Bookkeeping Practice Workbook 2026–2027: From First Entry to First Client.

The fourteen chapters

1. Chapter 1 — Start Here: The Map · free audio: listen page — How to use a practice workbook, how the free audio works, and a first meeting with Bright Start Cleaning LLC — the small cleaning company whose books you will keep for a simulated first year.
2. Chapter 2 — The Books in Plain Words · free audio: listen page — Accounts, money in and money out, and debits and credits explained in plain words first — the technical term always comes after the plain one, never before it.
3. Chapter 3 — Your Chart of Accounts · free audio: listen page — Building Bright Start's chart of accounts line by line: what each account is for, what goes in it, and the accounts a small service business does not need.
4. Chapter 4 — First Entries: January · free audio: listen page — The first month, entry by entry — the owner putting money in, the first invoices, the first bills — every entry worked in full beside the practice space.
5. Chapter 5 — Money In · free audio: listen page — Invoices, payments, and deposits, worked step by step — including recording a customer refund in the books, with the entry shown in full.
6. Chapter 6 — Money Out · free audio: listen page — Bills, rent, supplies, and paying for help — and the line beginners blur most: an owner draw is not owner pay, and the books treat them differently.
7. Chapter 7 — Bank Reconciliation · free audio: listen page — The skill clients pay for: two full bank reconciliations worked end to end, then drills — matching the books to the bank until the difference is explained to zero.
8. Chapter 8 — Payroll on the Books · free audio: listen page — One employee on the books: the wage, withholding, and employer-tax entries, worked in full. The books only — deposits and filings carry their own rules and route to a professional.
9. Chapter 9 — Sales Tax on the Books · free audio: listen page — Collecting and recording sales tax without mixing it into income, and the calendar habit that keeps a filing date from becoming a surprise.
10. Chapter 10 — Month-End Close · free audio: listen page — The close checklist in order: what gets checked, what gets adjusted, and accruals (work done, bill not yet sent) in plain words.
11. Chapter 11 — Reading the Statements · free audio: listen page — Building the profit-and-loss statement and the balance sheet from Bright Start's year — and the trial balance ties, so you can prove the statements are right.
12. Chapter 12 — The Cleanup Job · free audio: listen page — Leo's Landscaping is four months behind and messy. Diagnose the mess, catch the books up, and scope the job — the exact shape of a real first cleanup client.
13. Chapter 13 — What to Charge · free audio: listen page — Pricing worksheets built on the published fee bands checked October 2026: build a starter, a growth, and a full-service package from real numbers, not hopes.
14. Chapter 14 — Your First Client · free audio: listen page — The readiness list and the first steps, in order. The full system — scripts, the call sheet, the letter — lives in the First Clients Playbook; this chapter gets you honestly ready for it.

How the pair works

• The workbook is the practice: entries, reconciliations, statements, a cleanup, and the pricing worksheets.
• The site is the calculator and the mirror: price real work, check your readiness, listen free.
• Accuracy is the whole product: every worked answer is computed, and the trial balances tie — an answer that does not balance does not ship.
• State facts and fee bands live on the site, dated, where they can be refreshed — the book prints no band it cannot update.

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This workbook is an independent educational product. It is not affiliated with Intuit, and QuickBooks is named only to name the software the certification covers.