Keeping the Books: Basic Recordkeeping and Accounting for the Successful Small Business

by Linda Pinson

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Editorial Reviews
Product Description

The premier resource for basic bookkeeping and business record management, Keeping the Books is a comprehensive, yet down to earth, treatment of one of the most important, yet often neglected, aspects of running a business. User-friendly and packed with easy-to-understand illustrations, worksheets, and forms, this popular financial reference tool is completely updated, and replete with the variety of IRS forms that entrepreneurs have to be familiar with. From updating car and transportation expenses to exploding the myths around independent contractors, the author presents everything a small company needs to know to maintain proper records.

Following the roadmap outlined in Keeping the Books, entrepreneurs will learn how to:
·        Prepare and analyze financial statements to stay in touch with the heartbeat of their business
·        Set up bookkeeping systems to keep track of financial details
·        Maintain the required IRS records necessary to stay out of trouble
·        Plan for required taxes due

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 4 out of 5 stars

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Great Resource, 2008-09-29
Great resource and training tool for bookkeepers. Easy to understand and covers a wide range of information that is very useful for bookkeepers and accountants.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

good for generic business purposes, 2008-07-03
This book is good for the basics in bookkeeping. The blank sample forms were useful for me.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

excellent resource , 2008-01-27
This book has been a great guide tool.
Helps you understand what you should have for your business even if you have no accounting experience. Very step by step and leads you in the right direction to follow up and increase knowledge.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Great book for small business owners...., 2006-12-12
This is one of my two favorite accounting books for small business owners. The other is "Small Business Accounting Simplified" by Daniel Sitarz. These books present a lot of the same information, but they have slightly different perspectives on small business accounting and I think both viewpoints are useful and complimentary. Establishing your accounting system is serious business, so I would consider purchasing both. It's a small investment considering how important and time consuming this area could be for small business.

With that said, this book will help you to understand the basics of accounting and the advantages and disadvantages of various methods of keeping your books. It is very streamlined, practical and will help you to get your books together quickly using the easiest system that is appropriate for your business.

This is a very non-intimidating book and first time business owners will really like it. The other book I recommended above by Sitarz is more involved and may be something you want to get down the road. If you are a very small business, this book may have all you need and you may appreciate that it lacks some detail that might be unnecessary.

Both books that I mention are adequate to get a small business up and running. However, if you are not a numbers person by nature or have an aversion to accounting, this might be the best place to start. As part of my livelihood I do small business consulting and this title and the one I mentioned in the first paragraph are the two books I most often recommend for a new small business.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

Your Business at a Glance, 2005-11-08
This is an excellent book that teaches you to chart: where you would like to go on your business journey; where you are; and what you need to do to adjust your journey towards your profit goals.

Long before reading this book, I had asked an Accountant the difference between fixed and variable assets - he really didn't answer my question. In fact, he seemed to be annoyed that I would ask such a question.

But this book gives the answer in a very succinct description, with supporting information.

Above all, this book walks the small business owner through:
1. Record Keeping;
2. Business Accounting;
3. General Ledgers;
4. Financial Statements; and,
5. Taxes.

And this is definitely a resource to keep referring to, until you have mastered the process of growing profit.

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