Accounting Books

What a terrific guide through the obstacles of life's financial hiways and biways! Written succinctly, intelligently and humorously--this book is a must have for women of all ages who are recognize the importance of understanding how to handle and plan our finances to achieve our life's goals--- while also getting us through the occassional bump in the road or traffic snarls that affect our money issues. Easy read and great maps/questionnaires help to keep us on track while having fun too! A man is not a plan -- and small steps lead to big success are positive themes throughout.

Mystified by money? Using a crystal ball to plan your retirement? Burdened with credit card debt? Lacking health insurance? Budgetless? With humor, charts, user-friendly quizzes, and common sense, this book will prod you into taking the small steps needed to get a grip on money. Your money. Earning it, keeping it, growing it. You'll find the scoop on a broad range of financial topics, sprinkled with quotes from the likes of Confucius, Dear Abby, Mark Twain, and Erma Bombeck. Discover ways to put brains and muscle into your personal money management. I found each chapter to be clear, motivating, specific. A great gift.

Flipped through this book looking for tips on getting out of debt and realized it would help me with all of my money issues. (In fact it made me aware that I had more money issues than I thought I did.) Thanks for a good solid guide that I can understand! These authors should do seminars too.

This book has a wealth of information from getting out of debt to amassing a personal fortune. It's easy to read format helps the reader access topics of personal interest quickly and effortlessly. Get this book if you need to take control of your finances or if you know someone who would benefit from financial help and support. It makes a great gift for the women in your life from mothers and daughters and sisters too.

This is a personal finance book you'll actually ENJOY reading!
It doesn't contain any get-rich-quick schemes, nor does it offer any unrealistic promises or guarantees.

What it does do is help you identify your own "money type" (how you use money in general), and then gives simple lessons on how to best improve what needs improving.

Easy? Not exactly. As I said, there are no quick-fixes offered here. The lessons take time and effort. But if you do them, they're sure to work, because they're based on good sense, and an understanding of how women relate to money issues.

Reviewer: Linda Painchaud

A simple concise way of managing your money. No fluff and it comes from a man who has done it and helped a lot of people manage their money successfully. He is a self made millionaire, not from writing books, but from actually making and managing money (unlike many other so called financial gurus)

I can't put it down. The book is concise and to the point. It feels like Mr. Sestina is speaking directly to you. This is not a book you just read and put down to collect dust. You definitely need to have a pen, highlighter, and paper so you can put his principles to work immediately. It's no wonder John Sestina is the BEST Financial Planner in the country. Get the book.

A great book for persons of any income to help get started on the path to financial freedom.

This book is an absolute pleasure to read! Not only because learning the fundamentals of successful financial planning from the most qualified financial planner in the country but also the information in this book is written in a very easy to understand, very structured, not confusing language. It certainly takes the fear and myth out of financial planning. Regardless of your current financial knowledge and status, you can start to apply John's most insightful experience and valuable advice for the price of a book. This cost of this book will, for sure, give you the highest ROI. Get one today if you don't already have one and read it! Believe it or not, you will enjoy reading it too!

John Sestina shows how with Common Sense you can get on track to having a truly secure financial future. The steps he describes are in laymen's terms that can be followed without having to have a Doctorate Degree in Finance. Great Book. I've given copies of this book to my family.

While I have considered myself reasonably good with Office, this book dramatically increased my understanding of the power hidden in Excel and the new possibilities of presentation. I would highly recommend the book to any government contractor, even if you haven't upgraded to Office 2007 as the descriptive text and easy to follow examples have direct application to earlier versions as well. I've cut my production time dramatically and, more importantly, can 'slice and dice' the data quicker and with better insight than ever before.

Executives don't have time to read technical manuals or head off to training for a week - we need something that quickly validates our current understanding and then jumps right in to explain what's useful and how to use it. Brief definitions and hints were good. A real step-by-step manual for using Excel 2007.

My eyes have been opened to the amazing potential of Microsoft Office 2007 for Business Intelligence. This book is a resource I will use again and again.

This book provided a great, easy to understand review of the features of Office 2007. Touched upon pivot tables, performance point, dashboards and scorecards. Plenty of examples were provided. This will definitely help me with implementing executive dashboards at my company.

The author does a great job of presenting BI in an easy to understand way. I thought the parts on Outlook could've been less lengthy. This guy obviously has incredible depth of understanding on reporting. Over-all, an excellent book.

I loved this book. I love history, and historical figures, and this combined both in a way that was utter fun and fascinating. I saw other reviews that said they couldn't put the book down, and its true. I hope the author has a second edition coming.

I bought this book as a gift...and then had to buy one for myself. I really couldn't put it down it was so much fun. The author has a gift for telling non-fiction stories in a manner that makes it read like great fiction. I learned more about famous people here than I did in many biographies, and all the way had fun doing it. It's a book that's very hard to stop reading. I wish it were longer!

It's fascinating to see how other people manage their financial affairs--the fact that these are famous people adds to the fun.

This book gives you the fascinating information that you want to know about each famous person.

It never gets dull or boring.

I read it in a few hours, and I plan to read it again. I enjoyed it that much.

Fascinating information about the financial lives of many famous people! If you are interested in the rich and famous, this book is for you. I read lots of technical books. This book was a nice diversion... very easy and extremely enjoyable to read.

If your investments are sluggish or you're a general interest library seeking a wide-ranging personal finance guide that won't age quickly, THE NET WORTH WORKOUT is for you. It tells how to build financial strength through a blend of diversity and cutting out the 'junk' investments which drag down a portfolio, and tells how to use existing financial options to strengthen a position. The focus allows for a powerful investment tool that embraces the ideas of the portfolio as a whole, analyzing its individual components and their contribution capacity.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Learn how to develop a strategy program which works for a lifetime of financial fitness in Susan Feitelberg's THE NET WORTH WORKOUT which provides a program for earning, saving and investing habits which slims down spending and creates defined goals. The author gives his seminar to JPMorgan Chase financial advisors and their clients each year: now it's in a handy book form to help readers understand the foundations of sensible spending, saving, and earning management.

Well written and right to the point. I felt as if she was speaking directly to me.

Susan Feitelberg, the author, is a JPM Chase Financial Adviser. This book is product of seminars she has given to her clients to provide guidance on improving their financial situation and wealth. The book provides a logical, step-by-step approach to managing your finances in an organized fashion.

As a competitive athlete, who needs to be physically fit, she explains that individuals need to get financially fit to be able to maximize their wealth. She compares getting financially fit to an athlete getting ready for a competitive event. Preparation, practice and a game plan are necessary for both to achieve success.

According to Feitelberg, individuals need a plan to handle their finances today and going forward. She uses athletics as a metaphor to explain how goals, vision, persistence and success apply to individuals in developing their financial plans. She recommends that you become your own financial trainer.

The crux of the book is composed of separate chapters on the Four Quadrants of Wealth:
- Earning (equivalent to metabolism)
- Spending (caloric intake)
- Saving (strength training)
- Investing (cardio fitness)

The author also delves into the importance of having a positive attitude in order to reach your goals, and therefore suggests that an individual first prepare a net worth statement, decide on the short- and long-term goals, and revise them as necessary.

In the area of investing she recommends that a list of current investments be prepared with your investment goals for 1 and 3 years. She then covers compound interest, dollar cost averaging, tax reduction and retirement funding, diversification and tax deferral. In the savings area, the author reviews CDs, MMAs, 529 plans, retirement plans, and the importance of coordinating savings with other quadrants.

Overall, the book is an excellent primer on what is needed to have a sound financial future.

This is a great book! This book is a quick read, even if you think you do not have time to read it... you can read it quickly and establish your frame work on how to get started. Even if you already invest, there are many helpful tips to allow you to get rich slowly. If you are an athlete, the correlation to sports and athletics will enable you to visualize your success just as you would before a big race, or game. Do yourself a favor, read this book and start building your net worth today.

This is a fun book with an unlikely sleuth. Lots of plot twists, and a nice, healthy dose of simmering lust to boot. And even that has its own plot twist. A good read.

This is a real page-turner! Every time I thought I had a handle on who did the deed, the plot took another twist. Riveting, with a colorful cast of characters. A must read for any fan of mystery.

Who would think an accountant could be a riviting detective? I'm glad the author thought so and brought her to life. The characters in the story are both believable and the protagonists are likable. The plot never sags and I found it difficult to put down.

I don't usually read mysteries but I loved No Accounting for Murder. I couldn't put it down. It's a fast read, the characters are engaging and real. The plot's twists and turns keep you guessing. Very well done, and very entertaining.

Suzanne McTavish is the divorced, attractive, fifty something local version of H&R Block in the small logging town of Barkerville, located in the mountains above Eugene, OR. She does the taxes for everyone in town from mill workers to millionaires, or at least the town's one millionaire, Margaret Teasdale. When Margaret turns up dead...murdered...in the middle of Suzanne trying to finsih her tax return, and Suzanne is paid a visit by Maria, the deceased woman's maid, who secretly gives her five handwritten journals authored by Margaret that reveal the life, and lies behind the client Suzanne only thought she knew, she begins looking into Margaret's death and is rewarded with an anonymous and chilling phone call on her answering machine at home: "MIND..YOUR..OWN..DAMN..BUSINESS!" Fortunately for us, Suzanne chooses not to mind her own business and what follows is a tightly written first mystery novel by local Grants Pass, OR author Shirley Linkhart. "No Accounting For Murder" is a good read filled with multiple murder suspects, a growing love interest between Suzanne and her real estate salesman friend and long time admirer, John, and an investigation which ranges from the high desert country near Bend, OR to the remote Pacific beaches of northern California. As a surprise bonus, the author has included the first two chapters of the "prequel" to this novel, "White Water Bar & Grill", one page after "No Accounting For Murder" ends! "White Water" takes us back in time to when Suzanne was 21 and living with her alcoholic and abusive husband, Jimmy, in Barkerville after being married to him for three years. I wasn't going to read these two chapters but I did, and was immediately hooked, fascinated by the "young" Suzanne. Now I am going to have to buy "White Water Bar & Grill" when this author has her next local book signing. "No Accounting For Murder" is a good read, and you will never look at another 1040 Form in quite the same way again after you've finished it.

There aren't a lot of really good books about performance management, and performance measurement specifically, available yet. Too many of them are overly prescriptive in what to measure and very light on the details of how to measure (properly).

Because I specialise in performance measurement (and have done for over 14 years now), I've read quite a bit in this field and expected that Gary's book was going to be another one I'd refuse to recommend to my clients and subscribers.

But that's not what happened. I actually really enjoyed Gary's book, and support a lot of his philosophy about performance management. It's got to have strong alignment to strategy, it's got to be well thought through, it's not really about scorecards and technology, it's about making it easier to execute strategy, and it's about reliable and objective data.

It's a great book to give people that really need to take performance management more seriously, particularly senior managers and executives. It's not a book for the operational manager that is new to performance measurement (in this case try "Performance Scorecards" by Chang and Morgan).

From TQM to Balanced Score Cards - this is the book that provides a practical synthesis. Focus on cause and effect relationships and away from abstractions. Must have book.

If execution is the goal these days, then this book brings an interesting perspective -- it's both big picture AND 'how to do it' at the same time. Cokins does a great job of putting the execution imperative into the larger context of "why." A good read for a reminder of basic performance management tools and for exploring how they work best in the context of today's tough business environment.

I met Gary at a SAS conference the other day and we had a discussion on various issues. One of them being the query of why so many strategies to improve performance fail. Is it in the design or the execution of strategy? Gary popped the commonly accepted view that it is failure to execute otherwise sound strategies. And I replied, being a Strategy Consultant for over 16 years, that I haven't seen a sound strategy yet. After some debat we agreed that design and execution are equaly important.

This book is about execution of sound strategies using a series of quantifiable performance management methods. These are most popular in the Anglo-Saxon (US/UK) world and have been exported to the European mainland as well where they compete with qualifiable performance management systems. What is the difference? Quantifiable PMS' are based on measurement and consequences as strategy and tactics are imposed top-down. Qualifiable PMS' however are based upon a 'meeting-in-between' strategy process where productivity is boosted by inspiration, motivation and creativity. Employee involvement is the key. Instead of using fixed targets and bandwiths, one would use waypoints and scenario's, leaving the control of execution to operational teamleaders. (In W.W.II the Germans were 1.7 times more effective than the Allied forces using qualifiable techniques, even though they were outnumbered 3 to 1 by allied forces using quantifiable techniques). Qualifiable techniques are based on the assumption that operational conditions and short term objectives change all too rapidly for a rigid approach of planning & control. But if operational teamleaders understand the strategic and tactical objectives they can easily adapt to new conditions.

However Gary's latest book is the best book on quantifiable PMS' since Maximum Performance Management by Boyett & Conn (that actually tries to combine qualifiable and quantifiable techniques).

Don't just buy it, read it!

Gary's book, on Performance Management published by Wiley, does an excellent job of pointing out there are no "Silver Bullets" or management tools that solve all problems. Combinations of the right techniques is an art. Bold graphics and flow charts in the book do much to stimulate the thought process. Business failure is often a result of inadequate performance management systems. Survival in today's global economy requires many of the better performance management techniques described in Gary's new book. A great addition to any business library. Bill Hass, Certified Turnaround Professional, wjhass@aol.com

This is the book you need to work towards financial security. It's never too late to start and David Teitelbaum makes you feel like you really can do it. This book is one of the best financial planning books on the market. The writing is easy to understand and it makes sense. You can't help but feel David Teitelbaum's passion about good financial planning -- for everyone. Get the book and start taking steps towards your healthy financial future. You can do it!

This is an excellent book to have a good understanding of all aspects of your personal finances. David Teitelbaum presents all financial planning issues with an easy-reading style that is both clear and educational. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in having a well-rounded knowledge of personal finances. Every chapter of the book presents a number of useful web addresses on related subjects that are excellent for further reading and a more in-depth understanding of certain issues. It is never too late to get this book. Stop procrastinating with your personal finances!

I highly recommend this wonderful book to anyone who wants to learn how to take control of their financial future. The financial truths in this book apply to Generation X and Boomers alike. Mr. Teitelbaum makes the complex seem simple and takes the mystery out of investing. He has written this book for people who are not financial experts, so you can feel confident that his book can and will help you learn how to handle your finances. Mr. Teitelbaum explains the world of personal investing in a smooth, easy-reading style. So, whether you are a beginning investor or somewhat experienced, this book can serve as an invaluable resource. Mr. Teitelbaum champions the get quick slowly approach to investing based in common sense and long-term planning. If you are interested in building wealth but are prone to a get-rich-quick approach, then this book is the tonic you need. Mr. Teitelbaum addresses all of the building blocks to wealth creation including: sensible budeting, ridding yourself of expensive debt, developing a savings plan and developing a solid long-term investment plan. Also, he provides valuable insight into the usual suspects (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance and annuites) and explains how they fit within a broader investment philosophy. Mr. Teitelbaum gives broad coverage to so many areas of personal finance that his book will also serve as a great reference guide. He also, shows you where to find out more information about a particular financial topic. I consider this book a great achievement, and it will undoubtedly help many people. I highly recommend this book. I give it 5 stars!!!

Though this book is aimed at baby boomers, I, who have been collecting Social Security for several years, found the book illuminating and educational. Like most Americans, I grew up disinterested in what I perceived to be too difficult in learning more about savings and investing - both how to do it and why they are both so important. I'd certainly be more comfortable in retirement now had I had this knowledge years ago! In addition, numbers have always baffled me. David Teitelbaum's book provided an easy gateway to learning about financing retirement, getting out of debt, how to start investing, and how the markets work. His writing is warm, friendly, and easy to follow, and you certainly feel that he cares about you as well as what he is writing about. I particularly found the chapter on Family, with its discussions on life insurance, long-term care planning, and wealth transfer, both useful and helpful. Because of what I have learned from his book, I am encouraging my adult children and grandchildren to read it and be more prepared than I was.

The author makes a very good point in this book--that most of us are not taught in school this basic life skill of budgeting and investing our money. He makes another good point that the quality of each person's life in retirement will depend to a great extent to how well he/she has planned and invested, because no longer do most of us work for paternal companies that take care of us. Even the federal government's retirement plans are not what they once were. We're expected to make more and more choices for ourselves, and most of us are oblivious about what we'll have in retirement. We also don't want to think about long-term care, but we can see how important it is as we look around and see our parents needing care and are suddenly surprised to see that Medicare/Medicaid doesn't go far. I, for one, never was exposed to any of the basics, and I admit have no head for it. My eyes glaze over at the mention of dollars and cents. But this book is so easy to follow and so logical that I feel like the author is personally holding me by the hand and starting me out with Step One. There are background chapters about, for example, how Social Security got started; how it used to work; how it works now; and what we can and can't expect it to do for us in retirement. There is an excellent index that enables the reader to search for specific topics. There are easy-to-follow headings on things like What Drives Up the Market, Paying for Long-Term Care, and Buying Mutual Funds At Banks. The author even includes website information, which makes the book all the more useful. In short, this is a basic handbook--not just for baby boomers, but for younger people starting out. I've given two copies to recent college graduates entering the workforce because I don't want them to be as oblivious as I was for so many years. I want to thank the author for opening my eyes before it was too late!

This book is very good for all types of projects. It covers setting up a project, organizing the work, managing a project, handling several projects at once, dealing with project issues and crises, using modern technology such as groupware and the Internet. The approach of establishing an issues data base and relating issues to specific tasks in a project is unique. It is very useful.

This is one of the best project management books for introducing employees to modern project management in an interesting way. Most project management books are ver dry and lack realistic examples. Thus, it is difficult to motivate people to read and use such materials. This is a very practical, down to earth book that has many guidelines that you can use immediately as you read the book. Some of the strengths of the book are: 1) best description of matrix management; 2) use of collaborative tools in managing projects; 3) how to deal with multiple projects; 4) how to share resources across several projects; 5) how to deal with risk in projects. The authors have developed a very creative and useful approach in dealing with project risk that associates project risk with unresolved issues. I highly recommend this book.

Project management for the 21st century is one of the most usable, easy to read, and complete project management books. There are good examples. Techniques are modern--better than that available in other books. This books stresses working together, sharing information, and dealing with resources that are spread among various projects. Very good reference.

This book provides the basics of project management in an easy to use casual style. It proceeds step by step through building a plan and then managing a project. The chapter on project costing is good, but could use some more detail. The modern and historical examples are usefully examined. These could be expanded more later.

This book not only gives you all of the basics, but also highlights how to use the Internet for project management. Very useful material.

The QuiickBooks 2008 Solution Guide is a very helpful resource. It saves time by having solutions to many common problems users encounter in QuickBooks. The book is very well organized and extremely useful in the practical world of small business accounting.

Laura's done a great job of not only explaining the how of QuickBooks but the why. As a QuickBooks consultant this book is a must for all of my staff and will be a strong recommendation for my clients.

Jeanne Tarazevits, CPA, CITP Tara Consulting Orange Co. CA

I found this book extremely helpful and most importantly easy to read and understand. I would recommend it for anyone who uses QuickBooks on daily bases or is just an occasional user. The book does a great job at describing common scenarios or problems that one may encounter along with clear solutions and suggestions for corrections.

We use the 2008 QuickBooks Solutions Guide in our software consulting practice. Our firm, Core Performance Consulting, is an Intuit Solution Provider based in Orange County, CA. Since it is such a comprehensive resource on all things related to QuickBooks, we are giving away copies to our Customers as a promotional activity. Thanks Laura for writing such an excellent book !

Peter Cullen

This book is a great book to keep handy. I supply it with many of my QuickBook classes as a resource for the students. It's easy to follow for the new user but also in depth where it needs to be for the experienced user. The table of contents and index allow you to find what you need quickly whenever you need it.

Sarah Keiser
www.successif.biz