An Easy Step By Step Bookkeeping Guide For Use With QuickBooks, 2009, 2008 or 2007


Product Description
Three key factors exist for a business to maintain successful financials and tax reporting. They are as follows: 1. Accurate entry into whatever accounting software they use. 2. Practical and efficient recordkeeping of paper files. 3. A reputable tax professional such as an accountant, enrolled agent, or CPA. This book offers a much needed reference place for the first two key factors and makes it a whole lot easier for the third. It is difficult fo… More >>

An Easy Step By Step Bookkeeping Guide For Use With QuickBooks, 2009, 2008 or 2007

A Quick Tour Through Quickbooks


QuickBooks is accounting software targeted at assisting small businesses in organizing their financial bookkeeping. It is developed by Intuit

Schaum’s Financial Accounting 2 Ed.


Product Description
Practical examples of all important concepts and procedures enrich this clear, logical, and popular guide to financial accounting. This new edition updates material about cash flows and accounting rules and includes new information about accounting software, payroll accounting and federal income taxes. The hundreds of problems with step-by-step solutions prepare students for success with everyday practice and with the CPA exam. Typical exam questions with answers he… More >>

Schaum’s Financial Accounting 2 Ed.

Schaum’s Financial Accounting 2 Ed.


Product Description
Practical examples of all important concepts and procedures enrich this clear, logical, and popular guide to financial accounting. This new edition updates material about cash flows and accounting rules and includes new information about accounting software, payroll accounting and federal income taxes. The hundreds of problems with step-by-step solutions prepare students for success with everyday practice and with the CPA exam. Typical exam questions with answers he… More >>

Schaum’s Financial Accounting 2 Ed.

Importance of Accounting Records and Companys Accounts For Business


The main importance of accounting records lies in the fact that it holds true for all uneven situations and keeping a proper note of financial transactions can prove useful for you in times of problematic conditions. So whether business is big or small accounting records prepared in the proper manner will never loose value and is always recommended so that the business can potentially grow and outgrow others and stand as a reputable organisation.

Importance of Accounting- A Helping Hand in Outsourcing Business

In this growing age of money oriented society one generally opts for becoming an entrepreneur rather than slogging for hours as an employee in a company owned by others and there arises the need and importance of accounting records. If you are someone who wants to break into a new business, the importance of accounting should never be ignored. Accounting and finance are two very useful terms in business whether you are working on the day to day accounts activities or the longer term strategies that face you when setting up and running a company. Accounting software is always an option as it can mean low setup fees along with helping you begin your business with good bookkeeping and accounting principles from the outset.

Accounts for business and accounts formats help in managing a company well. A company’s accounts records held on an accounts ledger give the detailed description about its profits and losses in a cash spread sheet format. Auditors study the financial statement and thus determine the accuracy and integrity of your business and an accounting statement distinguishes the success ratio of your present business from past progress using accounts formats that are recognised by other companies and bodies.

The importance of accounting can be discovered from the fact that accounting principles such as double entry bookkeeping are compulsorily to be followed by all companies to avoid any future mishaps and this is clear when you look back at larger company crisis, small businesses can suffer more than larger companies through accounting ledger errors as they are less likely to have the assets available for sale should finances go wrong. Accounting asset of a company is calculated so that banks can easily provide loans and fund any projects you wish to take on in future. The strategy to be followed to establish a new business varies with accountant planning. With this in mind, if you wish to have a well established business then you need to take accounts for business very seriously from the start.

Knowledge of accounting software can help expand your business and help in building a bright future in accounting and finance. Accounting asset can include your employees, monthly input, services offered by them, products being produced. Accounting statements can track the entire positive and negative aspects of your company’s growth therefore having knowledge of accounts formats can help you in reach new heights and in turn business success.

Referral to accounts for business is a great way of keeping a note of the entire accounting asset, liabilities, profits and loss occurring in any organisation in a form of account ledger. It records all the transactions taking place in a company so that you can always have a check on the losses if required and according to generally accepted accounting principles, the basic framework of accounting should always include finance and accounting records. This is because accounting is relative to finance and goes hand in hand with it. Finance talks about the happenings of a company the profits and losses that it is facing. So importance of accounting plays a vital role in determining your goals and objectives.

DIY Accounting produces tax accounting software for company accounts and self employed business that incorporate tax software to automate the self employed tax returns for sole traders and the CT600 corporation tax return for a limited company. Small business accounting software designed to produce tax accounting solutions for non accountant business clients to complete their tax affairs.

Suitable Accounting Software Exists for All Business Sizes


Accounting software can vary from multi million pound solutions for major public companies to simple managed lists of income and expenses. Simple accounting solutions are most suitable for small business.

The most comprehensive financial accounting packages incorporate financial reporting information and managed by teams of qualified accountants supported by accounts clerks, bookkeepers and substantial input from automated data sources. At the other end of the scale a self employed sole trader might use accounting software themselves and produce a set of financial accounts for the year in an afternoon.

Different accounting standards are required from accounting software dependent upon the fitness for purpose and client needs. Double entry bookkeeping automated through a database system and probably arranged in financial modules would normally be the choice of the majority of public companies. Single entry bookkeeping would not be an acceptable accounting solution for a limited company due to audit requirements and statutory obligations.

Single entry bookkeeping does however have its place in the market place for the smaller less complex businesses who maintain financial control through a close intimate knowledge of every financial transaction. The main objective of a sole trader is more likely to be the production of the tax accounts and complete the periodic and annual tax return forms.

The most sophisticated level of accounting software in the largest companies mirrors the accounting functions in those organisations with various financial modules for accounts receivable, accounts payable, stock control, general ledger and fixed assets. These accounting modules may also be integrated with non accounting functions such as production and dispatch functions and also divided into separate modules within the accounting function.

In larger companies the sales daybook and data entry of sales turnover would often be the responsibility of one department while the accounts receivable function might be split with a specialist credit control function within that accounting module. A further division may also include sales administration and customer records. Accounts payable would normally be multi functional of the purchasing department, purchase invoice accounts department and a legal function for overdue payments.

Accounting software for smaller companies and organisations is commonly a system of data entry of prime transactions which include sales income, purchase expenses and cash and bank transactions. The prime entry of these documents being to a database which automates the double entry accounting principles and produces both accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger databases.

Some accounting knowledge is usually required tom operate a database accounting software system and that financial knowledge is usually available within the company as most companies that use database accounting software also employ a bookkeeper or accounts clerks to input data and in slightly larger small companies also qualified accountants to manage the accounting function.

The need for accounting knowledge in a database system is partially to understand the data entry principles and the relevancy of the rules that need to be followed but essentially understanding of accounting principles is required to understand what is happening ton the information after input. And most important, a qualified accountant has the financial knowledge, training and experience to know what the system should be producing and how to query the database to retrieve that information.

A database accounting software system not only produces high quality financial records but offfers numerous financial control alternatives for both junior and senior business management. The accounting function also has the security of producing trial balances, periodic profit and loss accounts, balance sheets and other financial and statements for tax and control purposes.

Accounting solutions requiring little bookkeeping or accounting knowledge are available usually based uponh spreadsheets as this is the most transparent method of viewing the accounts.

Small limited companies must obtain accounting software based upon double entry accounting principles as in addition to producing a profit and loss account and a trial balance to demonstrate accuracy and integrity of the financial records plus a balance sheet is required for reporting purposes. Accounting standards require the limited company to have a system of financial control and accounting software is an essential tool in achieving this.

Some accounting knowledge either from the management or outsourcing the bookkeeping services is usually required with even the simplest database accounting solutions eve3n if this requires the understanding of what accounts receivable ledgers, accounts payable ledger and control accounts mean.

There are other possibilities and those businesses with a minimum of accounting knowledge can consider spreadsheet based accounting software. Accounting software compiled from spreadsheets is less flexible and often does not have the range of options a database system has due to the lack of database queries available. These disadvantages of flexibility being compensated by the fact that all entries are visible, transparent and changes can be made more easily.

Financially at the sole trader and self employed end of the business spectrum then the requirements from accounting software may be completely different. Gone are the sophistications of control accounts, trial balances and many aspects of financial control. The most important aspect of self employed accounting software is often to produce a set of accounts for tax purposes.

Self employed small business that do not require a balance sheet can use accounting software based upon single entry bookkeeping rather than double entry and with the reduced requirement for financial control then less financial queries to the system are required. In these respects the simpler an accounting solution the better and in this market an accounting solution written on spreadsheets that can produce the net taxable profit would meet the requirements.


Terry Cartwright, CEO DIY Accounting, a qualified accountant designs UK Accounting Software on excel spreadsheets and Payroll Software for small to medium sized business providing a complete accounting solution and also supplies Company Formation packages for new limited liability companies

Explanation of T-account, Debit and Credit, and Double-entry Accounting System


All accountants know several terms that create basis for any accounting system. Such terms are T-account, debit and credit, and double-entry accounting system. Of course, these terms are studied by accounting students all over the world. However, any business person, whether an investment banker or a small business owner, will benefit from knowing them as well. They are easy to grasp and will be helpful in most business situations. Let us take a closer look at these accounting terms.

T-Account

Accounting records about events and transactions are recorded in accounts. An account is an individual record of increases and decreases in a specific asset, liability, or owner?s equity item. Look at accounts as a place for recording numbers related to a certain item or class of transactions. Examples of accounts may be Cash, Accounts Receivable, Fixed Assets, Accounts Payable, Accrued Payroll, Sales, Rent Expenses and so on.

An account consists of three parts:

- title of the account

- left side (known as debit)

- right side (known as credit)

Because the alignment of these parts of an account resembles the letter T, it is referred to as a T account. You could draw T accounts on a piece of paper and use it to maintain your accounting records. However, nowadays, instead of having to draw T accounts, accountants use accounting software (i.e., QuickBooks, Microsoft Accounting, Peachtree, JD Edwards, Oracle, and SAP, among others).

Debit, Credit and Account Balance

In account, the term debit means left side, and credit means right side. These are abbreviated as Dr for debit and Cr for credit. Debit and credit indicate on which side of a T account numbers will be recorded.

An account balance is the difference between the debit and credit amounts. For some types of accounts debit means an increase in the account balance, while for others debit means a decrease in the account balance. See below for a list of accounts and what a debit to such account means:

Asset ? IncreaseContra Assets ? DecreaseLiability ? DecreaseEquity ? DecreaseContribution Capital ? DecreaseRevenue ? DecreaseExpenses ? IncreaseDistributions ? Increase

Credits to the above account types will mean an opposite result.

Double-entry Accounting System

A double-entry accounting system requires that any amount entered into the accounting records is shown at least on two different accounts. For example, when a customer pays cash for your product, an account would show the cash received in the Cash account (as a debit) and in the Sales account (as a credit). All debit amounts equal all credit amounts provided the double-entry accounting was properly followed.

Having a double-entry accounting system has benefits over regular, one-sided systems. One of such benefits is that the double-entry system helps identify recording errors. As I mentioned, if one amount is entered only once in error, then debits and credits won?t balance and the accountant will know that one or more entries were not posted fully. Note, however, that this check will help spot errors, but will not identify all cases of errors. For example, equal debits and credits will not identify an error when an amount was posted twice, but was posted to wrong accounts. Keep this in mind when analyzing causes of errors in accounting records.

How Do I Account For Credit Card Merchant Account In Tally Or Other Accounting Software?


I need to create groups of accounts for a company in Tally or other accounting software. I have 2 merchant accounts with different credit card companies. One of them credits my account in their bank and only sends me a statement of amount and commissions – other sends me a cheque after deducting the commissions. – How do I account for such accounts while making entries in to accounting software? Thanks for your time and help.

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