The Bookkeeping Resources

My Favorites ... Your Favorites

One of the challenges of working from home is support.

I'm hoping The Bookkeeping Resources will help support you 24/7 ... filled with practical information tailored just for you ... maybe some of it will even be inspiring!

... or maybe it's just water cooler chat ... or pictures of your long term goals or favorite tea cup.

Come Schedule a Regular Tea Break With Me

This tea cup is from my Grandma's tea service. The shortbread cookie is one of my favorite cookies and reminds me of my parents.

Take a tea break ... fill up your cup ... inhale the wonderful aroma of your tea ... feel the warmth of the cup in your hands ... exhale.

Interrupt your day and ... just take a moment to simply breathe.

Find a window and glance outside. Let your eyes alight on something ... a bird, a person walking down the street, a tree, the sky, a building, a vehicle ... just take notice of it.

Notice your thoughts on what you are watching ... then bring yourself and your eyes back to this page ... and enjoy these next few minutes on your tea break. :0)

My Favorite Bookkeeping Resources

My Reading List - Some of My Favorites

Not everything on this list are bookkeeping resources ... in fact many of them are the books that simply motivate me and inspire me to achieve my dreams ... which are most likely completely different from your dreams :0)

Right now I'm reading the newly revised Make Sure It's Deductible - Little-Known Tax Tips For Your Canadian Small Business by Evelyn Jacks.

Last year I read 167 Tax Tips For Canadian Small Business - beat the taxman to keep more money in your business by Stephen Thompson.

• The Pension Puzzle - Your Complete Guide to Government Benefits, RRSPs and Employer Plans by Bruce Cohen and Brian Fitzgerald
... this book is for every Canadian who wants to know how their pensions work, so you can start making smart choices early.
• Conserving Client Portfolios During Retirement by William P. Bengen, CFP
... deals with how to manage your money in retirement and make it last because we aren't dying as young as we used to.
• How To Pay Less and Keep More For Yourself - The Essential Consumer Guide to Canadian Banking and Investing by Rob Carrick
... Canadians know how to shop but not when it comes to our money. Instead of being passive, this book shows you how to shop for your financial products.
• Your Money or Your Life- Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
... a classic in how to stop making a living and start making a life!
• Enough - Lifestyle and Financial Planning for Simpler Living by Betty Jane Wylie
... the first step in how I dropped out of the 9-5 job that was affecting my health ... learning how to downsize yourself ... just like large corporations do!
• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
... useful for moving your life unto a different path by taking you out of your comfort zone and thinking creatively outside the box
• Simple Abundance - A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach
... for inspiration and transformation in how to embrace life's abundance that surrounds us in our everyday lives!
• Stop Working - Here's How You Can! by Derek Foster
... an ongoing dream of mine
• Work Less Live More - A Woman's Guide by Paula Brook
... are you starting to see what I day dream about?
• How To Survive Without A Salary by Charles Long
... this is an old favorite of mine and may actually be out of print. It teaches you how to get by with less and make do with what you have ... the Conserver Lifestyle.
• Making a Living Without A Job - Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara J. Winter
... if I have to work, please please let it be doing something I enjoy!
• University of Success by Og Mandino
... a course on how to succeed and advance into the world of exceptional achievement. He pulls his material from 50 renowned experts. My copy is from 1982. I don't even know if the book is still in print.

My Favorite Websites

If you've been through this site, you will know that Canadian sites I like, in addition to the user friendly CRA website, are:

1. TaxTips.ca has great, reliable information including income tax calculators. The site is updated after each federal, provincial or territorial budget.
2. TaxDetective.ca has excellent reference materials including a tax literacy section which contains very useful links.

It would be great if my American site visitors could provide some U.S. bookkeeping resources! What are your favorite bookkeeping websites? ...

For my U.S. visitors, here are my current two fav American sites:

1. Stephanie Horne's site Bookkeeping Basics has very useful lists for U.S. tax deductions by occupation including * firefighters, * business professionals, * airline personnel, * day care providers, * law enforcement, * hairstylists, and * truckers.

   I drop by Stephanie's site and answer Canadian bookkeeping questions from time to time too!


2. Dawn Fotopulos's site Best Small Biz Help is the The Solopreneur's Lifeline.

   Dawn explains the site's mission is to "train and support the very small business owner who makes under $50K per year, to read financial statements, find new customers on/ offline, and survive this tough economy. We have a team of experts in accounting, IT, insurance, healthcare writing for the site."

   Bookkeeping-Essentials has been listed as a resource on Best Small Biz Help ... and will be participating in Open Line Thursdays which starts July 15, 2010.

   This site will be a great bookkeeping resource and more for my American visitors ... my Canadian visitors will find it helpful too!

These friendly bookkeeping resources are accounting sites I like ... in fact I'm an affilate:

1. Real Life Accounting is designed for non-accountants. It has free articles on bookkeeping and accounting as well as two affordable course offerings for non-accountants. This is a great resource!
2. Accounting Coach is also designed for non-accountants and is well suited to students. My favorite features are the quizzes and crosswords which provides fun, positive reinforcement.
3. The Bean Counter offers free accounting and bookkeeping tutorials. There are fun tests after each section of material is covered.

Bookkeeping forums I like are ... (you need to be a member to participate but as bookkeeping resources ... they are unbeatable ... for me.)

1. Institute of Professional Bookkeepers of Canada
2. Canadian Bookkeepers Association

U.S. FASB GAAP

If you are looking for a bookkeeping resource on the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles set by FASB, the Bean Counter has an excellent article titled Financial Reporting and GAAP.

FASB is the Financial Accounting Standards Board within the U.S. It is a private, not-for-profit organization created in 1973. The Canadian equivalent is the Accounting Standards Board (AcSB).

Canadian AcSB and ASPE Resources

AcSB stands for Accounting Standards Board and is the Canadian equivalent of the U.S. FASB.

The basic components of the financial statement concepts were developed in 1987 I believe ... and are found in the CICA Handbook Section 1000 (at least they used to be ... not sure now with the restructuring of the handbook). This is the framework for Canadian GAAP. It follows the FASB approach, but there are some differences.

If you are looking for some information on the new Canadian Accounting Standards for Private Enterprise released in December 2009 ... I listed some resources in the comments section of IFRS and ASPE that may be useful to you.

In my articles on the balance sheet and income statement, I have placed bookkeeping resource notes on any changes I am aware of at this time. To find all updates, do a site search for "GAAP Update".

The International Accounting Standards Board

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) replaced the International Accounting Standards Committee created in 1973 to address emerging needs of cross border business.

IASB was created in 2000 when the European Union announced it would adopt IFRS for publicly listed companies.

IFRS is now mandatory or permitted in more than 100 countries. China, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, and South Korea are set to adopt IFRS in 2011. Companies using IFRS can list in the United States without preparing a costly reconciliation of their numbers to US GAAP.

A 2007 paper entitled, "IFRS vs. US GAAP: A Sixty Minute Waltz in the Classroom" (you can google it) makes suggestions for incorporating significant aspects of international standards in the accounting classroom prior to 2014. This paper explains that ...

International accounting standards were designed to be flexible and are principle-based while US GAAP standards were designed with the goal of protecting investors through conservative accounting practices. Its rule-based construction provides comfort to a profession that operates in a highly litigious environment.

Here is an example of the IFRS balance sheet format ... and the IFRS income statement format.

Small business in Canada will be using ASPE as their GAAP standard ... not IFRS as their GAAP standard.

Your bookkeeping resource for more information on IFRS can be found at IASB's website; located at ifrs.org.

Bookkeeping resource used for IASB information: Origins and Rationale for IFRS Convergence by Peter Walton at qfinance.com.

It's Your Turn To Dish On Your Fav Bookkeeping Resources

I'll add to this as time goes on ... but now let's turn it over to you.

Do you have a favorite bookkeeping book or accounting reference that you think would help other work from home business owners? ... Or an article that helped you learn to understand the numbers side of your business?

Or maybe it was just something that inspired you ... even though it's not directly about bookkeeping.

Where do you go to get your QuickBooks advice?

The Forum explains how each contribution is handled ... and it has links to other pages on this site where you can participate.

Your opinion matters ... and sharing it will help other visitors to this site ... Help and be helped! :0)

What's your favorite bookkeeping resource ... or your favorite bookkeeping tip that tipped the scales?

Submit pictures of your goals ... or your favorite tea cup

I talked about why I have pictures of lake living and teacups on this site on my "Meet Me" page. Use this bookkeeping resource to help you attain your own goals.

If you have a picture that helps you focus on your goal ... and would like to see it published on this website ... so you can look at it often to keep you focused on your long term goal ... or a picture of your favorite tea or coffee cup ... submit it. I'll publish it.

You can bookmark it and visit it as many times as you want.

If the picture is of a place, it would be great to know where the picture was taken. If you want to put your goal in writing so you are more committed to it, submit that too.

You are more likely to achieve your goals if you take time to consciously focus on them regularly ... and talk about them with others.

Have A Favorite Bookkeeping Resource
... or just want to chat?

Do you have favorite resources you use or refer to time and time again? Why not take a moment and share one or more of them with us.

Is it free ... or did you pay? If you paid, how much did it cost? Was it a subscription?

What I'm hoping is that together we can develop a free online resource for work from home bookkeepers ... and business owners who do their own books.

For this section only, I will allow you to contribute one non-affiliate link to the online resource you are recommending.

Useful Bookkeeping Resources

Click below to review and rate bookkeeping resources contributed already. Each person's tastes and experiences are different ... so tell us what you think!

You can help make The Bookkeeping Resources better by adding your comments and ratings to one or more of the contributions.

Other Pages That Might Interest You

Have a great story about when you were audited?

Have a great idea about home office file organization?

Ask and answer questions on bookkeeping

Help other site visitors ... share your favorite bookkeeping resources

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