Bookkeeping the Easy Way (Bookkeeping the Easy Way, 3rd ed)

Rating:
Summary: Maybe for the student
Review: At best: A simple, clear, student workbook.
At worst: Lame, out of date, historical documentary.

All excercises are hand written and methods do not include any mention of computers, email, spreadsheets, or other standard parts of any modern business. A great way to bore any student to tears, but unreadable for a small business that needs to get the job done quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Learn it before using Software like Quickbooks.
Review: I am completely new to accounting and bookkeeping. I wanted a book I could teach myself the basics before using software. I went to my local Borders and found this book was the only one that actually made you DO exercises to make sure you understood what you were learning. So far this book has been great. Accounting terms and concepts can be confusing for normal people like me (chemist) but this book does a great job making you understand by doing and not just reading. There are a few mistakes in the answer section but the book teaches me well enough for me to realize that they are mistakes. Enough said.

Rating:
Summary: Good Basic Understanding
Review: When I was trying to find a bookkeeping book it was hard to sort through the many choices offered on Amazon.com. If you are like me and want to get a basic understanding of bookkeeping with a chance to practice then this one will work for you as it provides all of the basics necessary to understand double entry bookkeeping. I had accounting in college many years ago but never really understood bookkeeping. This text walks you through the subject from the ground up. Presented in short lessons with lots of practice exercises it is practical, and well presented. The book has been updated (1999) but it was clearly originally written long ago (the original copyright is 1983) so be prepared to feel as though you are in the 70's as you do the exercises. There are several errors (which begin appearing in Chapter 10) where the answer key does not match even the original data provided in the problem but if you know this (another reviewer had mentioned this when I was researching this book and that was very helpful to know ahead of time) then even their mistakes can be used to keep you on your toes and enhance your learning by trying to discover where the errors are! (The errors aren't so gross that it interfered with my understanding of the material.)

Even though you may never actually do bookkeeping using hand written entries and journals and ledgers as the exercises in the book ask you to do, the understanding of how this all works can help with knowing what is going on behind the scenes in Quickbooks or other accounting software. My only caveat may be that if you don't have any business experience whatsoever, it might not be substantial enough. I would still get this book and then supplement it with other general business books. A great companion whose first 5 chapters mesh well with this book and which then takes you beyond bookkeeping into accounting is The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Accounting Course, Third Edition. The focus of Bookkeeping The Easy Way is small business and the McGraw-Hill book is corporate focused.