Practical Accounting information for the Businessman of today - Lesson 1

I feel the need to draw the line in the sand between my desire to be an author and my desire to be a consultant for small businesses.  I feel the business owner or manager needs to be able to read and understand his companies Financial Statements.  This will be lesson 1 in a series of lessons designed to help that business owner or manager to understand what he should expect from his company's financial records. 

Lesson One (1)

I have been involved in the field of accounting for well over 50+ years and my 1st book "Cover Your Nut" was written to express my knowledge of Practical Accounting, written in plain English for the real world of today.  Too many times an accountant has been hired to prepare the companies tax returns and not to necessarily spend a lot of time explaining what is happening with that particular business.  The businessman doesn't really want to spend bunches of money learning about things he thinks he already knows, so he just hires the accountant to "do his taxes".  I would like to teach the business owner/manager to really want to know more about the financial activities of their business.  I want to show that business owner/manager that it is not "Rocket Science" but simply a method that can easily be developed to show the tracking of the company "Revenue" and "Expenses".  A Practical Accounting System can be developed to place the information into reports called Financial Statements - Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement - in a simple straight forward method that doesn't require the owner/manager to become an accountant.  Todays modern computer software packages makes it easier for the owner/manager to record the financial transactions without being a nerd accountant (like me).

The secrets of making an accounting software package work properly for you has to do with the need for certain start-up process steps. Before the start-up of your software package, I advise that the owner/manager make an appointment with an outside accountant or consultant and to tell him/her what information they would like to understand from these daily financial transactions.

1. Edit the software's Chart of Accounts to be a better fit for your company
2. Establish the method of billing the customers - the Item listing with costs and selling prices
3. Develop the customer List - and established rules for the customers 
4. Develop the Vendor List - and established rules for our customers
5. Customize the Invoice for customers
6. Customize the Purchase Order for customers
7. Customize the Financial Statements (the developed Chart of Accounts will make this happen)
8. Layout the flow of work relative to recording the the financial data
9. Develop the cut-off dates to create timely closing of monthly transactions
10. From the Reports Sections - establish the set of Reports to be printed each month

Lesson One (1) gives you enough information for the proper development of your Practical Accounting System which will yield Financial Statements that will allow you to read the company properly.  I am leaving the contact information for Bud's Books as is shown below to enable you as a manager to have access to my business books and or consulting services.

How to contact Bud's Books

I am listing the various ways to contact Bud's Books in todays blog.  My newly designed website is not only fresh but with a theme that makes it easier to find all related items along with a simple contact form for questions or responses to the information listed.  Please visit my Buds Books website, my Bud's Books & Consulting Services Facebook, or this blog that you are visiting now.

Bud's Books Web Site  http://www.budsbooks.com