Accounting Best Practices, Fifth Edition by Steven Bragg

This is essentially a large database of improvement ideas for the accounting department, formatted to make ideas easy to research.  Each chapter begins with a summary of the ideas contained within it, as well as an estimate of the cost and installation time for each one.  An appendix summarizes all the ideas.  The result is almost 400 improvement suggestions that are very easy to find.  I put out a new edition fairly frequently, since there are so many changes going on in the industry.

Content

  • Accounts payable best practices
  • Billing best practices
  • Budgeting best practices
  • Cash management best practices
  • Collections best practices
  • Commission best practices
  • Costing best practices
  • Filing best practices
  • Finance best practices
  • Financial statement best practices
  • General ledger best practices
  • Internal audit best practices
  • Inventory best practices
  • Payroll best practices

Related Books

Accounting Control Best Practices Inventory Best Practices
Billing and Collection Best Practices Management Accounting Best Practices

Reviews

I have been a big fan of Steven’s writing for a long time.  His explicit direction has helped me make sense of client accounting “situations” many times.  I’ve given dozens of Accounting Best Practices to my clients. -- Jack Boyer, CPA

The true success of the book is the breadth of accounting best practices presented... Overall, the book is an incredible tool because it isn't simply a compilation of fads.  Bragg does an excellent job in not only compiling a wide variety of best practices, but insisting that best practices be evaluated for organizational applicability. -- Michael Bollinger, CMA, CPA

For a comprehensive, yet easy-to-read guide to fixing those all-too-common shortcomings in your accounting department, look no further than this excellent book. Steve Bragg provides hundreds of fixes, many of them requiring surprisingly little time or cost while providing a handy guide to common inplementation pitfalls. Containing fixes for companies of all sizes I'd recommend this invaluable book to anyone who is looking to enhance their existing processes, whether that be due to growth in their business, for compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, or just as part of their ongoing improvement process. -- Martyn Webster, Director of Finance, XenoPort, Inc.

I’ve used Steve Bragg’s Accounting Best Practices books for years as a source of ideas for improvement. Like the previous editions, the Fifth Edition has a number of new, actionable best practices as well as refinements of those ideas reported in previous editions. The books are broad enough in their perspective so that nearly any organization could find ideas that  could pay back the cost of the book many times over. -- John Temmerman, Controller, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

What a great resource!!!  I have been in the accounting field for over 20 years and I was still able to gain insight into improving processes within my office.  Thanks for putting it all in one book!!! -- Tina Thomas, Controller, Goodman & Company

This book is critical to running an efficient and accurate accounting department.  The use of RFID technology to track documents is one of many valuable tools in this latest edition.  A required read for the demanding accounting manager's role. -- Jason Charet, CPA