Bookkeeping Kit For Dummies

The easy way to get a handle on bookkeeping

Accurate and complete bookkeeping is crucial to investors, financial institutions, and various employees in businesses, and Bookkeeping Kit For Dummies provides the easy and painless way to master this critical skill. You′ll get clear and concise information along with plenty of practice opportunities and examples to hone your bookkeeping skills.

Brush up on basics get an overview of how bookkeeping works, understand terminology unique to bookkeeping, and set up your company′s books

Keep a paper trail find out how to enter your financial transactions in the books, post transactions to your General Ledger, and track all the details in your journals

Roll out the dough track your day–to–day business operations, set up and manage employee payroll, and make sense of government paperwork that comes with new hires

All good things come to an end delve into the process for closing out an accounting period, whether at the end of a month or the end of a year

Report your results discover how to use all the information in your books to prepare reports that show how well your company did during the month, quarter, or year

Bonus CD Includes: Bookkeeping forms, working papers, tax forms, resources, and spreadsheets

Please see the CD appendix for details and complete system requirements.

Open the book and find:

Tips for developing a goodinternal control system for managing your books

The importance of an accurate paper trail

How to test the balance of your books

Year–end government reports and IRS forms

Ledgers, journals, and computer options

How to protect your business against internal fraud

Ways to stay on top of inventory, supplies, and bills

Lots of practice exercises

Introduction 1

Part I: Basic Bookkeeping: Why You Need It 7

Chapter 1: So You Want to Do the Books 9

Chapter 2: Getting Down to Bookkeeping Basics 17

Chapter 3: Outlining Your Financial Road Map with a Chart of Accounts 39

Part II: Keeping a Paper Trail 55

Chapter 4: The General Ledger: A One–Stop Summary of Your Business Transactions 57

Chapter 5: Keeping Journals 81

Chapter 6: Computer Options for Your Bookkeeping 111

Chapter 7: Controlling Your Books, Your Records, and Your Money 121

Part III: Tracking Day–to–Day Business Operations with Your Books 139

Chapter 8: Buying and Tracking Your Purchases 141

Chapter 9: Counting Your Sales 159

Chapter 10: Employee Payroll and Benefits 191

Chapter 11: Employer–Paid Taxes and Government Payroll Reporting 213

Part IV: Preparing the Books for Year′s (Or Month′s) End 227

Chapter 12: Depreciating Your Assets 229

Chapter 13: Paying and Collecting Interest 243

Chapter 14: Proving Out the Cash 261

Chapter 15: Closing the Journals 277

Chapter 16: Checking Your Accuracy by Trial and (Hopefully No) Error 289

Chapter 17: Adjusting the Books 301

Part V: Reporting Results and Starting Over 317

Chapter 18: Developing a Balance Sheet 319

Chapter 19: Producing an Income Statement 337

Chapter 20: Completing Year–End Payroll and Reports 355

Chapter 21: Satisfying the Tax Man 365

Chapter 22: Prepping the Books for a New Accounting Cycle 373

Part VI: The Part of Tens 379

Chapter 23: Ten Ways to Manage Your Business Cash with Your Books...............381

Chapter 24: The Ten (Plus One) Most Important Accounts for Any Bookkeeper 385

Part VII: Appendixes 389

Appendix A: Glossary 391

Appendix B: About the CD 395

Index 403

Lita Epstein, MBA, designs online courses about reading financial reports, investing, and taxes. She′s the author of Reading Financial Reports For Dummies and also writes periodically for AOL′s Daily Finance.