Comments on: Small Biz 101: Know your balance sheet

by: Carol

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 00:36:44 +0000

Have to agree with Mike.

by: Mike Poskitt

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:09:38 +0000

Probably a one-off visit, but I think Quickbooks is really easy to use for a non-accountant and easily exports to Excel for reports writing (I guess only good if you’re happy with Excel!). I reckon it knocks the spots off Sage (which I really don’t like!).

by: Ryan Carson

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 13:39:39 +0000

The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting

Thanks for the tip Adonis. I’ll check that one out.

by: Adonis Lamar

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 06:24:26 +0000

As a finance student, I completely agree with Allen. I haven’t had the opportunity to read the titles mentioned in the other comments, but I would strongly suggest that one read “The Portable MBA in Finance and Accounting.” It explains the significance of financial statements and their relationships to one another and the business as a whole. I have found it to be an excellent reference.

by: Ryan Carson

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 00:37:10 +0000

Thanks Allen - I heartily agree!

by: Allen

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:56:52 +0000

Ryan - as a former public accountant, I can share with you that the balance sheet(BS) is not the only measure of a company’s worth. In fact, usually the Income Statement(IS) and Statement of Cash Flows are much more important.

Quickbooks is a good tool for a small business (I am thinking you might be bigger than QB can handle) but as a company grows, using a real accountant can always be good. Especially for tax time which I hear is even worse in the UK.

The balance sheet shows you the balance of assets and liabilities you have accumulated for the specific period of time.

But as you note, the combo of the BS and IS is the real key.

Also - it is critical that one understands how a balance sheet works. As I worked with clients in my former life, I know that many times they are completely confused as to why an account like cash would be debited to increase value and not credited to increase value.

by: Greg

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:04:42 +0000

I’ve been using Quickbooks for a small RE biz and I’ve found that it is no good at keeping track of the ACTUAL value of assets as it is too focused on keeping track of the BOOK value of the assets.

In an asset based buisness like RE, the distortion is very significant.

by: Ryan Carson

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:12:30 +0000

I just read a book I bought from Amazon called “Finance for Non-financial Managers in a Week”

Great suggestion. That’s a good book. Another quality book is Analysing Companies

by: Ryan Carson

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:10:44 +0000

Thanks Jon :)

by: Peter Cooper

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:42:46 +0000

I just read a book I bought from Amazon called “Finance for Non-financial Managers in a Week” which went into how to make and read balance sheets, P&L statements, and all sorts of other things. It’s really short and a quick, easy read.. so I’d recommend it to anyone else who wants to get up to speed with these things (or who just needs a refresher).