Mastering Bookkeeping for Business Success

Have you ever wondered how businesses keep track of their financial transactions? How do they ensure that every penny is accounted for? As a business owner or someone interested in running a business, understanding bookkeeping is crucial. In this blog post, I will guide you through some of the best bookkeeping courses available online. By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear understanding of bookkeeping and the tools you need to manage your business finances effectively. Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

1. Accounting Foundations
2. Introduction to Bookkeeping for Small Business Owners
3. QuickBooks Online: Tips and Tricks
4. Excel for Accountants
5. Advanced Bookkeeping Techniques
6. Financial Record Keeping

Accounting Foundations

Overview: This course helps you learn the basics of financial accounting. You’ll discover how to prepare, read, and analyze financial statements. 

Chapters Overview:

• Accounting Basics: Accounting vs. bookkeeping, The accounting equation
• The Financial Statement: The financial statement, The balance sheet, The income statement, The statement of cash flows
• The Mechanics of Accounting: How financial statements are made, Debits and credits, Journal entries, Making the financial statements
• Current Issues in Financial Accounting: Current financial accounting issues, Revenue recognition, Long-term assets including impairment, Working with leases, Earnings per share, Investment securities and derivatives, Deferring taxes, Inventory and COGS
• Financial Statement Analysis: Using financial statements, Common size statements, DuPont framework, Debt ratio, Operating ratio, Price-earnings (P/E) ratio

Introduction to Bookkeeping for Small Business Owners

Overview: This course provides an introduction to the four basic types of accounting—bookkeeping and financial, managerial, and tax accounting—and explains the links between accounting, decision-making, business performance, and financial health. 

Chapters Overview:

• What Is Accounting?: The four flavors of accounting, Bookkeeping, Financial accounting, Managerial accounting, Income taxes
• Financial Accounting: Balance Sheet: Who uses financial statements?, The accounting equation, Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Balance sheet example: Walmart assets, Balance sheet example: Walmart liabilities and equity, Limitations of the balance sheet
• Financial Accounting: Income Statement and Cash Flow: The balance sheet and the income statement, Overview of the income statement, Earnings per share, Income statement example: Walmart revenues, Income statement example: Walmart expenses, Overview of the cash flow statement, Cash flow example, Summary of financial reporting
• Managerial Accounting: DuPont and managerial accounting, A closer look at managerial accounting, Product costing: Materials and labor, Product costing: Overhead, Break-even analysis: Computations, Break-even analysis: Interpretation and use, Budgets: Realistic benchmarks, Budgets: Solving problems in advance, Performance evaluation example: Drilling contest, Performance evaluation example: Optometrist, Performance evaluation example: Stice boys
• Income Taxes: The history of income taxes, Tax brackets, Average and marginal tax rates, Tax deductions and credits, Capital gains vs. ordinary income, Income tax summary

QuickBooks Online: Tips and Tricks

Overview: This course provides tips and techniques for recording tricky income, expense, and banking transactions in QuickBooks. 

Chapters Overview:

• Open Multiple Browser Windows: Opening multiple windows is a huge timesaver as it allows you to flip back and forth between screens.
• Connect Your Bank & Credit Card Accounts: Online banking, also known as bank feeds, is one of QuickBooks Online’s most helpful and time-saving features.
• Memorize These Handy Keyboard Shortcuts: Keyboard shortcuts help save you time and allow you to keep your hands on the keyboard as you enter information.

Excel for Accountants

Overview: This course helps you become a better accountant with the power of Microsoft Excel. Learn how to use it for general ledger entry, forecasting, business valuation, interacting with QuickBooks, and more. 

Chapters Overview:

• Major Tasks in the Accounting Industry: Accounting tasks and career roles, Basics of accounting industry, Cash flow budgeting in Excel, P&L in Excel
• QuickBooks, Excel, and Small Business Record-Keeping: Small business accounting overview, Transactions in QuickBooks and Excel, Quarterly profit and loss tracking in Excel, QuickBooks and ledger records, Taxes and Excel record-keeping, Tracking business performance in Excel, Pivot tables for accountants, Import data from Excel to QuickBooks
• The General Ledger, Excel, and Corporate Record-Keeping: General ledger overview, Recording transactions in a GL, GL strings, Corporate financial statements in Excel, Financial statement links in Excel, Key corporate accounting ratios, International accounting standards vs. the US, XBRL, Edgar, and corporate financial reporting
• Business Valuation in Excel: Historical statements to forward projections, Terminal values in Excel, Constructing a business valuation using cash flow analysis

Advanced Bookkeeping Techniques

Overview: This course takes your bookkeeping skills to the next level with these accounting-based strategies for managing financial entries. 

Chapters Overview:

• Review of Debits and Credits: Two things to remember for debits and credits, Journal entries: Receiving financing from owners and lenders, Journal entries: Buying assets and repaying loans, Journal entries: Recording revenues and expenses
• Adjusting Entries: Prepaid Expenses and Unearned Revenue: Accrual accounting: Net income vs. cash flow, Fix the balance sheet, then fix the income statement, Recording the paying for and then use of prepaid expenses, Recording the receipt of and earning of unearned revenue
• Adjusting Entries: Unrecorded Liabilities, Unrecorded Assets, and End-of-Period Estimates: The matching principle, Recording expenses with liabilities that slowly build up, Recording revenue with assets that slowly build up, End-of-period estimates such as depreciation and bad debts
• Closing Entries: What are retained earnings?, The difference between a real and a nominal account, Updating retained earnings and resetting nominal accounts, Practice with the debits and credits of closing entries
• Posting, Trial Balance, and Financial Statements: The important raw data in the trial balance, Posting the journal entries to the ledger accounts, Creating a trial balance, Using a trial balance to prepare a balance sheet

Financial Record Keeping

Overview: This course provides an overview of financial record keeping. Learn how to create forecasts and a quantitative business plan, capture rudimentary business data such as sales and expenses, understand income tax reporting, and prepare detailed reports to help you attract financing from banks and other investors. 

Chapters Overview:

• Create a Qualitative Business Plan: What assets do you need and where can you get the money to buy them?, Sales forecasting, Forecasting expenses, Cash flow problems kill companies, The complete set of forecasted financial statements
• Capture Basic Business Data: Wasatch Medical Center and paper records, A simple spreadsheet, Basic accounting software, Payroll recordkeeping
• Small Business Income Taxes: The only financial data in a small-town bookstore, Business income tax report: U.S. Schedule C, The entity concept: Separating personal from business expenses
• Prepare Financial Reports to Be Shown to Outsiders: How can you get strangers to provide you with financing?, Financial reports for banks, potential investors, and partners, Earnings management and user skepticism, Auditors
• Reports and Records Needed to Sell a Business: Valuing a family-owned business, The benefits of internal controls, Valuation using the price-earnings multiple, Valuation using the price-to-book multiple, Valuation using the price-to-sales multiple, Establishing the credibility of income forecasts

Bookkeeping is a vital skill for any business owner. By understanding the basics and applying advanced techniques, you can ensure your business’s financial health. These courses provide a comprehensive guide to bookkeeping, from understanding financial statements to managing complex financial entries. So, why wait? Start learning today and take your business to new heights!