Accounting book recommendations

Joseph Mack mack.joseph at epa.gov
Thu May 20 11:44:51 EDT 2004


Josh Sled wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 10:27, Raymond wrote:
> 
> > > I like a book by Schaums.
> >
> > Got an ISBN for this publication?

sorry, I realise I'm not being terribly helpful here.
I've recently moved and most stuff I don't need everyday
is still in boxes and will probably stay that way for a long
time.

>From a google search and looking at chapter headings, 
my best _guess_ is that it's

Schaum's Outline of Bookkeeping and Accounting
Joel J. Lerner
ISBN: 0070375933

> And for the ones you bought but _didn't_ like?

I'm sorry, they were so execrable that I didn't keep them.

I was looking for a book for a person who didn't know anything
about double entry accounting and wanted it explained and 
to be able to enter my personal finances into gnucash. 

The principles of double entry accounting are explained 
in simple terms in two early chapter and there are lots of
exercises in these chapters to try out to convince yourself
that you understand how it works. I assume the rest of the
book shows business people how to keep track of accounts
receivable etc. This was beyond me, and the early chapters
were enough.

Despite the apparent simplicity of the accounting equation

what you own = what you've got - the stuff that belongs to other people

there are lots of pitfalls in using it and I find that
keeping my finances in double entry form is fiendishly 
difficult (the other choice is not doing it at all
which is much worse).

Joe
 
-- 
Joseph Mack PhD, High Performance Computing & Scientific Visualization
SAIC, Supporting the EPA Research Triangle Park, NC 919-541-0007
Federal Contact - John B. Smith 919-541-1087 - smith.johnb at epa.gov


More information about the gnucash-user mailing list