You DON"T need to know the fine points of bookkeeping and accounting. Your accountant needs to know them and your bookkeeper needs to know them. Your computerized accounting system will probably handle all the double-entry stuff just fine.

I NEVER wanted to learn the numbers. I am much too flighty my attention span is much too short for all this hard facts stuff. But I had to learn this because our business was ruining my life. Once I got into it, I found out how fun it is to keep score.

I also found out all the mistakes that my accountant had been making!

You need to know how to read, interpret and act on the Financial Statements. Your assessment of the Financials will be enhanced if you know what they are and how they account for different activities. A basic understanding of how a tool works will help you use that tool better.

It may be that you are the bookkeeper and accountant for your company. If so, this overview of Double-Entry accounting will help you see the framework on which all your data entry hangs. This will make it easier to correct erroneous information. Could it be that you have some reports that you don’t ‘trust’? Do you want to change your accounting to generate better managerial data? An understanding of Double-Entry accounting will help you fine-tune your information.

You need to know that the information you get from your Financials is correct. I would lay $1,000 down that you will find major information that is just plain WRONG in your Financials once you start checking them out on a regular basis. Common problem? Garbage in, garbage out. Unless the data entry person knows where the data is supposed to be entered, your information will be worthless.

You don’t need to know everything about accounting. You do need to know everything in this book – "Where Did the Money Go?" - as a bare minimum! It's available at Books & More, and here's the link: http://www.heatinghelp.com/shopcart/product.cfm?category=2-10