Hello,
Anyone know if there are any courses being given near Zurich for something basic like this? My interest is to open my own business in the future, and that might pertain to an EU country. I don't need to know how to be an expert, but thought it might be a good idea on knowing some basic accounting, that have to do with costs, inventory, labor, how much cash on had should I have percentage wise so there is always enough liquidity, and so on. I can trade teaching basic or entertaining techniques in cooking, Belgian beer, or cash if this ends up being someone from the forum.

My intent would be to hire an accountant as well, but I feel the best defense for keeping a business in working order is to completely understand the numbers week to week, and make adjustments before having my account call me when it is even later.

Thanks

I searched for Rechnungswesen+Buchhaltung but am not sure if the schools offer them in English.

http://mbsz.ch/index.php/mbsz-angebo...-mbsz-vorkurse

You might also wish to reach ETH for short courses in English:

https://www1.ethz.ch/id/services/lis...rview/index_EN

https://www1.ethz.ch/id/people/allid_list/josiane

Also try:

http://www.gratiscoach.ch ( http://www.schreiber-treuhand.ch/support/index.html )

especially if you are considering using Banana.CH software

http://www.banana.ch/cms/en/home

I did an accounting course (Study from home)

So basically all self thought and then you send assignments to your tutor.

I did it though Kilroys College (Ire). Course was about 700 i think (i cant really remember. Finished with 97% overall.

I work (very) full time so i wouldnt have the time to teach you the basics but if you ever get stuck on something id be happy to help.

Good luck!

http://www.dummies.com/store/product...764598481.html

I would start with bookkeeping for dummies. Learn how to potentially keep your own books. It should start to make a little bit more sense how a profit and loss statement and balance sheet tie together. I have not read or used this book so I am sure there are other choices.

I am still thinking about your offer. I could use some cooking lessons (according to my wife) and I am a 16 year CPA Australian qualified accountant.

I am hoping a job comes through soon which will give me less free time but like the other poster if you get stuck I would be more than happy to answer any questions online.

After bookkeeping you could advance to some more accounting but the debits and credits are the building blocks.

Funnily enough your question on how much cash a business should keep I don`t think has ever been answered in any theory I`ve studied. I`m assuming you are actually talking about how much change you would need on a daily basis? Which would depend on type of business, how many customers per day/ no of transactions etc. Answer, just carry lots as having extra coins on hand isn't going to hurt your overall balance. I am sure a little experience and you would work that out yourself.

Otherwise, if you are talking how much cash to sustain/ start the business. The more cash you have the longer you have to build a positive cash flow generating business. You would make a plan and I would say be a pessimistic at the start in terms of how much income you get and see how long the cash will last and then you have to decide if that`s a risk you`re prepared to take.

Well that takes you well beyond your basic accounting course! The basic financial accounting is straight forward and is what most small businesses use, but what you are talking about is setting up cost (and works) accounting that is a very different ball game, you need to understand the products and the processes involved and then design an accounting system that will capture and allocate those costs in a way that will allow you to produce the information you are looking for...

If you take something like fixed overheads for example, you need to think about what exactly makes up fixed overheads for your business, then you need to determine how to allocate them to your various business activities in a reasonable manner and once you have got that far, you need to figure out how to capture them in your accounting system in such a manner that they can easily be extracted for reporting purposes... and so on to inventory etc.

To get this kind of knowledge, I'd suggest you need to look as some modules from someone like the Institute of Cost & Management accountants or possibly a few MBA modules.

It depends are you talking about manufacturing something? Jim2007 is talking about costs, labour, inventory all in one as in the costs and the labour are used to make the inventory. Manufacturing accounting is a bit complex but you will still struggle without Dr`s and Cr`s so I would still start with book keeping and then move on to Cost accounting if you want and need it. Provided by Cost and Management accountants institutions I wouldn't do an MBA module I doubt it would be detailed enough.

I read that you wanted to learn about costs, labour, inventory as separate issues. Like maybe a distribution business or restaurant. Which is simpler from an accounting view.