The Small Business Doer

The DWM Bean Counter website is a free accounting and bookkeeping tutorial website that has a lot going for it. It’s written in a friendly conversational tone that’s accessible to most people and it provides very good explanations of often-used accounting/bookkeeping terms. There are even “informal” definitions in addition to “formal” definitions to make it easier for readers to follow or grasp the terms being explained. Some of the analogies are pretty hilarious and the author uses a lot of family-oriented examples to make it easier to relate. There are also lots of colored illustrations scattered around the site – this can either be amusing or just plain annoying, depending on your taste for these things

The look and feel of the site is a bit dated and even a little amateurish, though, and this can affect the site’s credibility. I actually though it was a hobby site of a retired accountant with lots of time on his hands. As it happens, David Marshall – the creator of DWM Bean Counter – is in his 60s so he could very well be retired. There’s no separate ABOUT page, which can be annoying for people who want to read about the site’s creator. Instead, you’ll see this information at the very bottom of the landing page, which makes for a somewhat text-heavy website.

DWM Bean Counter provides a list of other free resources (“Other Recommended Accounting & Bookkeeping Tutorials”) where you can also learn accounting/bookkeeping terms and also take courses (some free, some paid) from other companies. Some of the other links – like the series of tutorials created by the company CIT “Preparing a Balance Sheet” and “Creating a Profit and Loss Statement” are pretty dynamic and useful. Other links, however, seem to be outdated. The link to IBM (“Reading Financial Statements”), for example, just takes you to their main website and typing these words into IBM’s search box is a dead-end proposition. I was looking to find more specific links to available resources (e.g. names of accounting software out in the market) but didn’t find any. These would have been a big help for someone looking at specific recommendations.

There is usually a quiz or some type of interactive learning tool at the end of each lesson to make things fun and interesting. I took some of them and found that it kept me from falling asleep (studying accounting or any kind of numbers-related subject can do that to you) and does tend to reinforce learning a little bit more.

SHOULD YOU BUY DWM BEAN COUNTER’S PAPER-BASED TUTORIAL?

Considering that all DWM Bean Counter’s tutorials are available online, there’s really no need spend $ 24.95 (shipping is extra) for the paper-based version as you can keep going back to the online version as often as you want for as long as you have an internet connection and access to a computer. That said, getting a paper version does offer the convenience of having a handy reference guide that you can flip through without having to boot up your laptop or e-reader – so it all depends on your learning/reading style. If you’re really old-school and prefer paper, $ 24.95 is definitely a lot cheaper than buying a school textbook, which can cost an average of $ 50 or more these days and is roughly the same amount you’d pay for a hard-cover novel from a bookstore. Besides, if you had to print out the whole tutorial, you’d probably spend close to the same amount in printing and binding, so DWM Bean Counter’s printed version just saves you the time and energy from paying your local copy center to produce the same material plus it gives the creator of DWN Bean Counter a bit of return for his efforts.

The paper-based tutorial is actually offered at of 50% off of the list price (plus shipping) if you prefer the CD version (shipping included, in this case), you’ll be paying slightly more at $ 29.95.

WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THE FREE (AND PAID) VERSIONS OF THE TUTORIAL

THE PRINTED VERSION INCLUDES:

• Interactive E-book Version of All Six Tutorials
• PDF Version of All Six Tutorials
• Tests and Games
• BC Cash Forecasting Workbooks – Excel Version and Open Office Version

THE CD VERSION INCLUDES:

• Interactive E-book Version of All Six Tutorials
• PDF Version of All Six Tutorials
• Tests and Games
• BC Cash Forecasting Workbooks – Excel Version and Open Office Version
• Additional Items included on CD Version but not included in Download Version

EXTRA ITEMS FOUND ONLY ON THE CD (AND NOT IN THE PRINTED VERSION) TUTORIAL

• Interactive CD Version of All Six Tutorials
• Bean Counter’s Quick Insights
• Talking Mini-Lectures presented by his assistants Merlin and Professor Bean Counter
• Additional Tests and Games not included in my tutorials

WHY EVEN BOTHER WITH A CD TUTORIAL VERSION

For those of you that may want to train colleagues, subordinates, or a group of users this is a potentially more useful tool than flipping through a manual or textbook (you’ll need to buy several copies) or sharing a laptop screen (definitely a huge pain to share one laptop). With a CD, you can create a classroom-like learning experience with a large number of participants by popping this into a computer and hooking this up to a projector.

SHOULD YOU BECOME A MEMBER / SIGN UP FOR THE FREE-NEWSLETTER?

I personally don’t think this is necessary, unless you want to keep up to date with accounting or bookkeeping-related topics and want to receive regular bulletins on what the founder of DWN Bean Counter is up to. After all, you can go through all the lessons/tutorials contained in the site as a GUEST user as often as you want without signing up if this is all that you’re after. Incidentally, there is no special area for paid subscribers like in other websites. What you see is basically what you get when you first visit the DWM Bean Counter website.

VERDICT

DWM Bean Counter’s free tutorials are best for people who’ve been exposed to these accounting or bookkeeping terms before. For businesspeople with no previous exposure, they could potentially be a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of terminology and concepts presented here. If you’ve managed to take at least one accounting course in college then the material that you’ll come across in DWM Bean Counter will be somewhat easier to go through.

If you’re learning accounting or bookkeeping for the first time, it can be potentially daunting and even traumatic. The subject of accounting is quite technical, to begin with. I remember when I encountered accounting for the first time when I was still an undergrad – it was slightly beyond my grasp so I dropped the course as I knew I would flunk it.  However, I did take a much more basic accounting course the second time and managed to breeze through. I think the lesson here is that if you can go through the material patiently and deliberately and don’t mind going through certain terms and concepts more than once (and aren’t under any time pressure like I was), you shouldn’t have too much problems with accounting, especially if you have a handy resource to turn to whenever you’re in doubt – either in the form of a live human being or a really good crystal ball.

The good thing is that if you simply need to know your final numbers, but don’t care how you arrive at these, investing in some accounting software can be a BIG help. It’s pretty much the equivalent of having a scientific (or even a basic) calculator. Rather than having to understand multiplication or division for example, having that calculator crunch those numbers for you saves you the effort of trying to figure things out and short-cuts the process to arriving at the end result – that’s the same thing that accounting software can do for you.

For as long as you master some of the basic terms (e.g. assets, liability, expense, revenue and owner’s draw -> ACCOUNTS = LIABILITY + CAPITAL or OWNER’S EQUITY ) and are able to input the right numbers into the proper boxes (or “fields”) the software will organize the information for you so that you don’t have to struggle doing it yourself.

To put it another way using accounting software is almost like having someone do the more complex bookkeeping functions on your behalf without you being aware of it. This is a good thing because this removes the need for you to understand how the double-entry system works in order to generate the reports (ex. balance sheets, income statements, etc.) you need to get a snapshot of how well your business is doing at any point in time. All you have to do is enter the data once and the software pretty much does all the heavy lifting for you behind the scenes.

Going back to the DWM Bean Counter website, I found that some of the lessons, like PROPERTY AND PROPERTY RIGHTS and especially DEBITS AND CREDIT and GENERAL LEDGER can a bit complex to understand at first and could potentially bog down some people, especially those studying the material for the first time. Business owners, especially, who may only want a surface understanding of accounting but are more interested in generating reports like profit & loss statements, income statements or balance sheets would be better off just studying parts of the INTRODUCTION section and then letting their accounting software do the rest.

The case studies in DWM Bean Counter could be a little bit more detailed, although the few examples provided here and there are useful enough. In addition, using screen-shots, video tutorials and other current teaching tools would probably make the material more interesting and would also enhance the learning experience. To be fair, the David Marshall’s (the website’s creator) style of explanation is more engaging than what you would find in a typical college textbook written by an academic who doesn’t have a flair for expressing themselves in layman’s terms.

I noticed that when I took the quizzes at the end of each section that I would get high scores right at the beginning. As the material started to get more complex and technical, however, I noticed that my quiz scores got progressively lower. However, I found that as I went back to review the material more than once, my quiz scores started to go up. The lesson here is that repetition really is the best way to learn. 

However, some people may not have the time, or the patience, to really go back and really absorb the material. There really is no shortcut to learning accounting, although you don’t have to learn everything about the subject to be able to be able to make sense of your business’ performance. Besides, accounting really isn’t the most exciting thing that you could be studying. Learning how to manage your books tends to be one of those slightly unpleasant chores that businesspeople have to learn rather than love to learn.

Will DWM Bean Counter make you know how to run your books? It will definitely help you understand the basics of accounting terms and help you build a foundation for understanding the financial aspects of your business. But in terms of setting up your books properly and being able to do your own bookkeeping, I think you may want to take a course that’s a lot more interactive and hands-on. Or you may want to consider hiring a bookkeeper or accountant for a few hours to get you started down the right path.

Resources for Learning Small Business Financial Resources

At Small Biz Doer we’re compiling a list of websites where you can learn small business financial resources.

We currently have reviews for:

• AccountingCoach.com Review