Accounting All-in-One For Dummies (+ Videos and Quizzes Online), 3rd Edition

Introduction

The process of accounting is often somewhat mysterious to the general public. Mentioning it may conjure thoughts of Bob Cratchit (from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) scribbling away in books, or perhaps something more exciting like the forensic accounting detectives featured in movies such as The Untouchables. Odds are good, though, that a person’s exposure to actual accountants has been something a bit more commonplace, such as getting taxes done or sitting through treasury reports at council meetings. In any of these cases, people are given just enough information to understand that accounting is something that they should probably learn more about while simultaneously being obscure and quantitative enough to discourage them from trying.

Accounting is much more than just keeping the books and completing tax returns. Sure, those tasks are a large part of the job, but in the business world, accounting also includes setting up an accounting system, preparing financial statements and reports, analyzing financial statements, planning and budgeting for a business, attracting and managing investment capital, securing loans, analyzing and managing costs, making purchase decisions, providing financial insight and advice to business owners and management, and preventing and detecting fraud.

Although no single book can help you master everything there is to know about all fields of accounting, this book provides the information you need to get started in the most common ...