(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best accounting books

This is probably more than what you are looking for, but I’ll go ahead and pass on what I have been using. I was already thinking about putting together a less expensive, non-Becker CPA exam strategy for r/accounting once I pass all the exams; so this will be a good warm up.
I haven’t taken all of the exams yet (I have passed the ones I have taken), but I can tell you the resources that have seemed to help the most far. I am pretty cheap, so I have tried to obtain my materials as inexpensively as possible (which is odd because my employer is paying for everything upfront).

For all of the exams I have purchased the Wiley CPA exam prep books; If you are lucky you might be able to find them at your local library.

I also use the Gleim multiple choice questions, and simulations. Gleim questions are in my experience more challenging than the real test questions, which make the actual exams seem not so bad (which is a great confidence booster). I try to answer 1500-2000 MC questions in the last couple of weeks leading up to the exam. I went through the Gleim regulation simulation questions once before the exam, and they really helped me a lot.

For BEC I pretty much relied on tons of Gleim MC questions, and the Wiley materials. I also used my managerial accounting textbook for reviewing cost accounting.

Additional materials I used for REG were my undergrad Business Law textbook, and the Federal Taxation book I mentioned in my last post.

For FAR (the test I am preparing for now), it had been so long since I took any financial accounting courses, I felt I needed a more fundamental review. I have been working through Schaums Outline of Intermediate Accounting I, Second Edition and Schaums Outline of Intermediate Accounting II, Second Edition. I have also been reading Governmental Accounting Made Easy, which has been helping with governmental accounting concepts (I never covered this in school). I am hoping that Wiley and Gleim materials will be sufficient for IFRS.

I’ll have to get back to you on AUD in a few months, but I am assuming that it will probably be a Gleim, Wiley, and old text book combo.

I hope that this helps. It has worked pretty well for me, but everybody learns a little different. Good luck!

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty details of accounting and don't mind reading textbooks, a textbook for an intermediate accounting class would be good. Not sure how in depth your other book went, but if it was just an intro book it' won't help you really understand what goes into financial statements very well.

This is the textbook I had for my intermediate class and I thought it was pretty good, I used it for two classes and found it pretty helpful. Intermediate covers the core of financial statement transactions (bonds, leases, pensions, receivables, revenue recognition, deferred taxes, etc.).

Intermediate Accounting

An advanced accounting book will go over consolidations, foreign currency transactions, government/not for profit, and some other various things. This is the textbook I had and I thought it was pretty good at explaining things.

Advanced Accounting

Hope that helps!

Definitely I recommend going to a tax pro. There are plenty of online articles on "how to choose a tax professional."

One option available to you is that you can do a Qualified Joint Venture. Basically, this means you do a Schedule C, one for each of you, and you just split the revenues and expenses.

Definitely get educated Tax Mama has a good book for the self-employed (I haven't read it but she is a trusted source of information). She also has a website that describes taxation in a more plain language.

Get into good bookkeeping and tax compliance habits now. Self-employed individuals tend to shoot themselves in the foot when they don't bother getting educated on taxes. It's boring, but it can make a huge difference on your profitability.

The fact that you are on here asking questions is a very good sign. Good luck on your business, I'm sure you will do great!

Ok, well a lot of Introductory Accounting books are really more about bookkeeping than anything else. I'd avoid those. If you want to get a head start, the Phillips and Libby one is good. I teach it in my Intro Accounting class. This is an older edition, but you can get a used version for $3.00 on Amazon so that's a plus. Everything builds on the concepts in this book. To succeed in Accounting, you have to master debits/credits and journal entries. There are lots of great YouTube videos on Accounting concepts too so if there's something in the book that's not making sense, see if you can find a good video on the topic.

Here's a link to purchase the Phillips and Libby book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0078025370/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1465504702&sr=8-1&keywords=fundamentals+of+financial+accounting+book+libby

Also, I haven't read this book, but it sounds like it covers all the basics well.

https://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Made-Simple-Explained-Pages/dp/0981454224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465504552&sr=8-1&keywords=intro+accounting+book

Best of luck!

>It's dishonest not to separate them into two categories, for the reasons I described.

I thought we were trying to have a discussion here. You outlined your stance, and now I outlined mine. Could we please talk about this rationally without you calling me dishonest in the very first sentence? Please?

You didn't address anything I said there, you just handwaved it away with a personal accusation. If you feel I am wrong, then explain why we should continue to say there's a distinction there when plenty of private industries are treated as quasi-governmental bodies.

>I thought they were public workers who weren't legally allowed to strike?

Airline workers? Nope. This is what I'm talking about. Throughout the history of the US, private labor disputes have been broken up by the government using legal means - and the police, if needed - to force these supposedly "private" workers to go back to work. This goes back to at least the mid-19th century, when the standard US response to a strike was to send in goons to beat up the protesters. It wasn't even until Teddy Roosevelt that the idea of (gasp) talking with the workers became an accepted idea.

So if we haven't respected that public\private boundary for the last 150+ years, why should we start acting like it matters now?

>How about the future pension obligations in Illinois and other states? Do you have any idea how high taxes would have to be raised to pay for them?

Well, then you NEGOTIATE over that. You talk to the workers. You talk to the people. In short, you decide to treat the people in your country as though they are intelligent enough to understand a good argument, and to come to a compromise that works out well for as many people as possible. The example of Semco shows that this sort of approach can absolutely work.

There have been plenty of cases in labor history of employers and employees talking these things out and coming to mutually-beneficial agreements, even ones that involved the union accepting pay cuts. I just see no evidence that heavy-handed tactics like you're advocating are required in any but the most unusual of circumstances.

As I see it, the burden here is not on me to explain why freedom is the best solution to the problem, but rather on YOU to explain why there is no other choice but to strip workers of their liberties. Isn't that how things are supposed to work in a free society? Taking away people's right to NOT work is just as bad as taking away their right to be productive.

At least as I see it. Feel free to disagree.

>Not sure about the public sector.

You mean, aside from the bullshit going on in Wisconsin at this very moment? I mean, this is just not a valid denial. We are IN THE MIDDLE of a massive governmental labor dispute right now. But, if you want more, for example, there have been at least three major police strikes in US history. And even more when you look at groups like firefighters.

And shall we even talk about teachers? They're public employees too, you know... and some of the most overworked, least-respected workers in the country, even today. And there've been too many teacher's strikes over the years, over those exact issues, to even be able to easily list. Here's just one, which started when a governor deliberately vetoed an agreed-on tax increase which would have increased funding for schools.

>Alternatively, we could implement strong labor laws that protect everyone, not just union members.

All right, like what? I'm perfectly happy talking about alternatives.

And also, if you didn't see the update I made to my post, go read about Semco and its leader. That might make you think differently about how employer-employee relations have to work. It certainly did for me, when I read his book a few years ago.

This sort of antagonism just isn't necessary. It's a relic of Victorian England, fundamentally, just one that's so well-entrenched that we haven't gotten rid of it. But there are better ways, and they don't involve stripping liberty away from your workers.

Tax Savings:

I’m no expert here, but I do most of the bookkeeping for the rentals. The way I view it from the layman’s perspective is that the rentals are taxed like a business, so income less expenses = taxable income. Expenses includes maintenance, repairs, mortgage interest, insurance, property taxes, office supplies, etc. Does NOT include the principal of the mortgage payments because that is addressed with depreciation.

This is a lot like any other small business, so I don’t view it as extra sweet, just reasonable that you’d pay taxes on net income, not gross income.

Depreciation is a bit unique, if it works like I think it does. Effectively deferred tax payments because you are depreciating the building cost (not counting land) over 27.5 years but you are effectively paying that back when (if) you sell the property. Helps with cash flow each year, but not a freebie really.

I’d recommend this book if you want to go down the rabbit hole of rental taxes more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1413325688/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_JzgyCb5PV9WZH

I will add from our own experience, rentals immediately pushed us from doing our own taxes to hiring a CPA because they got much more complicated. Some % of that CPA fee is also added as a rental expense.

For about $400, you can buy the four Wiley CPAexcel Study Guides ($51-55 each) at 500-1250 pages each, and NINJA multiple choice questions ($47 per section for 3 months of access). Then, you can access the highly-regarded Roger lectures on YouTube and lectures by others such as Miles for free. I think Becker offers their lectures free on YouTube as well but they're a little dated (3 years old).

For more MCQ, McGraw Hill has 4 books with 500 questions each, and will be updating and combining them into one book of 2000 questions for $21 in October.

And several other providers offer electronic MCQ and simulation test banks a la carte if you want an alternative to NINJA (not necessary IMO). Yaeger for $350, Wiley CPAexcel for $575, or Gleim for $996. Look around for discount codes on these. But NINJA is well-regarded, has plenty of questions, and is the best value if you're OK with three months access per section.

Many people have succeeded with just the books, NINJA, and optionally YouTube lectures, and this is what I plan to do to study.

Edit: What's nice about the Wiley books plus NINJA is you can dip your toes in the water by buying just one section for $100 total and seeing if that's enough for you. Small risk for a potential big savings.

2018 graduate here. Here's what got me through.

• Move out of the dorms. My rent was $1000/month when I was living on Mission Hill with two roommates. You can go a fair bit lower if you're willing to compromise on roommates or location.
  
• Ditch the meal plan and learn to cook. It's a great skill to have and you'll be eating tastier, healthier food while also saving money. An Instant Pot or a Crock Pot is a fantastic investment for meal prep.
  
• Use your savings from co-op to cover living expenses. If you can, get your co-ops extended. Get a part-time job so you have spending money. (Keep in mind that the amount of money you'll make on co-op varies wildly depending on your major.)
  
• Start budgeting and get your personal finances together. Mint makes it very easy to pull together all of your information and see what you're spending. I also found this book to be very helpful.
  
  Going more into my own experience: I didn't have a meal plan after freshman year, and I moved off-campus after sophomore year. I only had to take one semester of summer classes, so for my other summers, I convinced my co-op employers to keep me through August (I was on the January-June cycle). I often worked as a TA when I was taking classes, and there was one semester where I did part-time work for a co-op employer.
  
  I think that the viability/payoff of staying at Northeastern really depends on your major. Ideally, your co-op money will help you get through school and the experience/networking will help you quickly get employed after graduating. If the prospects don't look good, then I think it makes more sense to transfer instead of staying and taking on tons of debt.

Virtually all of the skills are transferable to different industries (or within industries -- "tech" is pretty broad but I don't want to out myself being more specific.) The key skills are what I would describe as forensic accounting and microeconomics. I learned on the job so I don't have any books to recommend, but I did notice Amazon has quite a selection including this one, lol.

Note that forensic accounting isn't just for fraud, it can be very valuable for performing competitive analysis (which is part of what I do.) I think it's a great area for INTJs because it's detail oriented and requires the ability to understand complex systems, and very few people are mentally able to do those two tasks concurrently. Since it involves finance and usually large amounts of money, and there's a limited supply of skilled labor -- as you can imagine it can be lucrative.

If this question isn't rhetorical...

http://www.amazon.com/Unaccountable-Accounting-Games-Accountants-Play/dp/0060104716.

Old book, but one that sums up the basics of accounting games (not specific to movie business).

Essentially, there are direct costs to a movie that are easily attributable to that film...for instance the actors salary. But there are other overhead type costs that could be attributable to that film ( or any other film)....the studio's corporate office costs, or general film development costs, or executive bonuses. It is up to the studio to determine which of these type costs, and to what degree are attributable to any particular film. After all, who would know better where what costs go where than the business (or the businesses accounting firm) itself? Of course, this leads to the potential for manipulation for the studios advantage...which they seem to have no issues with.

Because of this variability in accounting, anyone who takes a percentage of a project like this - movie, book, etc... - would be best served by taking a smaller percentage of the project's gross, rather than a larger percentage of the project's net. Here is an example of why: "Winston Groom was paid $350,000 for the screenplay rights to his novel Forrest Gump and was contracted for a 3 percent share of the film's net profits. However, Paramount and the film's producers did not pay him, using Hollywood accounting to posit that the blockbuster film lost money. Tom Hanks, by contrast, contracted for the film's gross receipts instead of a salary, and he and director Zemeckis each received $40 million." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Gump)

Cascio & Boudreau is a really good starter book if you want to start developing an analytical perspective. It's not an especially detailed/technical approach, but it's a good "mindset" read.

For programming, I'd look at Data Camp online courses. You can build up introductory skill in R and Python pretty easily with self-guided learning. Richard Landers also has some really great course materials publicly available that build on Data Camp modules:
http://neoacademic.com/2018/01/03/complete-course-social-scientists-data-science-using-r/

One of the little talked about reasons that our top Canadians can pay so little in taxes is that they can move their income offshore without a lot of trouble. Even a middle class earner can do it if you're motivated to avoid paying taxes.

Why bother? Because there are many countries in the world where you are not required to pay ANY income tax. Compare that to here in Canada where we shell out more than half our income in taxes and suddenly the idea of keeping almost everything you earn has pretty strong appeal.

The gist of tax havens is that you can create a tiny shell company and transfer all your wealth to that company. But the company is merely some lawyers who do whatever you tell them to do, so you still control 100% of your money while looking like it's in the hands of some locals in a tax free country. It's dirty, but it's NOT illegal. Immoral maybe, but not illegal.

If you want to know the fascinating details, check out the book My Blue Haven by Alex Doulis. It's eye-opening and pisses you off at the same time as you realize that rich Canadians have been doing this for years, leaving us little guys holding the bag.

http://www.amazon.ca/My-Blue-Haven-Alex-Doulis/dp/1550227726

Nearly seven years ago I used PassKey EA Review Complete as my sole paid exam prep and I passed all three parts on the first try.

It's not cheap but it's totally worth it. I make sure to buy the new edition within a few months of it coming out in March and then resold my copy on eBay towards the end of the year and still got about 2/3s of its value back. Think of it as a $50 book rental that could add $50k/yr to your income.

If you want a free supplement I used Fast Forward Academy's online test questions. I'm not sure if they still offer it but it was a very good resource back in my day.

Basic accounting is a system that uses two sets of addition (every transaction adds an amount to two accounts) that provide redundancy (errors are easier to track since the amounts should balance after each step) and don't require subtraction (the entire basic field entry only requires knowledge of addition). The whole process is designed to make it easier for business decision makers to review the state of a business' operations, value, and help to identify parts of the business that perform well compared with parts that aren't performing, as well.

If you want a short reference to each subject covered in an introductory course, perhaps something like this would be better.

FYI of you're starting out, and depending on your situation, you may not need a corporate trustee. An individual can be the trustee. This should save you a few hundred and you don't need to submit a tax return for the company. There's a great book on this that I would recommend. Family Trusts: A Plain English Guide for Australian Families 5E https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/0730310337/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Mj0GDb4T373SG

This book is also pretty good:

http://www.amazon.com/South-Western-Federal-Taxation-2016-Comprehensive/dp/1305395115

If you want to just have an overview I would go for something on Federal Taxation.

Another thing you might do is look online for some powerpoints from various colleges that cover Federal Taxation. There are lectures on youtube as well. I have been studying for the CPA and if I got stumped on something I would just find a youtube lecture.

Also, reading case law is really interesting too. Just depends on what you are interested in. I found case law on Individual Issues really interesting. I took that class because it was not really a focus of my master's program - corporate is more heavily taught than individual. The class I took was taught with court cases.

My advice

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https://www.amazon.com/Ledger-Accounting-Notebook-General-Journal/dp/1725930498

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Buy some cheap accounting notebook and keep entering all values in a format which you deem fit.

Keep refining the format until you see the desired results.

Once you are familiar with an accounting notebook, Well as they say you are the king!

The next step is to look for a software which can replace your monotonous work. Voila! Ms Excel comes to mind. After you master excel then, well sky is the limit. Keep progressing to a software of your choice.

Do you know of any good books (or websites) for learning practical applications and techniques for financial analysis?

I've been looking at this one but the reviews are mixed.

I am already an expert in Excel. I am looking to get a Financial Analyst job, and want to improve my ability to do the analysis.

Been there. I self taught myself a ton while I was scaling my business and THEN found a good CPA (my first CPA was a paper pusher that might as well have just been Turbotax, my present CPA listens to my strategies and decides to jump onboard with me).

The most important thing (IMHO) for you to know is to have a decent knowledge of what things are going to be deductible. Just knowing the list will help you make better/correct purchasing decisions as you go along.

My favorite quick-read on that subject is this one. It's literally right next to my desk all of the time (actually, an older version is, I should get an updated copy because the TCJA really did change some things in random ways). Read it before you go to bed and it will help you ideate.

> No it's not. It's the exact same schedule and nearly 4x more!

Read this. A Tale of Two Taxes: Property Tax Reform in Ontario. I just finished it. Toronto's property taxes piggyback on the provincial taxes. Assessment values for Residential are based on property values. Commercial are based on earning potential (similar to income). Industrial is based on replacement value. The rates look higher on paper, but the assessment values are much, much lower because of the different formulas on assessment - therefore the effective tax rates are much, much lower.

> A business that's exporting goods to foreign countries shouldn't be paying for Toronto's libraries, parks and subways

That we can agree on. But they should also pay for the police, firefighters, and services that they do take advantage of. That's why they pay much lower taxes than residential as they should. The authors of that book still think the commercial rates are too high, but they wouldn't go nearly as far as getting rid of them outright like the article suggests.

By the way, we're now talk commercial and industrial tax rates. Nothing about foreign ownership like where we started.