| Full of charts, diagrams, simple directions and examples, to help you keep track of where your money is going.
Recommended reading for many state contractor's exams.
From the Back Cover:
Are you a builder, not an accountant? Can you manage your crews better than your accounts receivable? Is your time better spent at the jobsite than at a desk piled with accounting ledgers? If so, then this book is for you. It's a comprehensive, completely revised and updated guide to construction accounting. It tells, step-by-step, and in plain English, how to choose, set up and maintain an appropriate, efficient, and practical bookkeeping system for your construction business. This book will prove invaluable for:
- Students studying for contractor's license exams
- Teachers of contractor's license preparation courses
- Self-employed builders and construction contractors
- Developers
You won't find incomprehensible economics/accounting theory here. Theory is little help when it's month end and the books don't balance. This book delivers real help that you can use right now. You get straightforward, practical information and advice on how to:
- Build a customized accounting system from the ground up
-
- Set up an easy-to-use depreciation system that complies with IRS rules
- Keep records of job costs, do trend analysis and budgeting
- Handle sales and accounts receivable
- Set bad debt procedures
- Manage payroll, materials and inventory
- Prepare financial statements—when, how, which and why
- Maintain ledgers and balance sheets
- Close the books
For students and teachers, or builders who want to check their understanding as they go along, this new edition includes a self-test section at the end of each chapter. Test yourself, then check the answers in the back of the book to see how you scored.
CD-ROM Included
- All of the chapter study questions - over 400 of them - in interactive self-test software that makes studying almost fun.
- Each answer is explained, and includes the page number in the book where you can review the subject in detail.
- Use Study Mode to get an immediate response on each answer, and an explanation.
- Use Exam Mode to see how you score.
Table of Contents:
Section One—Sales and Accounts Receivable: 1. Why Keep Records? 2. Accounting Methods; 3. Cash and Charge Sales; 4. Managing Receivables; 5. Bad Debt Procedures; 6. Sales Records and Cash Budgeting; 7. Sales Planning; 8. Planning for Profits
Section Two—Costs and Expenses: 9. Check Writing and Recording;
10. Accounting for Materials; 11. Payroll Accounting; 12. Overhead Expenses; 13. Equipment Records; 14. Cash Budgeting; 15. Cost and Expense Records; 16. Accounting for Costs and Expenses; 17. Petty Cash Funds; 18. Balancing the Checking Account; 19. Accounting for Estimates
Section Three—Financial Statements: 20. Recording Before the Event; 21. Financial Statements; 22. Using Financial Information; 23. Financial Ratios; 24. Putting Together a Statement; 25. Comparative Period Statement; 26. Restatements by Accounting Methods; 27. Statements by Job; 28. Statements for Loan Applications; Appendix; Index
About the Author:
Michael C. Thomsett has been a consultant for numerous construction and engineering firms over the last 20 years, specializing in introducing practical business systems for builders and contractors. He is the author of 48 books on business and finance, and more than 500 articles in national trade and business magazines.
His other books for builders are Builders Office Manual, Bookkeeping for Builders, Contractor's Year-Round Tax Guide and Contractor's Growth and Profit Guide. |
