Accounting for Dummies 3RD Edition

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.

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

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.

John A. Tracy, CPA, a former staff accountant at Ernst & Young, taught accounting at the University of Colorado for many years. His other books include the 250,000 copy bestseller, How to Read a Financial Report.

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.