Product Description

Do a quick take on QuickBooks and you’ll wonder where it’s been all your life. If you’re running a small business, you need an accounting system that monitors profits, losses, and expenses without costing an arm and a leg. And if you’re running your own business— when you’re trying to do everything, including things like, well, actually selling something—you need a good solid software system that stays one step ahead of you. QuickBooks 2006 is that software. Record invoices, pay bills—QuickBooks will crunch the numbers and keep you on track.

Now you can add another member to your team: QuickBooks 2006 For Dummies. This helpful book is loaded with the latest information, features, and expert advice you need to make the best use of the software. Pop open the book, and you’ll quickly start getting the basics in plain English. Written for those of us who aren’t CPAs, this down-to-earth guide explains how to:

• Create invoices and credit memos
• Produce income statements and financial reports
• Process payroll and simplify tax preparation
• Estimate, bill, and track expenses

Author Stephen Nelson not only has an MBA, a CPA and expertise in teaching the rest of us about QuickBooks, he also teaches other CPAs how to teach the rest of us about QuickBooks. You’ll feel like you’ve got a knowledgeable and humorous buddy at your side as you learn how to:

• Streamline bill paying with online banking and electronic checks
• Set up a workable chart of accounts and a good working budget
• Keep track of inventory, fixed assets, and vehicle mileage
• Handle selling a depreciable asset—and nine other “Tricky Situations”
• Figure out your break-even point—and nine more “Secret Business Formulas”
• Install QuickBooks in ten easy steps

If you handle the financial parts of your business like a pro, you’re free to concentrate on what you do best. QuickBooks 2006 For Dummies is the fun and easy way® to get started!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #281374 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 408 pages

From the Back Cover

Make daily, monthly, and occasional financial chores a whole lot easier!

QuickBooks makes managing your business finances a lot less painful, so you can concentrate on what you do best. This friendly book makes using QuickBooks simple too! You'll find out how to set up QuickBooks for your business and use it to prepare invoices, track sales, pay bills, create a budget, figure job costs, and much more.

Discover how to

• Create invoices and credit memos
• Manage inventory
• Produce income statements and financial reports
• Simplify tax preparation
• Pay bills and balance accounts
• Estimate, bill, and track job expenses

About the Author
Stephen L. Nelson, CPA, MBA (finance), MS (taxation), has a simple purpose in life: He wants to help you (and people like you) manage your business finances by using computers. Oh, sure, this personal mandate won’t win him a Nobel Prize or anything, but it’s his own little contribution to the world.
Steve’s experiences mesh nicely with his special purpose. He’s a CPA in Redmond, Washington. He’s an adjunct professor of taxation (S corporations and limited liability companies) at Golden Gate University’s graduate tax school. And, heck, he even used to work as a senior consultant and CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. (er, yeah, that Arthur Andersen — but, hey, it was 20 years ago). Steve, whose books have sold more than 4 million copies in English and have been translated into 11 other languages, is also the bestselling author of Quicken 2006 For Dummies (Wiley).

Customer Reviews

Very Disappointed
To say that I was very disappointed in this book is a major understatement. I wish there was a zero star category or a negative star category.

I have come to depend on the "for Dummies" books to bring me up to speed on various interests. Perhaps because I am an accountant, this book isn't meant for me; however, though I know accounting, I don't know much about QuickBooks and I wanted to learn what it could do.

This book was not the place to learn. I actually learned more abut QuickBooks in the book, "Bookkeeping for Dummies". "QuickBooks 2006 for Dummies" spent more time telling me I didn't need to know how to use a feature than it did explaining the feature and how to use it. I came away from the book feeling like I was being told to use QuickBooks 2006 as a very expensive electronic checkbook register, and that "my accountant would take care of the rest". Well, I am the accountant, and if I relied solely on this book, I wouldn't know how to "do the rest".

I am also disturbed by the advice given the reader. For example, reccommending the small business owner use cash basis accounting and his accountant would convert his books to accrual (I got the impression that the aim of this book was to drum up business for CPA's). I've been an accountant for over 30 years, and this is the 1st and only time I've had an accountant recommend cash basis accounting. It just isn't done. The book also said that the small business owner doesn't need to know anything about accounting. I disagree strongly: a business owner must know something about accounting in order to understand how his business is doing and what decisions must be made and what choices there are. Example, I knew an owner of a small construction company who thought that when he was paid $30,000 for a job, he could go out and spend $30,000 on whatever he wanted. He didn't realize that expenses had to come out of that $30,000.

I felt that the information that came with the QuickBooks2006 software was very good to get started. To follow up that information, I would reccommend "Bookkeeping for Dummies", "QuickBooks: the Missing Manual" and "QuickBooks 2006: The Official Guide".

Please do not waste your money buying "QuickBooks 2006 for Dummies".

Worth Far More than it Costs
This is one of the better 'For Dummies' books that I've read.

To be sure most of the book is exactly what you would expect. It's a complete introduction to the QuickBooks accounting system. Being a 'For Dummies' book the othewise rather dry how to use a computer are livened up with a bit of humor here and there. I appreciate this as it tends to help me from going to sleep.

It's the extras in this book that make it easily worth the money, in fact possibly worth several times its cost. The author is a CPA. He has seen what really happens in the business world, and once in a while he provides a simple rule or two. For instance, 'Sign all your own checks.' Simple rule, but it tends to keep people honest. Another rule, 'Review canceled checks before your bookeeper does.' Obvious.

Then there's the discussion on fixed and variable costs vs. revenue. If your rent doesn't go up, selling just a little bit more can yield substantial increases in profits.

These are things that you just don't see in the normal how-to computer book and once again, could be worth far more than the cost of the book.

Disapponted on Quickbooks 2006 for Dummies
I was very disappointed with QuickBooks 2006 for Dummies because it did not deal with the issues of "when" and "why" one should use certain capabilites of QB. One can know all about how to manipulate the menus but not know when or why to do it. This is a very shallow product and I seriously thought about requesting a refund.