Keeping the Books: Basic Recordkeeping and Accounting for the Successful Small Business (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"CEOs who lack accounting background -- meaning most CEOs -- will find the glossary of accounting terms invaluable".

-- Inc. Magazine

Product Description

The premier resource for basic bookkeeping and business record management, Keeping the Books is a comprehensive, yet down to earth, treatment of one of the most important, yet often neglected, aspects of running a business. User-friendly and packed with easy-to-understand illustrations, worksheets, and forms, this popular financial reference tool is completely updated, and replete with the variety of IRS forms that entrepreneurs have to be familiar with. From updating car and transportation expenses to exploding the myths around independent contractors, the author presents everything a small company needs to know to maintain proper records.

Following the roadmap outlined in Keeping the Books, entrepreneurs will learn how to:

* prepare and analyze financial statements to stay in touch with the heartbeat of their business
* set up bookkeeping systems to keep track of financial details
* maintain the required IRS records necessary to stay out of trouble
* plan for required taxes due

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Product Details

• Paperback: 210 pages
• Publisher: Dearborn Trade; 5th edition (January 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574101404
• ISBN-13: 978-1574101409
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #999,909 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

159 of 167 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book For Small Business People, March 30, 2000

By	Peter Hupalo (MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Keeping the Books (Paperback)

"Keeping The Books: Basic Record-Keeping and Accounting For The Small Business" by Linda Pinson and Jerry Jinnett is an excellent introduction to record-keeping and accounting for small business owners.

The book does a solid job introducing record-keeping. It discusses the:

General Journal
General Ledger
Petty Cash Record
Inventory Records
Fixed Asset Log
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Payable
Independent Contractor Record
Payroll Records (though the authors recommend you hire a payroll firm to handle your payroll due to the government's extreme demands for payroll records)
Mileage Log
Travel Expense Records
Entertainment Records

Sample forms of all of the above are given and explained, as well as blank forms the authors state you can copy and use for your business. Today most of us would put such records on a computer, but we should still understand the process, the authors point out.

"Keeping The Books" is especially good, as it discusses, not only single-entry accounting, but also gives a decent introduction to double-entry accounting. The brief explanation, though very good, is not as good as taking an introductory class in double-entry bookkeeping. Taking a basic bookkeeping class is one of the best things a new business owner can do.

For example, "Keeping The Books" casually mentions there are two sides to any business transaction and the two sides are recorded as debits and credits. Then it lists the rules for how revenue, expense, asset, liability, and equity accounts are affected by debits and credits. (Debit increases the value in an asset account; a debit decreases the value of an equity or liability account, etc.)

Debits are entered on the left-hand side of the column and credits are entered on the right hand side. But, it is never explicitly stated that the one giving in the transaction is the credit(or) and the one receiving in the transaction is the debit(or). A simple rule like that makes understanding double-entry accounting much easier.

For example, if you sell one hour of your service, Service Revenue is the giver (so it's credited) and cash is the receiver (so cash is debited) and increased. Many people new to accounting benefit from having that point *explicitly* mentioned, though some might say it is obvious.

But, overall, the introduction to double-entry accounting is solid, extremely readable and not overly long. Adjusting the entries at the end of an accounting period is also discussed.

"Keeping The Books" goes into basic financial statements--balance sheet, income statement (or profit and loss statement), projected cash flow statement. These topics are very well-explained and will benefit the small business owner.

Pinson and Jinnett show how to put all the statements on a comparative basis to examine percentage value changes. For example, on the income statement, let sales' revenue be 100% and, then, examine all costs and expenses (and hopefully profit!) as a percentage of sales. This helps you understand your business better and make better business decisions.

Especially good is the discussion about projecting cash flow on a month-by-month basis. This is something too few business owners do. Break-even analysis is also briefly mentioned.

A excellent chapter written by Marilyn Bartlett, C.P.A., discusses basic financial statement analysis and how it helps you understand and improve your business. Incidentally, this chapter would be good reading for someone new to investing who wants a good introductory explanation of why and how analysts break down financial statements.

Finally, "Keeping The Books" mentions the basic tax forms your business will need. Though there is no discussion about actually filling out the forms. Useful tax calendars tell you when to send in what form to which agency. But, you can get that directly from the IRS.

Overall, this is a great book for new business owners to learn basic record-keeping and accounting. The book is extremely readable and covers extremely important topics for the new business owner to understand. Review by Peter Hupalo, author of "Thinking Like An Entrepreneur"

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written for Non-Accountants/Bookkeepers, August 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Keeping the Books (Paperback)

This book is excellent and well written for people who are NEW to bookkeeping/accounting for small business. I especially found the checklists provided (when to pay various Federal and State Taxes, to whom to pay various Federal and State Taxes, when to produce certain financial reports, what to have ready for your Tax Accountant at year end and in what format) to be VERY useful. EXCELLENT reference book for the do-it-yourself bookkeeper.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, July 6, 2001

By	Ruslan Moskalenko (Lafayette, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is a really great book for beginners. I'm not a proffesional accountant (my primary area is computer systems administrations) but I have been working in banks for 5 years and I read a lot of books about accounting basics because it was part of my job. And usually those books were either too practical or too academic. But this one is perfectly balanced. It explains you not only what to do but it also gives you a pretty solid background why you should do this and what for. It shows you a complete picture of a small company accounting including major forms, reports shedule, books etc and that's all in just 200 pages. It's amazing how the author can explain in a couple words some concepts which usually takes a whole chapter in some other tutorials. You can read it to just to get some idea about accounting wording and concepts, or you can keep it on the table and use as a Howto giude in your everyday work, it works both ways. And it's pretty fairly priced. Very, very nice book!