Boy howdy, being down voted into oblivion for a pretty un-nuanced comment on my part. Oops. More nuance: I have a MBA, which taught me bookkeeping (cash vs. ac

Boy howdy, being down voted into oblivion for a pretty un-nuanced comment on my part. Oops. More nuance: I have a MBA, which taught me bookkeeping (cash vs. accrual, double-entry, basic financial statements - the CRUD of accounting) and lots of strategic financing. Have bootstrapped/VC-financed a couple of firms - having an understanding of double-entry bookkeeping, and how to construct financial statements is/was not particularly helpful. None of those businesses went away because I did - or didn't - perform basic bookkeeping, or could/couldn't read a income statement. At a very small scale (which is what this article is talking about) almost anyone can read a income statement and balance sheet without a strong bookkeeping fundamentals background. Yes, you can't construct said docs, but you really shouldn't anyway (that's what the bookkeepers ought to do). Strategic finance, however, is much much more valuable, which this series doesn't really get into. I'd argue that outsourcing basic bookkeeping then hiring a fractional CFO to help you with strategic financing is far better use of your time than spending 5, 10, or 40 hours internalizing that a new vendor invoice in accounts payable is a credit to a liability account.