David A. FlanneryBookkeeping Made Simple: A Practical, Easy-to-Use Guide to the Basics of Financial Management

As a new business owner, I recently determined that in order to have an intelligent conversation with my account, I must learn basic accounting terminology and how the accounting cycle operates. I showed this book to my accountant to get his opinion. He said, "I wish more of my clients read this book."In a simple manner, "Bookkeeping Made Simple" enlightened me on the subject of bookkeeping. I do not want to become an accountant or full-time bookkeeper. I just want a broad understanding of how it all works so I can confidently enter transactions in QuickBooks and keep my books organized for my accountant at the end of the year. I feel this book helped me achieve my goals.If you have questions, such as, what are drawing accounts, ledgers, and journals? Or, how do I read a balance sheet and an income statement to determine the financial health of a company? Then this book is for you!I'd also like to note that this title does not discuss accounting or bookkeeping software. It is purely old-fashioned manual bookkeeping. I believe learning the manual method will give you a greater understanding of your accounting software. It's kind of like learning arithmetic by hand before moving to the calculator.There are technical errors in some of the exercises. For example, a few of the balance sheets don't balance. Also, there are many transcription errors where numbers from the exercise are not correctly reflected in the answer. The author does emphasize accuracy throughout the book and states, "perfect practice makes perfect." Because he did not follow his own advice, he gets docked one star.Overall, I feel "Bookkeeping Made Simple" presents a great intro to bookkeeping, which every entrepreneur must comprehend in order to fully understand his own business.

I am training a young lady who works in my office on the basics of the General Ledger. She is currently handling accounts receivable/payable successfully, but having trouble grasping the concept of debits and credits in the general ledger. I purchased this book and set up a self-study program for her. It covers all of the basics of double-entry bookkeeping in a workbook format.There are a couple of things I don't like about the book, mainly the layout of problems and answers. In some instances the worksheet and questions are on the left page and the answers on the right page, side by side. This arrangement makes it too easy to look at the answer page without having to concentrate on working the problem. Also, the worksheet ledger pages are simply copies of an actual ledger page on which the problems and answers have been written. The pages have been copied on a dark setting so all of the horizontal and vertical lines and the writing on the page are the same dark black color with everything blending together, making it hard to read.Around page 30 the book explains very carefully that assets and liabilities must be equal on a balance sheet. The problem that follows give you a set of numbers to fill in that end up with the balance sheet out of balance.The author had the right idea and there is a lot of good information in the book, but it is not very well put together.

I bought this book because of the reviews. I was also baffled by the 'balance' sheet that doesn't balance on page 14. (See review by 'adm')More explanations are needed for some items, like 'sundry' accounts. They are introduced in chapter 5 on page 33, but only a brief explanation is given several pages later (page 36) that says basically: 'Sundry accounts are used to record infrequent or unusual transactions'. BUT in figure 5.1 on page 33, the items posted in the sundry account include: 'phone co., internet, and electricity' NONE of which seem infrequent or unusual. No explanation.Also: after going to such length to make sure we know that 'debits go on the left, and credits on the right', there is no explanation why some special accounts put them backwards (credits on the left, debits on the right) but others do not. (See examples 5.2, 5.6, 5.9, 5.10 all in chapter 5)On page 27, the author says we need to be 'perfect' when we practice his lessons, ('perfect practice makes perfect') yet his lessons are not perfect. If I were to write a book on this subject, I would edit it extremely carefully. Typos would be understandable in any work, but these are big mistakes.The book is still pretty good so far, because I've already learned more than I did in a whole semester of high school accounting.I'm only up to chapter 5, so I may be adding to this review.

See above.

this book is pretty good if u wanna get into accounting as an intro.the ways in which the author goes through the book is easy to understand and make clear sense.im only up to chapter 6 but i've noticed certain mistakes i.e the answer to a balance sheet from the author on page 14 does not even balance??pg 30 fig. 4.3 gives a little question, the answer is fig.4.8a on page 31 , their are 2/3 data mistakes between the 2 fig,s by author.overall not to bad things in chapter 5 seem to be rushed with a this is how its done additude to it , with not much explaining the reasons behind it, also the aurthor seems to almost go back and fourth quite alot into this chapter.also be aware that some of the lingo used for different accounts and other things is a lil out dated.oh one last thing which really is the reason this book gets 2 stars and not 4 stars is all his examples are in black pen and are scanned into the book and its hard understanding his hand writting many times , makes things unclear.

It is the book that I was looking for bec I needed it for a class that I am taking. When I received it, I was surprised by how much highlighting was in the book but for the price, it was ok. Overall, I am happy about my purchase and with the efficieny of the seller.