Most small businesses will usually only require an accounting program app or it may be included as a part of an IT proprietary system specific for larger, high volume small businesses. As companies grow larger, a competent accountant and eventually an accounting department may become essential to efficient operations and management.

Nonetheless, even if you outsource and turn all accounting matters over to your accountant(s), it’s still a good business practice to understand the basic principles of accounting for a small to medium business. Your own personal accounting knowledge may become necessary until your business becomes more profitable and can afford professional accounting help, and eventually an accounting department.

Not all accounting techniques are the same. Accounting can be divided into several fields including financial accounting, management accounting, external auditing, tax accounting, and cost accounting.

• Financial accounting involves preparing vital company-wide accounting. They go by the letter of accounting jurisdictional standards. They are the nuts and bolts of the company’s accounting.
• Management accounting is used for departmental planning and assessment. Here, data is prepared to give a picture, often of an inter-company project, by using a variety of data to assess and predict future trends etc. When forecasts prove to be profitable for the company, the account managers become the movers and shakers of the company.
• Cost accounting involves procedures for recording and reporting measurements of the cost of manufacturing goods and performing services.
• Tax accounting is accounting that adheres strictly to government tax law standards and procedures.

The following textbooks are available online at Barnes and Noble and can be found, along with other publications, under my name, Shane Irvine:

The Executive Juris Doctor ISBN 979-8-891-45669-3

The Bootstrapped Entrepreneur ISBN 979-8-892-17209-7

The Sales Management Team Textbook ISBN 979-8-891-45086-8

The Perfect Business Plan ISBN 979-8-892-17201-1

Business Law for the Nascent Entrepreneur ISBN 979-8-892-17208-0