Accounting Best Practices, 7th Edition

Praise for previous editions of Accounting Best Practices

“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 implementation pitfalls. . . . I would recommend this invaluable book to anyone who is looking to enhance their existing processes, whether due to growth in their business, compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, or just as part of their ongoing improvement process.”
—Martyn Webster, CPA, Director of Finance, XenoPort, Inc.

“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

“I’ve used Steve Bragg’s Accounting Best Practices books for years as a source of ideas for improvement. Like previous editions, this 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 twenty years, and I was still able to gain insight into improving processes within my office. Thanks for putting it all in one book!”
—Tina M. Thomas, CPA, CTP, Controller, Goodman & Company, LLP

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Overview of Best Practices 1
Chapter 2 How to Use Best Practices 5
Chapter 3 Accounts Payable Best Practices 19
Chapter 4 Billing Best Practices 71
Chapter 5 Budgeting Best Practices 91
Chapter 6 Cash Management Best Practices 117
Chapter 7 Collections Best Practices 135
Chapter 8 Credit Best Practices 169
Chapter 9 Commissions Best Practices 191
Chapter 10 Costing Best Practices 203
Chapter 11 Filing Best Practices 225
Chapter 12 Finance Best Practices 247
Chapter 14 General Best Practices 299
Chapter 15 General Ledger Best Practices 335
Chapter 16 Internal Auditing Best Practices 351
Chapter 17 Inventory Best Practices 369
Chapter 18 Payroll Best Practices 417