Basic Accounting

Everyone wants a career that is challenging, exciting and, above all, rewarding. If you are one of them, then bookkeeping might be the right career for you. Bookkeepers provide a beacon to businesses, through accurate figures and numbers, which guides a business to success. Bookkeepers are indispensable and, as such, bookkeeping is a career that is always in demand and provides outstanding opportunities.

Whether you are a school leaver, a stay-home mother or looking for a mid-career change or upgrade, taking up an accredited course on bookkeeping is the first step towards this exciting career. According to the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers, Australia (ICB), part-time bookkeepers can earn between thirty five and sixty dollars per hour depending on the type of bookkeeping job undertaken.

Before you begin your search for the course that best suits you, first consider the type of college best suited to your lifestyle. Traditional bricks and mortar educational institutes do offer full or part-time courses in bookkeeping. The main disadvantage of these courses is the lack of flexibility to the student. Especially for those who have work or family commitments or reside in rural places, the traditional physical institutes are a poor option.

Fortunately, there is the distance learning or correspondence course through the postal service. This is a good option for those who do not have ready access to the internet. However for those who do, online learning courses are a great option.

The Certificate IV in Bookkeeping is an accredited bookkeeping course by the ICB. There are a few colleges offering this course as online learning. Besides price considerations, it is important to keep in mind a few factors when deciding on the course to enroll in.

The foremost of which is, of course, whether the course is one that is actually recognised by the ICB. It would be pointless to enroll in a course that eventually takes you nowhere career-wise.

Next, check to see who the tutors of the course are. If the tutors are reputable and experienced, that is an excellent indication that the quality of the course materials and the teaching will be high. Will you have access to tutors throughout the course? Open communication with tutors gives students the opportunity to clarify doubts as the course progresses. Also, clear and timely feedback from tutors to course work keeps studying at a comfortable pace.

Another factor to consider is the reputation of the college itself and what its past and current students say. Knowing how students rate a college is a good indicator of the quality of the teaching and the overall experience at that college.

Finally, does the college provide a pathway for graduates of the Certificate IV to higher courses? This might be a consideration for you, especially if you are only at the start of your career. In the future you might want to upgrade your qualification to secure a promotion or want a fresh new career, and a college that provides further pathways would be a better choice for you.

The Lowest Price we could find is $35.00 $28.97

A step-by-step guide to tracking revenue and expenses, QuickBooks for the Restaurant provides detailed instructions on how to apply the various functions of QuickBooks to control expenses, increase profits, and make informed management decisions. This comprehensive guide contains practical and realistic industry scenarios and practice problems with a section on the simulated financial activity of a typical restaurant operation. Full of helpful accounting advice, QuickBooks tips, and industry scenarios, this book demonstrates how to employ one of the most widely used accounting applications to ensure the financial success of all types of foodservice operations.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Review:

This book goes through the actual operations of a restaurant along with accounting procedures.
There are two things I feel the book should include (hopefully in the next edition):
1. A Chapter on Quickbooks POS
2. More examples of on AR–the handling of uncollectable accounts from customers.

On the Preface it stated “Updated chapter data and instructions will be available at [....] but when I got to that site it appears that they have moved around. You need to do a search by title on the publisher’s site, and if you can’t find it, you need to contact their “technical support” to see where they have moved it. Or you can get it from the instructor if taking a class. Otherwise, you will need to create the new company using the data in the book and will take sometime with data entry but that makes you really familiar with QB.

The Lowest Price we could find is $186.95 $120.06

Discover both sides of international business and how to prepare for the future. GLOBAL STRATEGY, Second Edition, doesn’t just show you what it’s like for foreign businesses entering a new market; it reveals what domestic companies must do to survive foreign competition. Easy to read and full of study tools, GLOBAL STRATEGY, Second Edition, helps you prepare for your exams and for your next job.

Review:

As a PhD student teaching global strategy and international business, I like this book, not only for its comprehensive theoretical framework, but also for its openness for a series of debates on globalization. The theoretical framework can help students analyze the complex global business environment. More importantly, a series of debates can open their eyes, and can help them build more skills to deal with challenges in a globalizing world (think about the current buzz on offshoring and outsourcing).

Many textbooks attempted to teach students how to arrive at “correct” answers. They just tell students what is already known, and do not describe the sorts of problems that the professional may be asked to solve and the variety of techniques available for their solution. This textbook deviates from the rest of pack, because the author tries to integrate many new fronts (and yes, even debates!) in the academic and practitioner world (see the long list of references) and cultivates a “global mental set” based on his rich experience in many countries. What is most refreshing is that the author does not give a single answer or simple evaluation for many questions, but provides many possible approaches to widen the reader’s mindset. In fact, every chapter has a beefy section devoted to “Debates and Extensions,” with no given conclusions.

Even vivid business cases will fade quickly and be forgotten in this dramatically changing world. So a set of “divergent thinking skills” will play a more important role in helping students develop long-term capabilities in their career success. Through this book, students will learn how to recognize and evaluate many problems to which no unequivocal solution has yet been given, find an arsenal of techniques (industry-based view, resource-based view, and institution-based view) for approaching these problems, and develop “global mental sets” to judge the relevance of these techniques and to evaluate the possible solutions.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi once said: “Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day; but teach him how to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.” Truly, this exciting book may teach our students how to fish!

The Lowest Price we could find is $14.95 $8.35

“Melinda Emerson . . . will inspire you to pursue your own entrepreneurial vision.”–Marc H. Morial, President, National Urban League

Whether you’re newly unemployed, sick of office life and longing for a change, or just want to finally turn your business idea into reality, you can follow your dream and make your passion your profession. Drawing on her experience as founder of an award-winning production company, Melinda F. Emerson shows you how in this practical month-by-month guide to getting your business off the ground.

Inside, you’ll find the timetable and steps you need to take to become a successful CEO of your own venture, including:

Month 1: Meet with potential venture capitalists
Month 3: Set a one-year marketing budget
Month 5: Select a logo
Month 9: Purchase customer relationship management software
Month 11: Prepare your launch day press release

Next year at this time, you could be calling the shots at your dream job. You supply the energy, an idea, and elbow grease–and this book will supply the plan.

Review:

From the earliest parts of Melinda’s book, she pulls no punches. For the person thinking about starting a business of nearly any type, she gives sound advice. How many people have told you — “Just start your business… Your passion will drive the results…” or some such nonsense. Sure you need passion and raw energy and persistence, but you also need some money, some savings, so Melinda says “Don’t quit your day job… yet…” She doesn’t just say start. She says PLAN. Get your life together first, then start your company.

Melinda’s advice is full of common sense or I should say Uncommon Sense as it doesn’t seem near as common. I’ve started several companies and I wish I had this book before taking off for points unknown. The book also includes some links to good free resources from the author. After many years in business for myself, there are things I definitely knew, but just as many things I never considered. I would recommend this book for those friends who have “Start My Own Company” stars in their eyes and need to know the truth – which is positive and negative. It’s hard work, but rewarding work to own your own business. Two chapters stood out for me: Chapter 8 on Niche to Get Rich because I believe that the tighter your focus, the better your business. Chapter 18 was helpful because I deal with small company owners and their websites and how they approach and sell to a customer. It offered some good reminders.

Full disclosure: I’m a big fan of Melinda’s work via her #SmallBizChat (a weekly real-time chat on Twitter) program and have heard her share a lot of her advice “from the trenches” so I’m a bit biased because I’ve seen and heard her help people, including myself. But unlike many reviews, I wasn’t paid or encouraged to say positive things. Melinda Emerson’s book gives useful and smart tips any biz owner can benefit from reading.

Small business bookkeeping software can be a valuable business tool. Software can help track crucial areas like payroll, sales, costs, etc. A properly designed software package can help your business operate more efficiently, and in many cases can reduce costs, negating or reducing the need for specific staff.

However, as with all business decisions, you need to carefully consider the needs of your business when choosing software. Here are some tips, which I hope will help you make the correct choice:

1. What do you need?

Most accounting software will perform the main accounting functions of accounts receivable and payable, cash functions, and general ledger. But what about other functions such as payroll?. Do you want to do your payroll in house, or have it done externally? Take some time to consider the needs of your business and the likely cost.

2. What will it really cost you? What will it really save you?

Purchasing the software is only the start. What about the costs of training staff to operate the software. What about the down time to your business while that training takes place? On the positive side, how much will you save in accounting and staff costs once the software is established? Will the software enable you to identify areas to improve business performance?

3. Is there support available?

Does the software supplier provide on site training? Are courses available? Is there a help desk available, and is it available at times to suit your business? Does it have a toll free phone number? Does the software provide detailed training materials either online, through the software, or by way of paper manuals? Is the software a well known brand that your accountant is familiar with?

4. Is the software able to be upgraded when needed?

As you grow your business you need to ensure that your accounting software can grow with it. Make sure your software can be easily upgraded and that the cost is factored into your business plan. The need to change to alternate software could prove costly when you take into account purchase and training costs.

5. Know your software.

Most software packages are valuable tools, and have considerable capabilities. Get to know the full functionality of your software and make it work for you. You may find that it can do considerably more than you thought possible. A bit more time and money spent training at the start could prove invaluable over time.

Remember, your accounting software is a powerful tool to help you manage your business. It can improve accuracy, save time and money, and provide a multitude of crucial data in the form of graphs and reports

Summary

Seek advice from other business owners about the type of software they use. Choose a product that can provide flexibility, is easily able to be upgraded, and has solid support systems.

A construction company, like any other company, requires maintaining accounts and is answerable to client and management queries. Accounting has become easier with much specific accounting software available in the market. You can choose to use very easy and user friendly accounting systems to make your work less hectic. These accounting packages specific for construction company’s help maintain the accounts and give an insight into the financial condition of the company. At any given time you can know the success rate and get information for clients, suppliers and workers.

A construction accounting is different in the sense that it has to take into account payments and receivables of vendors, suppliers, contractors and workers. All these have to be consolidated to get a correct link to know what the position of the company is. Workers are normally paid weekly, fortnightly or monthly and hence require a different package. It has to give information to clients, contractors, suppliers and also Government officials for all construction activities. There is a lot of information and data required by the Government for filling up the forms for getting licenses and permissions. Construction accounting software will help you take care of this aspect of the construction business.

Managing finance is an important task of any company. A construction company requires managing money on a big scale and if the finances are not properly channelized work could come to a standstill and construction accounting software will also help in this aspect of the company. These accounting packages help you to maintain records in such a way that you can take out the desired reports and utilize the funds properly. These reports are useful in decision making and business development. It can generate additional reports to enable the company to calculate raw material required, labor costs and payroll of workers. There are contractors doing different jobs either on labor basis or including the raw material. All these calculations can be done on the construction accounting software.

Every company requires a profit and loss statement to manage the affairs of the organization. It needs to maintain ledgers for paint, furniture and fixtures, tiles, bathroom fittings, cement brick etc. The construction accounting software has features to calculate labor cost and taxes separately. Executives need to study monthly, yearly reports to compare with competitors rates and help the company improve its position in the market. Submitting and accepting correct quotations is necessary to carry on a project successfully. This requires correct figures which will help clinch good deals with clients, contractors and subcontractors. There is a percentage that every businessman works on and if that is calculated properly, the company will progress in leaps and bounds.

Every software package has different modules to choose from. Project management deals with planning and then execution. But the accounting software is the one which deals with financial reports and payroll system which is the crux of any company. Business management deals with customer relations and sales. But all this needs to be consolidated together to get the correct position of the company. If the accounts of a company are accurate and can be generated on time then proper steps can be taken to take the company forward.

The Lowest Price we could find is $24.99 $11.50

Bestselling author Stephen Nelson returns with big help for small businesses

Offering expert advice, bestselling author Stephen Nelson returns with updated coverage of the latest revisions and enhancements to the leading small business accounting software package: QuickBooks. After a quick review of bookkeeping basics, youll discover how QuickBooks can help you build the perfect budget, process payroll, simplify your tax return prep work, create invoices, manage inventory, generate income statements, balance accounts, and much more.

• Veteran author Stephen Nelson updates his perennial bestseller and offers you easy-to-understand coverage of the newest release of QuickBooks
• Encourages you to take control of managing your own business accounting and financial management tasks so you can avoid having to hire expensive outside help
• Provides expert advice for building the perfect budget, processing payroll, creating invoices, managing inventory, tracking job costs, generating income statements, balancing accounts, creating financial reports, and more

QuickBooks 2011 For Dummies helps you handle your financial management tasks more effectively so that you can effectively manage your business!

Review:

I bought this book because I have never used QB 2011 – though I have been using Quicken for a decade. i found this book provided very little that i could not figure out for myself just by trying things. And when i wanted to do something but couldn’t trial-and-error my way, this book did NOT give me any answers. Example: creating an custom invoice template is not explained in nearly enough depth to actually get the invoice looking the way i wanted. i bought the book so i didn’t have to spend hours of trial-and-error. this book is not detailed enough to be used as a reference.

The Lowest Price we could find is $130.40 $69.68

This book takes general business accounting and financial principles as well as engineering economics and adapts them to the unique characteristics of the construction industry. It provides all of the key financial management principles needed by construction managers under one cover, addressing how they are applied in the construction industry and how they interact. This book teaches students how to account for the companys financial resources, how to manage the costs and profits of a construction company, how to manage the companys cash flows, how to evaluate different sources of funding a companys cash needs, and how to quantitatively analyze financial decisions.

Review:

This book has been so helpful in my attempt to increase my understanding of the way construction companies manage their accounting books and finances. I’m currently on my second reading and intend to keep this book as a permanent reference.

I would have given this book 5 stars, mainly because this book has been very helpful to me, but I’ve chosen 4 stars because…

- Exercises were included after each chapter, which is a nice touch, but it would have been nicer if the author had included the answers at the end of the book.

- The CD includes Excel templates, which is also a nice touch, but I honestly thought before buying this book that they were more complex and advanced, maybe including some of the exercises seen on the book.

Other than those (in my opinion, minor) issues, this is an excellent book. I highly recommend it to those people involved in the construction industry.

Best Price $0.99

Most people think of bookkeeping and accounting as the same profession, but the former is really one function of accounting, while the latter encompasses many functions involved in managing the financial affairs of a business. Accountants prepare reports based, in part, on the work of bookkeepers. Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks. This book teaches you the fundamentals and general procedures involved in bookkeeping. Become the master of your domain by familiarizing yourself with topics such as:

Bookkeeping Basics
How To Start Bookkeeping For Your Online Business
Online Bookkeeping Fit For Your Business
Make Money Through Bookkeeping For Your Online Business
Choosing A Bookkeeping System For Your Online Business
Factors That You Need To Consider When Choosing One
Choosing Your Bookkeeping Provider
Online Bookkeeping Benefits For Accounting Business Firms
Why You Should Outsource Bookkeeping
How Outsourcing Bookkeeping Can Help Your Online Business

Most people think of bookkeeping and accounting as the same profession, but the former is really one function of accounting, while the latter encompasses many functions involved in managing the financial affairs of a business. Accountants prepare reports based, in part, on the work of bookkeepers. Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks. This book teaches you the fundamentals and general procedures involved in bookkeeping. Become the master of your domain by familiarizing yourself with topics such as:

Bookkeeping Basics
How To Start Bookkeeping For Your Online Business
Online Bookkeeping Fit For Your Business
Make Money Through Bookkeeping For Your Online Business
Choosing A Bookkeeping System For Your Online Business
Factors That You Need To Consider When Choosing One
Choosing Your Bookkeeping Provider
Online Bookkeeping Benefits For Accounting Business Firms
Why You Should Outsource Bookkeeping
How Outsourcing Bookkeeping Can Help Your Online Business

The Lowest Price we could find is $18.95 $9.79

All the techniques and information for turning a flair for figures into a highly profitable, well-rounded financial services career.

The book considers the advantages and disadvantages of self-employment, looks closely at entrepreneurship, reviews the nuts and bolts and costs of start up, presents the legal requirements, and tells how to acquire adequate computer equipment to do the job right. To build a solid client base, it tells how to analyze cities and towns for bookkeeping service, whether to start fresh or buy a going concern. It tells how much to charge and how to collect and manage the money. Once under way the author discusses work habits that don’t run your life, hiring and training employees, diversifying into profitable sidelines, and building a comfortable retirement.

Review:

This is an excellent book for anyone looking “to take the plunge” and establish their own tax and bookkeeping practice. The author gives great advice that is difficult to obtain from other established professionals. Mr. Lewis writes candidly on points such as how to fairly deal with problem clients and which clients to look for. There are also a couple good chapters about market research and the most practical ways to promote your tax business. Although technology has changed quite a bit since the book was written, you get a slight idea of the tools required of the profession. All in all an excellent book. Although most underlying principals haven’t changed, I would love to see a second edition that discusses recent technology advances.

They do not cover most of this material in a university accounting class and this book should be a prerequisite for those looking to enter the profession. This book is a must read for the beginner and a nice reference for those of us whose practices are still in its infancy.

Highly recommended!! Well done Gordon!!