• An Accounting Primer
• Getting Ready to Use QuickBooks
• Bookkeeping Chores
• Accounting Chores
• Financial Management
• Business Plans
• Care and Maintenance
• Additional Business Resources

QuickBooks 2009 All-in-One For Dummies is written for the Premier version, but you’ll find the information works for the other versions too. It’s easy to find what you need to know:

• Book I covers all the basic accounting stuff for those who don’t know a credit from a debit
• Learn to set up the program, load files, and customize QuickBooks in Book II
• In Book III you’ll see how to invoice customers, pay vendors, track inventory, and more
• Take on activity-based costing, preparing a budget, and job costing in Book IV
• Book V gets into cool stuff like ratio analysis, EVA, and capital budgeting
• Find out in Book VI how to write the business plan you need
• Book VII shows you how to manage maintenance for QuickBooks
• Book VIII covers additional resources, an Excel primer, accounting terms, and more

Before you know it, you’ll be managing your business finances like a pro with QuickBooks 2009!

For people who've been disappointed by the shallowness of some of the "quick tips" self-help books out there, the subtitle of this book is a little misleading. Bach's nine steps are not instant change techniques or chirpy little quips to recite to yourself whenever you go to balance your checkbook. Instead, the first few steps include a series of exercises that will help you determine what you know (and don't know, or understand) about saving and investing, what role money should play in your life (which includes understanding your values), and how to work together toward a common financial goal. From there, Bach teaches his readers how to account for "disappearing" money, how to build retirement, security, and dream baskets of wealth (providing detailed options for all three), and how to avoid the most common financial mistakes most couples make. Though the focus of the book is predominantly on working with your existing income, Bach includes a final chapter entitled "Increase Your Income by 10 Percent in Nine Weeks."

Bach's writing style is engaging and his advice is user-friendly. A successful financial planner, he obviously believes passionately in all the "fringe" benefits of being financially responsible but employs a no-nonsense approach that makes financial smarts available to everyone. So whether you're 25 and just starting out on the earning, saving, and spending road or you plan to retire next year; whether you've recently got hitched for the first time or you've just entered your fourth marriage; and whether financial planning comes first or last on your list of fun things to do, the advice in Smart Couples Finish Rich is worth heeding. It's not about becoming a money-obsessed bore, it's about getting smart... and rich. --S. Ketchum