Synopses & Reviews
Whether you’re a small business owner or just want to understand your 401(k) statements, a basic understanding of accounting practices is important for anyone who handles money. Knowing how to balance the books and stay in the black is vital for keeping a business afloat or keeping your checkbook balanced.
If you need to keep the books in order, this new edition of Accounting For Dummies helps you get a handle on all those columns of numbers. It offers fully up-to-date coverage of accounting basics and includes all the tools and tips you need to:
- Make sense of bookkeeping basics
- Read a financial statement
- Manage budgets for a better bottom line
- Analyze business strengths and weaknesses
- Evaluate accounting methods and business structures
John Tracy, Certified Public Accountant and former professor of accounting, presents everything you need to know to master modern accounting. Packed with practical guidance and real-world scenarios, this handy guide covers it all:
- Making and reporting profit
- Reporting a company’s financial condition
- Preparing financial reports
- Budgeting profit and cash flow
- Choosing and implementing accounting methods
- How to read a financial report
- Audits, accounting fraud, and audit failure
- How to decipher accounting jargon
- And savvy ways businesses use accounting
From balance sheets, to income statements, to inventory, almost every aspect of modern business requires basic accounting techniques. You’ll learn it all here. Plus, this new edition covers the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, recent accounting fraud scandals, the establishment of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and the new financial reporting standards for stock options and financial derivatives.
Synopsis
Learn the basics of practical accounting easily and painlessly with Accounting For Dummies, 4th Edition, which features new information on accounting methods and standards to keep you up to date. With this guide, you can avoid accounting fraud, minimize confusion, maximize profits, and make sense of accounting basics with this plain-English guide to your accountant’s language. Understand how to manage inventory, report income and expenses for public or private companies, evaluate profit margins, analyze business strengths and weaknesses, and manage budgets for a better bottom line.
Synopsis
Now revised and updated, our top-selling accounting guide
Accounting For Dummies, Fourth Edition is the ideal book for both accounting professionals as well as accounting or auditing students. This handy guide covers the basics of accounting in language anyone can understand, but also provides detailed coverage of more complex business accounting issues, such as income statements and balance sheets, budgets and budgeting, profit and cash flow, stemming losses, managing inventory, and evaluating profit margins. It has been thoroughly revised with new content, including information on Little GAAP versus Big GAAP, the internationalization of accounting standards, and the changes experienced under the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. It also contains updated information on financial reports, the role of the CPA auditor, and the impact of accounting laws on small businesses.
John A. Tracy, CPA (Boulder, CO), a former staff accountant at Ernst &Young, taught accounting at the University of Colorado for many years. He is also the author of Accounting Workbook For Dummies (978-0-471-79145-4).
Synopsis
Features new information on accounting methods and standardsThe fun and easy way to create great financials and boost your bottom line
Want to make sense of accounting basics? This plain-English guide helps you speak your accountant's language with ease, minimizing confusion as you maximize profits. You'll see how to manage inventory, report income and expenses for public or private companies, evaluate profit margins, analyze business strengths and weaknesses, and manage budgets for a better bottom line.
Discover how to:
Read income statements and balance sheets
Analyze profits and cash flow
Evaluate accounting methods and business structures
Use ratios to study financial statements
Avoid accounting fraud
Synopsis
Accounting For Dummies, 4th Edition provides information applicable and helpful to accountants and auditors who work throughout private industry and government as well as salary accountants working for accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping, and payroll services firms.
Synopsis
Become a better manager by speaking your accountant's language
Use smart accounting to maximize profits and minimize confusion
Whether you're a small business owner or a manager responsible for keeping your company profitable, this new edition of Accounting For Dummies helps you get a handle on all those numbers your accountant gives you. Accounting basics for business and personal finances help you balance your books and stay in the black.
Discover how to
- Make sense of bookkeeping basics
- Read a financial statement
- Manage budgets for a better bottom line
- Analyze business strengths and weaknesses
- Evaluate accounting methods and business structures
About the Author
'John A. Tracy(Boulder, Colorado) is Professor of Accounting, Emeritus, at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Before his 35-year tenure at Boulder, he was on the business faculty for four years at the University of California in Berkeley. Early in his career he was a staff accountant with Ernst & Young. John is the author of several books on accounting and finance, including The Fast Forward MBA in Finance, How To Read a Financial Report,and Small Business Financial Management Kit For Dummieswith his son Tage Tracy. John received his BSC degree from Creighton University. He earned his MBA and PhD degrees at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He is a CPA (inactive) in Colorado. '
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Part I: Opening the Books on Accounting.
Chapter 1: Accounting: The Language of Business, Investing, Finance, and Taxes.
Chapter 2: Financial Statements and Accounting Standards.
Chapter 3: Bookkeeping and Accounting Systems.
Part II: Figuring Out Financial Statements.
Chapter 4: Reporting Revenue, Expenses, and the Bottom Line.
Chapter 5: Reporting Assets, Liabilities, and Owners’ Equity.
Chapter 6: Reporting Cash Flows.
Chapter 7: Choosing Accounting Methods: Different Strokes for Different Folks.
Part III: Accounting in Managing a Business.
Chapter 8: Deciding the Legal Structure for a Business.
Chapter 9: Analyzing and Managing Profit.
Chapter 10: Financial Planning, Budgeting, and Control.
Chapter 11: Cost Concepts and Conundrums.
Part IV: Preparing and Using Financial Reports.
Chapter 12: Getting a Financial Report Ready for Release.
Chapter 13: How Lenders and Investors Read a Financial Report.
Chapter 14: How Business Managers Use a Financial Report.
Chapter 15: Audits and Accounting Fraud.
Part V: The Part of Tens.
Chapter 16: Ten Accounting Tips for Managers.
Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Reading a Financial Report.
Glossary: Slashing Through the Accounting Jargon Jungle.
Index.