| The
Bluffer's Guide to Accountancy |
| By
Liz Fisher and John Courtis |
| |
| Extracts
from the book | |
| |
| Audits |
| The
bread and butter of the accountancy profession is the statutory audit. Audits
are like funerals. They are needed but nobody actually wants them, except the
accountants and the undertakers. |
| |
| Deep
depression |
| One
of the main reasons why accountants in commerce and industry go into a deep depression
just before and just after the end of the financial year is that this is the time
when the chickens come home to roost and it becomes apparent even to the meanest
intellect that there is a yawning gulf between the real figures (the books of
account, which lead via the financial accounts to the annual statutory report)
and the figures on which management has been relying for the past 11 months, so
that the generally favourable impression these have created is totally erroneous. |
| |
| Creative
accounting |
| You
are allowed to be ambivalent about creative accounting, indeed this is the preferred
posture. Being wholly in favour of it would imply an eagerness to walk the tightrope,
or the plank. |
| |
| Checks
and balances |
| Remember
that the high point of accountancy is double-entry book-keeping, whose unique
merit is that the debits are balanced by credits in other accounts; not the same
ones, or the limited intellectual challenge would have vanished altogether, unless
of course the second half of the transaction is cunningly disguised as something
else. |
| |
| Actuals |
| The
ugly truth is that the actuals always prove the budgets wrong. (Always call the
actual results 'the actuals'.) The massive authority generated by the sophisticated
compilation process is eroded as soon as the first few months of the year have
passed and flaws are visible. |
| |
| Reviews |
|
| |
| The
Bluffer's Guide to Accountancy is a rattling good read, full of useful tips,
and a snip at the price. |
| Accountancy
Age |
| |
| An
entertaining, instructive introduction to the subject. |
| Edinburgh
Evening News |
| |
| Table
of Contents | |
| Introduction
The Fundamentals
Book-keeping
Financial Accounts
Cost Accounting
The Balance
Sheet
The Assets
The Liabilities
The Profit and Loss Account The
Fancy Bits
Management Accounting
Integrated Accounts
Budgets
Creative Accounting
Social Accounting Accountants
Members in Practice
Accountancy Services
Clients
Jobs in Practice
Jobs in Commerce
Affiliations
Accountants' Skills Background
|
| |
Fortune
Telling
