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Learn accounting for free

accountingcoach.com

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Re: Learn accounting for free

#41

Post by antman »

tomnipotent wrote: post #13
rahimnathwani wrote: post #9

Background: I'm a qualified accountant, and have taught courses on accounting and finance. My thoughts on OP: I read through the first two parts of the first course on this site: - Part 1 Introduction to Accounting Basics, A Story for Relating to Accounting Basics - Part 2 Income Statement Based on what I read, I could not recommend this. You could get to the end of the 'income statement' part, without encountering a…

I do not believe that either GAAP or IFRS has a standard definition for "profit". Even GAAP under 703(a) refers to it as net income (and several other related numbers like gross profit).

Would reading IFRS suffice? Is there a suggested book?

Re: Learn accounting for free

#42

Post by cheradenine_uk »

xbryanx wrote: post #36
cheradenine_uk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

UK based, so YMMV. Moved from self-employed for the odd side gig, to UK LTD co, to VAT registered UK LTD co. The "business services mafia" will like to frighten you into believing you have to drop hundreds of £ on their services - plus £120/yr for an accounts package, more for payroll, business banking, etc. Because your mind is too tiny to comprehend the ways of the priests. e.g: Don't ever ask a question in a busin…

This sounds like every interaction I've had asking a question in a plumbing/electrician forum. Oh, if you're asking that question your definitely going to poison your entire house with sewer gas and/or burn the place down with that wiring.

It's _exactly_ like that - and I've asked a fair few questions on DIY forums and the answer is, invariably, "you should hire someone to do that".

It's even worse in the UK if you mention gas. If you so much as mention a boiler you'll be pounced on by the cartel inventing their own legislation.

Re: Learn accounting for free

#43

Post by dragonwriter »

xbryanx wrote: post #34
antaviana wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, borrowing money does not change Equity, because it increases Assets (more money in the bank) and Liabilities (more debt) by the same amount so Equity stays the same.

Where are you borrowing this money without any interest? "Money you borrow" and "cost to borrow that money" are rarely the same value.

Normal interest that will be charged if the debt is not paid off is initially neither an asset or liability, it is an expense as it is charged.

Re: Learn accounting for free

#44

Post by rchaud »

zerop wrote: post #24

Pardon my ignorance if any, but I find financials and accounting as quite boring things. Most problems in these are about tracing numbers, reconciliation and mismatches. What thril one can face in these areas? Any examples of challenges you see ?

> What thril one can face in these areas? Any examples of challenges you see ?

Mission Briefing:

Your CEO has blurted out a revenue growth estimate for H2 2022 on an investor conference call, without prior vetting from the CFO.

Mission Objective:

Put forward a plan for modifying revenue recognition rules on sales so that the CEO's estimate can be met. Your plan must be compliant with GAAP principles and cannot involve backdating or forward-dating revenue by adjusting the refund eligibility dates.

Re: Learn accounting for free

#45

Post by riccardomc »

antaviana wrote: post #33
rahimnathwani wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're a mathy person, you might find this brief explanation is enough to get going. Where I say 'you', I mean 'your company', not you personally. * Assets: things you own (e.g. tractor, money in bank, money owed by customers) * Liabilities: things you owe (e.g. unpaid supplier bills, loan owed to bank) * Assets and liabilities are both measured in a single currency (e.g. $). * Equity (aka 'book value'): A measure…

AFAIK, borrowing money does not change Equity, because it increases Assets (more money in the bank) and Liabilities (more debt) by the same amount so Equity stays the same.

This is true in a perfect market, based on Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure.

In reality, increasing debt to a certain point also increases risk, which in turn increases return on equity.

Re: Learn accounting for free

#46

Post by pkrotich »

marton_s wrote: post #3

I'm a software engineer who moved into freelance consulting a few years ago (I do back-ends and front-ends for mobile and web, nothing finance specific other than occasional credit card payment integrations). It's been a roller-coaster in many regards and one of the highlights is having learned a lot about bookkeeping, taxes, financial planning and everything that comes with running a small business in general. (Aspe…

It's absolutely your best interest to learn at least the basics as business owner. I did so myself - I still do QuickBooks, but I have a cautionary tale.

Learning account is great - it helps you to understand P&L and BS etc - but what you really need is managerial accounting knowledge. I made a mistake of thinking bookkeeping was accounting and ended up not doing good tax planning etc - let's just say I'm still paying for it. Painful lesson!

I would highly recommend still keeping a CPA around - make sure they're truly into Managerial Accounting.

Re: Learn accounting for free

#47

Post by mcguire »

riccardomc wrote: post #45
antaviana wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK, borrowing money does not change Equity, because it increases Assets (more money in the bank) and Liabilities (more debt) by the same amount so Equity stays the same.

This is true in a perfect market, based on Modigliani-Miller theory of capital structure. In reality, increasing debt to a certain point also increases risk, which in turn increases return on equity.

* should increase return on equity. :-)

Re: Learn accounting for free

#48

Post by teh_klev »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #9

Background: I'm a qualified accountant, and have taught courses on accounting and finance. My thoughts on OP: I read through the first two parts of the first course on this site: - Part 1 Introduction to Accounting Basics, A Story for Relating to Accounting Basics - Part 2 Income Statement Based on what I read, I could not recommend this. You could get to the end of the 'income statement' part, without encountering a…

> Frank Wood's book "Business Accounting 1"

Pretty sure that was the book I grudged most having to pay for when I was at college in 1986. I truly despised accounting ;)

Three years later and I end up writing code to extend dbFlex and supporting Pegasus accounting software, go figure :)

Re: Learn accounting for free

#49

Post by boppo1 »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #9

Background: I'm a qualified accountant, and have taught courses on accounting and finance. My thoughts on OP: I read through the first two parts of the first course on this site: - Part 1 Introduction to Accounting Basics, A Story for Relating to Accounting Basics - Part 2 Income Statement Based on what I read, I could not recommend this. You could get to the end of the 'income statement' part, without encountering a…

Any advice for intermediate or advanced accounting? I studied finance in school, so I'm confident it the broad-strokes basics, but getting into deeper stuff is still intimidating.
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