Bookkeeping Classes

If you've ever tried to do Bookkeeping for your own Small Business or Personal Accounting, you know there are 4 very well known options for doing it.

If you haven't worked your way through all of them, you likely presume the best solution is out there waiting for you.

If you have, what you found at the end is that all of them have major flaws, including the one "everybody" talks about most for Small Business...

Currently, there are Four very well known Options for Small Business Bookkeeping...

A Shoe Box of Receipts - This seldom produces the type of records that are beneficial to anyone, but it's where many people start.
Spreadsheets - Once receipts and paper notes get entered into spreadsheets, they can become more valuable, but there are a lot of problems and issues generating proper reporting. It's also very difficult to makes sure you didn't omit any important transactions. You can in fact download transactions in list format from your bank, which is the best way to get your transactions for categorization purposes, but few know how to handle that data to create an Income Statement and Balance Sheets for optimal reporting and cross checking.
Quicken Software (by Intuit) - Quicken came out in the mid 1980s. It was never intended to be "proper" accounting software. In fact, it was intended to NOT DO what proper accounting software did. It was specifically designed for those who felt they "just needed" a digital check register with some bells and whistles. For small businesses and individuals who seek proper accounting organization, it lacks a proper Chart of Accounts, a proper Income Statement, a Balance Sheet, a General Journal and the entire infrastructure needed for proper and healthy bookkeeping. It's just a check register with bells and whistles, and a homegrown spreadsheet is actually better if you can handle manual data downloads.
Quickbooks Software (by Intuit) - Quickbooks came out in the late 1990s. All of the software options for proper accounting back then were very large and complex. Intuit had built a large base of users with Quicken and Turbo Tax who wanted and needed more than Quicken offered but less than the bloated competitors. Quickbooks was born.

Unfortunately, those who birthed Quickbooks had no sound understanding of the true purpose of a Balance Sheet nor the importance of being able to use it properly to find bookkeeping mistakes. It was confusing to them then and those who have tried it with understanding realize the most relevant tool for proper Accounting is useless in their solution.

Yes, there are hundreds of others too...

Some of you who may be wondering about solutions like FreshBooks and "YNAB" (You Need a Budget). They suffer from many of the same flaws and omissions as Intuit's products. Furthermore, the privacy issues with all of the Software As A Services solutions is something you need to pay far more attention to as you move forward with your financial understanding. It's not just about your individual privacy. It's about our collective privacy as a community of Small Business People that's far more relevant and of interest to "them".

The Quickbooks Flaw is rooted in improper,
foundational Accounting Education...

Many people put a lot of time getting all the way into Quickbooks.

Those that get over the learning curves might tell you "it's good", but if you ask them the right questions about the items that have never worked, they will typically also say "oh yeah, I don't know how to get that to work right consistently either", not realizing that that which they can't get to work nullifies the idea of Double Entry bookkeeping to start with.

The fundamental flaw with most if not all Bookkeeping Software is rooted in a false "official" definition of a Balance Sheet found in all Accounting Curriculum.

A Balance Sheet is NOT a "snap shot in time".

Only half the Balance Sheet is a snapshot in time.

The other half is an incremental cash flow analysis that requires a start and end date.

In total, the Balance sheet is three reports in one, but nobody ever explained that properly to you.

Nor did they explain that properly to any of the software developers of the all the Small Business software that has been hatched since the 1980's either. Thus, the conundrum today.

Unrealized by most, there are actually no proper Bookkeeping and Accounting Solutions in the market place at this time that offer a Balance Sheet that provides the transparency and clarity to keep your books right with ease, nor the Individual and Group Privacy we all deserve.

Quickbooks is a bad solution, and when privacy is prioritized, so are all the others.

The "belief" it is the best is an exceptional example of Mind Manipulation via Monopolization gone awry. Unfortunately most only figure that out after having spent 1000's of $'s and hundreds of hours chasing a fleeting dream.

If you've gotten there already you know exactly what I mean.
If you haven't, try to learn vicariously and take up a new path before letting any more of your precious water flow under their bridge.

What I teach, the way I teach it, and the Software I use to teach it is a Panacea for your Basic Bookkeeping needs...

1) I teach bookkeeping without the need to utter the words "debit or credit" when recording, categorizing or reviewing your transactions.

You will do your bookkeeping with positive and negative values only. With this system you are learning a fully legitimate bookkeeping system. This is not a watered down system. This does what is done with debits and credits, it just does that in the background based on the positive and negative values you provide. If you'd like to learn debits and credits, that will be available to you after you've learned how to do your bookkeeping with all the checks and balances needed to call it Double Entry Bookkeeping inline with "Generally Accepted Accounting Principles" (GAAP).

2) I teach bookkeeping using free, open source software ( www.ZAP-Accounting-Software.com ) This software is in fact a Relational Database System built out in a standalone Spreadsheet File Template. It's offered as a Google Sheet but it could work with less functionality in other spreadsheet programs too.

The ZAP Accounting Software solution is currently the only solution that is designed around positive and negative values that is GAAP aligned. It is also fully FREE to all for life, and it also offers the most privacy of any solution on the market. No user names nor passwords are required to obtain your copies or their support material, and it's "just a spreadsheet template", so there is never anyone eves dropping on everyone's structured data all at once. It offers the greatest ability for customization of any single or double entry bookkeeping solution available. As a secondary gain, this solution exposes you to the idea of building database systems in spreadsheets, which is a fantastic idea everyone can benefit from to one degree or another. This solution is not as "sexy" as many other software offerings, but Gmail's interface was hideous as it became the top email solution on the planet. A good example of form vs function in technology that went a long ways, and this is far sexier than that ever was in its infancy!

3) I teach bookkeeping utilizing downloaded transactions from your bank as the primary data input stream.

We use a manual download, import and manipulation process for data entry. If you don't have a bank account you want to expose in class, there is a demo data website that can be used instead. This manual down load and import process offers you the greatest control where you need it most.

Believe it or not, most CPAs and Professional Bookkeepers do NOT rely on automated transaction imports. When those work they work great. When they break, more time can be spent fixing them than would have been spent entering a year's worth of data if not more.

With this manual download and import method you will be learning the most reliable, stable, and repeatable method for data gathering. Arguably it's actually the fastest too, but you can be the judge of that. With this system you will learn how field mapping is used to convert the banks data, no matter the format, into the format required for your Journals. You will learn a flexible and bullet proof system you can rely on for the rest of your bookkeeping days.

4) I teach bookkeeping with a focus on understanding the true and simple nature of a Balance Sheet.

The Balance Sheet is a very clever piece of mathematical history that got lost in the sauce and is now coming back in cool ways. The Balance Sheet is a cross checking tool. It helps you make sure you've not made any egregious mistakes and it allows for a more interesting and independent game of commerce to be played in ways that is unseen today.

Five Step Bookkeeping...

I teach bookkeeping using a very simple 5 Step Process for monthly, quarterly or semi-annual bookkeeping that was created by the folks at ZAP Accounting Software. With this solution, you don't "Lock Down" your transactions or "close out your books" after each bookkeeping session as is done with Quickbooks and most other major packages. Everything is left open for change and modification as needed into perpetuity with cross-checking systems in place to detect any errant changes at any point in time.

https://five-step-bookkeeping.zap-accounting-software.com/

And it really is just that simple...

Bookkeeping and all its relevant reporting is "only" Addition and Subtraction.

Debit-less and Credit-less fundamentals should have been taught in Middle School and found on all standardized tests before Geometry and Algebra were ever pondered.

Yet it was all omitted. Was it an accident? Was it intentional?
Do you have any idea how this omission has in fact shaped your life in a less than beneficial way?

I have my opinions, but you know what others say about opinions, right?

What matters most is that you come to realize sooner rather than later that there is a DRAMATICALLY different way to learn Bookkeeping.

What matters most is that you come to realize sooner rather than later that there is a DRAMATICALLY new type of Bookkeeping and Accounting Software that will allow you to take Control over your financial understanding in ways not offered to any in the past 100 years, if not 1000's...

Testimonials...

All of the Testimonials on the ZAP Accounting Software Website are from people who I assisted one-on-one.

They were exposed to this learning system before it was a system.
They were exposed to this learning system before the software was fully built out.
They were exposed to this learning system before we had written educational material, a website, and how to videos.
They are the Great Guinea Pigs!

Group Classes...

Our Goal as a collective now is to see if we can introduce this Educational System and Software Solution via small, in person, group classes prior to shifting to broader online video systems.

We are hoping to start out with classes of 4 to 6 people and then scale those to 10.

The goal will be to offer a 1 day class (or maybe two half days) that assists with mental orientation and software orientation.

At the end of the day the students will have downloaded and configured the software for their own use. That part is the most foreign. We have lots of support videos for it, but we feel showing it in person may be a very important first step to comfort creation.
They will have downloaded some of their own data or that from our demo data website and mapped it for use in their journals.
They will have categorized data in journals and created an income statement and a balance sheet with their data. (They won't know how it all works, they'll just see how easy it can be)
They will have been hand walked around the ZAP Accounting Software website so they can get a feel for what resources are available for furthering their own education.

The plan is to create a curriculum that is 2-3 hours long that allows for basic education along with software download, configuration and basic use.

After that, there will be a 2-3 hour open lab that allows those who like what they learned get as much as they can out of their one day intro course. (or maybe this is day 2?)

The initial pricing goal for the course will be between $100 and $195 per client depending on the client base and ability to pay.

Our goal is to use these classes to create an in person teaching curriculum that can be shared with other people in many ways. This process is considered a quantum learning proces because of the volume of information and education that can be absorbed in such a short time given the new type of software and the elimination of much of the dogma that was problematic prior.
Those who pay for this course and participate in this process initially will be funding the development of curriculum that will eventually be given away to other instructors around the globe to further Global Accounting Literacy.

Group Class Start Dates and Details...

First Classes will be offered in the Monterey Bay CA area.

August or September 2021 time frame...

To participate you will need to have a Gmail or Google Suite account.
You will need to bring your own laptop or small all-in-one computer with external mouse to the course. No external mouse, No entry!

For optimum communication, this will be a mask-less teaching environment.
If you feel you need to wear a mask, please wait until that feeling wains or someone else is teaching who is willing to deal with that as part of your classroom experience.

Please reach out to me at bryan@bryancanary.com if you have sincere interest in participating in this unique opportunity to take greater control of your very own accounting while assisting with the development of curriculum for a global audience soon to follow.

Updates coming soon...
Class Dates TBD.

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