It is a known fact that the easiest way to learn anything is through practice. Accounting is a very important procedure for businesses whether it is a big business or a small business. Businesses that are big may require more than one employee to record the massive financial information and settlements of the businesses. For small businesses, they do not require many employees. A bookkeeper is enough or even the owner of the business is able to manage and record their own financial transactions. Therefore, having this accounting skill is important. This article will review ways in which one can learn accounting on their own.The first step one should make is being informed on the basic concepts of accounting and learning about the 10-Ks.
These Basics of Accounting Include
- Book keeping. In business, there have to be transactions. These transactions have to be recorded in a system. This can lead to the creation of several accounts. Therefore, one also has to be conversant with dual entry.
- Creating spreadsheets. This helps accountants to keep records of numbers in graphs and charts. They can also do their calculations using the spreadsheet.
- Debiting and Crediting. If there is dual entry, debiting and crediting has to be done.
- Ledgers, financial statements, balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. All these are some of the important concepts in accounting. One has to learn how to create them as well as how to maintain them.
The concepts above are commonly applied in accounting. One can learn them by;
1. Reading Accounting Books
Accounting books can be found in the library, in the book stores and even online in sites like Amazon, eBooks, and Text Book Centre.
Some of the best books to learn accounting with are;
- Intermediate Accounting written by Kieso, Weygandt, and Warfield. This book teaches one to leverage programs of accounting that are used each and every day in accounting like GLS and Excel.
- Principles of Accounting written by Needles, Powers and Susan are also a great book to use. It uses illustrations that are applied in real situations to teach the accounting principles and this helps a learner to think censoriously. A learner is able to know how some of the decisions made in businesses lead to the different financial statements that these businesses record.
- Financial & Managerial Accounting, The Basis For Business Decisions written by Jan Williams, and Mark Bettner is also a great accounting book. It expounds on the basics of accounting. It also covers in length accounting standards like Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
- It is also important to be aware of the common mistakes and errors that are made in accounting. One can get this information from these two books; Financial Fine Print written by Michelle Leder, and Financial Shenanigans written by Howard Schilit.
2. Registering for Online Accounting Courses
One can also opt to register for accounting courses and be taught accounting by skilled professionals. Learning accounting from online classes saves one’s time and also extra costs.
3. Use of Softwares
One can also use accounting software to learn accounting on their own. They only need to download a software, sign up for it and then use it with any company of their choice. Some of the best softwares include QuickBooks, Zoho Books, Accounting By Wave, and Dynamics. Learning accounting using software is faster than reading accounting books.
In conclusion, the options discussed above are some of the methods that one can use to learn accounting on their own at the comfort of their homes. It saves one’s time and also expenses. The more one practices accounting, the more they perfect their accounting skills.
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