The easiest way to master the art of bookkeeping. Accurate bookkeeping is crucial to every business - but few people relish the task. This straight-talking guide simplifies every aspect of financial record keeping, walking you through all the basic skills you need. From tracking transactions and keeping ledgers to producing balance sheets and year-end reports, this book makes bookkeeping your best friend in business.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Part I: Basic Bookkeeping: Why You Need It. Chapter 1: So You Want to Do the Books. Chapter 2: Getting Down to Bookkeeping Basics. Chapter 3: Outlining Your Financial Roadmap with a Chart of Accounts. Chapter 4: Looking at Ledgers. Part II: Keeping a Paper Trail. Chapter 5: Keeping Journals. Chapter 6: Surveying Computer Options. Chapter 7: Controlling Your Books, Your Records and Your Money. Part III: Recording Day-to-Day Business Operations. Chapter 8: Planning your Workload. Chapter 9: Buying and Tracking Your Purchases. Chapter 10: Counting Your Sales. Chapter 11: Employee Payroll and Benefits. Part IV: Preparing the Books for Year- (Or Month-) End. Chapter 12: Depreciating Your Assets. Chapter 13: Paying and Collecting Interest. Chapter 14: Checking the Books. Chapter 15: Closing the Journals. Chapter 16: Checking Your Accuracy - By Trial and Hopefully Not Error. Chapter 17: Adjusting the Books. Part V: Reporting Results and Starting Over. Chapter 18: Producing a Profi t and Loss Statement. Chapter 19: Developing a Balance Sheet. Chapter 20: Reporting for Not-For-Profi t Organisations. Chapter 21: Completing Year-End Payroll and Reports. Chapter 22: Satisfying the Tax Inspector. Chapter 23: Adding the Cost of Value Added Tax (VAT). Chapter 24: Preparing the Books for a New Accounting Cycle. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 25: Top Ten Ways to Manage Your Business Cash with Your Books. Chapter 26: Top Ten Most Important Accounts for Any Bookkeeper. Glossary. Index.

About the Author

Jane Kelly is a chartered management accountant and author of Sage 50 Accounts For Dummies, Bookkeeping Workbook For Dummies and Accounting Workbook For Dummies. She runs a training company and has taught a wide variety of small business owners and employees the benefits of bookkeeping and using Sage accounting software. Paul Barrow is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years' consulting, training, writing, and commercial experience within a wide range of business sectors and companies. Lita Epstein designs and teaches online courses in investing, finance, and tax.