Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #207028 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Synopsis
This latest edition of "A Straightforward Guide to Bookkeeping and Accounts for Small Business" builds on the successful first edition by updating essential information and including relevant changes to accounting law and bookkeeping conventions. The book is a practical and informative guide for those who operate small business, either as sole traders or limited companies. With the aid of this invaluable guide, those in business should find the often daunting process of bookkeeping and preparation of accounts made that much easier. No prior knowledge is assumed. The book covers the following key areas: the importance of keeping financial books of record; the double entry system of recording transactions; which books to keep; analysing the books; petty cash records; VAT; bank accounts and reconciliation's; and bookkeeping for partnerships.

Customer Reviews

Some useful content, but poorly structured and edited
I was hoping this book would teach me how to prepare accounts in a form suitable for running a small limited company. Unfortunately, it is very basic, and the information is poorly presented.

Some terms are introduced well before any real explanation is given to them. Profit & Loss is probably the most severe, and this is mentioned several times before an example is given. Terms and documents that do get illustrated do so poorly. Most of the example documents have missing numbers, columns not in line (sometimes to the point of being almost unreadable) or unexplained differences to previous examples.

The VAT section was interesting, but too short and lacked proper examples. It goes into detail about the requirement of tax invoices, but glosses over actually accounting for the tax itself.

While there is some useful information in here, it is hard work extracting it. For a general introduction to accounts I recommend one of the many better books around, such as Accounts Demystified. Other books are around that explain VAT, including the Teach Yourself small business books.