Books for a student ? - The Book-keepers Forum (UK)

ProBowlUK · Senior Member

Books for a student ?

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Bob,

The Mastering Bookkeeping that you have is a good starting point. Many people have that one and the Nicholson book in their collection.
Looking at the one's on my bookshelf that got a lot of use when I was just starting out I would include :

Business Accounting volumes 1 & 2 - Woods & Sangster
Mastering Accounting Skill - Margaret Nicholson
Business Accounts for bookkeeping & financial Accounting Courses - David Cox
Advanced Accounting for A2 - Ian Harrison
Business Accounting and Finance - Tony Davies & Tony Boczko
AAT Foundation Revision Companion units 1 - 4. BPP
AAT Unit 5 Study Text & Workbook. Kaplan.

Personally I always prefer Kaplan Textbooks to BPP but that's just personal choice. Many prefer the opposite.

I haven't read them but I would assume that the two ICB bookkeeping textbooks from Kaplan should be on the list as well.

The above are not in any particular order. Doesn't take long to amass a serious library (I've got 8 full billy bookcases!... Thank goodness for Ikea. Don't think that your standard flatpack bookcases would take the weight.

All of the above are at quite a basic level and easy to get your teeth into. Normal price is between £15 and £30 per book. (Things get a lot more expensive later on!).

Ebay is always a good source for text books as invariably students sell there books as soon as they've passed one exam in order to afford the books for the next one. For this reason there's generally a deluge in March and September.

Always a good idea to go and sit in a big Waterstones and read through a good selection of books to see what hits the spot with you. No matter what you buy it will never have all of the answers or if it does they won't have included that bit of information in the index!

You might also consider the BPP I-Learn and I-pass software for AAT / CAT. I use the ACCA versions which are a bit more complex. I-learn is basically a course that you follow on your computer and I-pass is a set of around 300 questions. For ACCA it's £40 per unit for the I-Learn modules and £30 for I-pass ones.

What you need now is several other peoples lists of basic books and see what crops up the most. (My moneys on either Woods and Sangster or Margaret Nicholson).

Good luck with finding the ones' that work for you.

Shaun.

semsley · Guru

I have Business Accounting by Frank Wood (very old) (probably the forerunner to the Wood & Sangster)
Carter's Advanced Accounts which I used for A level in 1968
and Margaret Nicholson gave me her book as she was/still is chief examiner for the awarding body for whom I was an examiner.

Amanda · Expert

Hi Bob,

As appose to spending out all at once have you thought about going to the library to have a look at some of the suggestions before you buy. I have had some books out to do with bookkeeping for small business etc, and have found it very useful.

I know at our Library you can also order books if they don't have them in stock.

Hope that helps.
A

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Bob,

Sound advice from Amanda as always but I would still take in a visit to a larger Waterstones (or preferably Foyles if you're in London at anytime as libraries don't stock BPP or Kaplan text books.(Foyles is down charring cross road not far from the end of Oxford street. As far as I'm concerned the best bookshop anywhere)

Check out the BPP and Kaplan websites to see if you can locate any local stockists. I know that the texts are aimed at the exam syllabuses but they seem to go deeper than any generalised text that I've encountered.

Shaun.

ProBowlUK · Senior Member

Shamus wrote:
Business Accounting volumes 1 & 2 - Woods & Sangster

Which is the oldest edition worth buying ?

The latest (11th ?) are around £40 each.

======================================

No worries ... ... just bought 1 & 2 of the 9th edition (2002)
off the Amazon Used Book retailers - £15.50 (inc P&P).
Amazon have better deals than eBay.

-- Edited by ProBowlUK on Monday 18th of January 2010 07:37:58 PM

-- Edited by ProBowlUK on Monday 18th of January 2010 07:45:46 PM

Wella · Expert

Bob

You might want have a look at Book-Keeping and Accounts 6th editionby Frank Wood & Sheila Robinson (ISBN 0-273-68548-1)

I found it invaluable (even better in some cases than the course literature)

Frank Wood seems to be a respected authority

Bill

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Bob.

fundamental Bookkeeping doesn't really change that much. It's the peripheral bits (the things that bring the money in like Tax, Payroll, Knowledge of Sage etc.) that do.

Accounting changes sometimes quite drastically almost all of the time. Espechially at the moment as we're going through convergence between UK GAAP and IFRS's.

Books on bookkeeping that are ten years old are still pretty much up to date.

Don't buy any accountancy books older the 2006 which was the last major overhaul of the companies act.

Volume 1 of Woods and Sangster is pretty much all bookkeeping based.

Volume 2 ventures into management accountancy and has more coverage of accounting standards and the companies act.

For now maybe just invest in a good secondhand version of volume 1? Try Ebay or a reputable Amazon reseller such as Brownsbooks or the bookdepository. Sure that you should be able to pick up a decent volume 1 for around half the current new price.

Mines ninth edition and pretty much everything is still valid.

Cheers,

Shaun.

BackOfficeGroup · Guru

when I decided to go down the ICB route, I bought the David Cox book just to refresh my mind of the fundementals and get rid of any bad habits for an exam! It was ok for what I needed. It's hard to look at a book now to know if it would be suitable for a new person to bookkeeping, but I think its suitable.

I agree with Shaun re Foyles - fab bookshop, I always had to go there for my ACCA study books way back when!

P

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Phillip, twice in one day... Almost feel that I've got to say something controversial just so that we can get back to normal!

It was actually the Cox book that I quoted last night over Partnership accounts.

Sounds as though we've taken similar paths. I joined the ICB because I thought that in doing all the advanced stuff I was losing the basics.

Talk later,

Shaun.

PJC Bookkeeping · Veteran Member

Bob,

I agree with Bill (Wella Bookkeeping Solutions) regarding the Book-keeping and Accounts book by Frank Wood and Sheila Robinson. I have the seventh edition (2009) which is excellent but some of the earlier editions will suffice for basics in book-keeping.

Good luck.

Peter

PJC Bookkeeping Services
www.pjcbookkeeping.co.uk

ProBowlUK · Senior Member

PJC Bookkeeping wrote:
Book-keeping and Accounts book by Frank Wood and Sheila Robinson. I have the seventh edition (2009)

Sorry to be nit-picking ... I'm sure you mean the Eleventh edition. wink

PJC Bookkeeping · Veteran Member

I have double-checked Bob. The seventh edition is the latest and the sixth edition came out back in 2004.

Peter

PJC Bookkeeping Services
www.pjcbookkeeping.co.uk

Shamus · Forum Moderator & Expert

Hi Bob, Peter,

Your talking about different books.

Bob, your talking about the Woods and Sangster Business accounting Volumes 1 & 2 which are now up to version 11 (and Frank Woods now seems to have dropped Alan Sangster as a co-conspirator).

Peter, your taking about Book-keeping & Accounts by Woods & Robsinson which you quite rightly say is at version 7.

Had a look at both titles and I would say that Business Accounting is more comprehensive and Book-keeping and accounts is more accessible. Both are excellent in their own ways.

Hope that this clears up the confusion.

Shaun.