Quick Books files. The resulting bill to the client is commensurate with the quality of their accounting system.

Chapter 3: "Liberation from Chaos" is exactly that! As a CPA, we advise our clients to do what they do best - their specialty - and leave the accounting to us. With a clean set of books you can easily manage the necessary bookkeeping to pass your files to your Accountant at year end. I do recommend you consult your Accountant before making changes. Your goal is good, clean books and a smaller tax bill at year end!

I met Madeline a year ago at a meeting of the Professional Society of Women Accountants and bought her book. It sat on my shelf until my sister visited me in New Orleans and read it cover to cover. She has been a small business owner for 30 years and after reading it said she finally understood the full picture. She was eagerly anticipating going home and refining her chart of accounts.

I recently started a pedicab company down in Austin Texas. I started mainly focusing on getting the business up and running, without much thought to accounting, while looking around the local bookstore I noticed this book and started reading. Its a book to read start to finish. Once your done you will know exactly what you need to do in a straight and easy to understand way. The only downfall of the book is that I wish there were more Quickbook tips. If you are wondering how to get your business into a situation where you can easily understand and communicate what is happening with all aspects of your company finances then GET THIS BOOK.
I also recommend this book to anyone in school taking accounting classes. I gave it to an employee who is taking classes here at the University of Texas in Austin and it helped him out a bunch, he is getting much better scores, because the knowledge gained from this book is tremendous and in just a nice short package, its convenient for even the busiest of people.

Go get it and read it, it WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!!!!

When I established my consulting firm, I knew that tracking the financial aspects of my business could be challenging so I began to look around for help. While searching in book stores and on-line I found many books, that were either to simple or too complex. And then I found, online, a description of the book , "Radical Accounting, Out of the Dark and Into Profit." I immediately ordered the book an read it cover to cover. Each chapter answered the questions I had and the questions that I had not thought of, while educating me about the financial aspects of running a business. A few chapters really stand out for me in my success in implementing a practical, fast and accurate accounting system:
-Managing Bookkeepers and Financial Advisors - Was helpful in helping decide to use a software program (I chose Quick Books) and to hire someone to help me set it up properly and show me how to use it. I now do everything myself, and find it fairly easy and efficient to do so.
-Accounting Basics Made Fun (Of) - Helped me to understand the basics of accounting, basic financial reports, and helped to identify and establish my account names
-Define Your Business Model - Helped to understand why I should or should not separate my business finances from my personal and the impact of this decision in view of the IRS
-Design Rules - Was huge in helping me to identify my different accounts and to understand how to set up my chart of accounts
-Each Chapter has Quick Books Accounting software tips. Initially I tried other software programs like Quicken and Peach Tree, and although okay, they were not flexible nor robust enough for me, so I settled on Quick Books and definetely used the authors tips as I set everything up in this program. I also took

There are also many chapters that describe the main financial reports and statements that will help business owner to understand and assist him/her in growing their business. I also find that I refer to Radical Accounting throughout the business year to help me to understand my financial pictures.

The bottom line for me is that this book is a gem that I will use rather working for myself or for someone else. I recommend it to anyone that I meet that asks me questions about the financial accounting of their business, rather they are new business owners or have been in business for a while.
Thanks to the author for such a wonderfully useful book!

Madeline Bailey's approach to accounting in this excellent book is practical, understandable and easy to read. What more do you need?

This book is good enough I feel compelled to share my opinion. For a topic like accounting, it is extremely well paced, informative and some parts are downright funny! I read this on my commute to work over a week and actually looked forward to reading it every day. I am trying to get my act together to use Quickbooks 2011 and have not taken an accounting class in 25 years. This book along with a 6 hour class at SCORE has me well on my way. Robert