The book also includes a glossary of accounting terms which is insulting. If you are an accountant purchasing this book you should already know them hands down or seek a refund from the institution of higher learning that gave you your education in accounting or ask your state accountancy board to revoke your CPA certificate.
This book is full of checklists and numerous discussions of what to do but rarely gets to "How" as the outside of the back cover states. While the information is useful it is again generic to any business and not specific to accounting.
The author bets to death the value of using Microsoft products (to the exclusion of others) and goes though a litany of the things that Microsoft uses/provides. I am certified by Microsoft in almost all the things that the author mentions in the beginning of his book and I found the authors marketing plug for Microsoft quite humorous but also very wrong. The author almost gave the impression that he is "in bed" with Microsoft and may even be a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider himself but never really states his relationship to Microsoft. This diatribe should have been in an appendix and not part of the main body of the book.
Another grating plug is the constant mention of the Accounting Guild that the author is involved with. It would have been far more professional to discuss this at length in an appendix rather than constantly marketing it to his readers by repetitive mention of it in the text. One more grate was his constant mention of the Goldmine software for tracking clients without explaining why he thinks it is the best and what is his involvement with it and more importantly why he mentions no other PIM software when he goes though a many page discussion of the various software packages available. It makes me very suspicious.
Also unless you are a firm with at least two or more accountants, two or more marketing people, two or more sales people and the accompanying support staff you are reading the wrong book. You will also have no life.
The author implicating states that unless you are dealing with businesses that are $500,000 to $10,000,000 you are not dealing with a small to medium sized business nor are you one yourself. What a grave insult to small business in general.
I am not attempting to slam the author at a personal level in my review but having read the third edition I am left with the begging question as to what was so wrong with the first two that there is in fact a third edition. After all I was the one that paid for it and I feel that I was stung and strongly so.
This book is basically a written seminar on how to build, market and sell your (any) business accompanied with numerous plugs for the authors products (at least it smells like it). The author did not follow his own advice....be honest with your clients.
I also found his web site for the Accounting Guild inactive and email is not there.
If you are looking for a book to help you build your accounting business this is not it unless you have $$$$$$ capital and staff to do so. The book is definitely not intended for the true small business person.
Save your money.
The caveat here is this. Mr. Fox discusses Arthur Anderson a great deal in this book when referring to ways consulting is performed and how to sell clients. In addition, he refers to his own "Accounting Guild." Unfortunately, the web site for this guild no longer exists, his Yahoo message board is inactive and he does not answer email requesting information on solvency of his own business. Although I am reading this book 3 years after it was published I find it disturbing that the book is still in print yet very out of date and no longer factually correct. i.e Offering services in the Accounting Guild.
It would be nice to at least get an explanation or have the book removed as a valid and complete source, which it no longer is.