Jane E. Kelly - Bookkeeping and Accounting All-in-One For Dummies [UK edition]

Bookkeeping & Accounting All-in-One For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2015

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-119-02653-2 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-119-02660-0 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-02661-7 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

Welcome to Bookkeeping & Accounting All-in-One For Dummies! This book explains the different roles that both bookkeepers and accountants take on within a business. If youre a one-man or one-woman band, however, dont worry; within these pages you too can find out how to do the bookkeeping basics and see the ways in which an accountant can assist you further.

This book aims to help you understand the bookkeeping tasks that need to be done within your business and to demonstrate how an accountant can help your business to set targets that will hopefully expand and grow.

Bookkeeping & Accounting All-in-One For Dummies is divided into six separate books. Each book is split into several chapters that tackle key aspects of bookkeeping and accounting functions. The Table of Contents gives you more detail of what is contained within each chapter. Each chapter presents information in a modular fashion so that you get all the information you need to accomplish a task in one place. You dont need to remember things from different parts of the book; if another chapter has information relevant to the discussion at hand, youll find a cross reference telling you where to find it, so you dont have to read the chapters in order. You can read the chapters or sections that interest you when it suits you.

If you end up reading all that there is to read in this book, but find you still want more, check out the extra information in these For Dummies titles (all published by Wiley):

• Bookkeeping For Dummies (Jane Kelly, Paul Barrow & Lita Epstein)
• Understanding Business Accounting For Dummies (John A. Tracy & Colin Barrow)
• Accounting Workbook For Dummies (Jane Kelly & John A. Tracy)

Bookkeeping & Accounting All-in-One For Dummies makes some key assumptions about who you are and why you picked up this book, and assumes that you fall into one of the following categories:

• Youre a member of staff in a small business whos been employed to undertake the bookkeeping and accounting function.
• Youre a small business owner who currently doesnt have the funds to employee an individual. Therefore, you need to understand the basics of bookkeeping to enable you to deal with the day-to-day paperwork, with a view to perhaps using an accountant at year-end.
• Youre a small-business owner who is thinking of employing a bookkeeper but wants to know the differences between what a bookkeeper can do for your business and what an accountant can offer.

If any or all of these assumptions accurately describes you, then youve come to the right book!

Every For Dummies book uses icons to highlight especially important, interesting or useful information. The icons used in this book are:

Look at this icon for practical information that you can use straightaway to help you to run your bookkeeping and accounting systems in the most effective way.

This icon indicates any items you need to remember after reading the book and sometimes throughout it.

This icon calls your attention to examples of specific tasks that you can undertake to help you perform the bookkeeping or accounting skills explained in this book.

The paragraphs next to this icon contain information that is, er, slightly technical in nature. You dont need to know the information here to get by, but it helps.

This bombshell alerts you to potential problems you may create for yourself without realising it. Dont ignore this icon!