Book-keeping for the numerically challenged.....

[lizzylemon]

....can anyone recommend a good, simple (very) and effective book / dvd or some such thing for the numerically challenged (moi) please.

Thanks L

[zazen999]

What's it for? You can get some quite good stuff online that will help without having to buy a book or software......

[rustylady]

What do you need it for Lizzy?

[lizzylemon]

Well I need to read something that's going to kick start my brain into thinking about spreadsheets for booking keeping. My new boss is utterly convinced that I'm capable of booking keeping for him and everytime I think about it my mind goes blank

[zazen999]

Gosh, that's easy peasy.

What do you know about spreadsheets?

[RedThorn]

Start looking around on the web and everytime you have a question or need something explained, ask away... everyone here is super helpful as always. Am rusty(no not you Rusty lady - sorry to use your name in vain )as it's been 20 years , but will help too where I can.

[rustylady]

You're forgiven Redthorn. Lizzy, what programme does your boss use at the moment? I'm guessing that it's a small business, but he must have some sort of system. Soon as you know the system you can make enquiries about courses - much more user-friendly than trying to wade through a book on your own. I use Excel for spreadsheets.

[zazen999]

I'm NOT Rusty [Sorry, Rustylady....ditto]; I use them every day - have used them for all my working life and love 'em.

I'll even get you doing pivot tables and all sorts for monthly reports for him.....they open up a whole new world of doing figures once you have mastered them...

[lizzylemon]

Sorry guys I'll reply 2moz - I started a reply at 7.40 this morning and it's not 21.30 so am conseeding defate for 2day and having a long hot (I know in THIS weather) and going to bed.

I have bleary eyes (with glasses) and my fingers have the typing ability of a banana 2nite - I'm even txt typing.

Just wanted to say thanks though - you're all fab people. XXX

[lizzylemon]

Hey everyone, so my brain sort of started to tick over at the right time (i.e 9am not 9pm) today and I've made a start on my spreadsheet:

It's 2 pages per month - income / expenditure - April 09 - April 10

Each page has these columns: Date / Description / Cash / Cheque / Card / total
(the money columns are formatted to total across to the end column & the total column is formatted to add downwards to a monthly total)
The income page will have a list of clients under description as these won't change
The expend pages will list all regular outgoings and then I'll add 'adhoc' spending on a weekly basis
I have a yearly overview page which lists the months and will show the INC / EXP totals and these will be formatted to minus EXP against the INC
I will then total EXP for the year and INC for the year too (or is that overkill?)
I will have a item break down of the EXP on the yearly page too, to show where we spend most of the money

Does this sound OK and do you think we need anything else?
Basically all we want is to see how much comes in, how much goes out and where the most expenditure happens.

[Gardening Extras]

I have something very similar, it is 3 pages in one workbook

Summary
Money In
Money Out

Money In has:
Date Customer Reference Amount (£) Reconciled Payment Type

Money Out has:
Date Supplier Reference Amount (£) Reconciled Payment Type

Summary is all driven from the other two and shows current state of play.

Tried to upload an example, but now allowed.

It's here if you want to have a look

www.gardeningextras.co.uk/cashbook.xls

[zazen999]

I was going to recommend not having one page per month, but to have a spreadsheet where you put the dates in, and add a column for 'month' and then you can pivot table all your figures onto a front page to see the cashflow either month by month, or by description, or by client etc etc etc.

So, have one front page; one for all income and one for all expenditure, much like the one that gardening extras has shown, and you can pivot table from the money in and money out figures.

You can use a couple of tricks to tot up your finances as you go;

subtotal(9,a$:a$) will show your total figures, and if you filter any out it will subtotal the ones that are showing...
so change the 'amount' box to show:
="amount £ "&SUBTOTAL(9;C6:C9999)

and it will tot up the amounts after the word 'amount' in that box.

If you also remove the rows that say 'money in' and have the column titles along the top row....and add a column just for 'month' - you can filter by month and the amount in the 'amount' box will show the total for that month only.