Managerial-finance

I'm an MBA student and picked up this book to learn more about shared services. Turns out there's a lot to know. But what I came away with was a better appreciation for the varioius business models out there. The book does a good job of comparing and contrasting the various centralized and decentralized ways of conducting business in corporate america, using real-world companies as examples. In short, I was pleasantly surprised. It'll stay on my bookshelf.

I think this is a good beginner-to-intermediate level book about payroll. While I doubt this book can serve as your only source to setting up a payroll system (a claim never made by the author), it can serve as a valuable guide to implementing or reviewing your current payroll internal controls, best practices and payroll policy manual. It may also help you analyze whether you are paying too much money or spending too much time on your job costing system. If you like examples, the author uses many short case studies to clarify his main points.

He keeps the book up-to-date by discussing topics such as payroll information technology, current payment alternatives and Internet references. He discusses other issues in detail, such as fringe benefits, vacation pay, minimum wage laws, payroll calculations, retirement plans, and stock option plans.

Given the popularity of outsourcing the payroll function, I think the book could have went into more detail about how to select the right payroll outsource vendor and how to ensure that the outsource vendor maintains proper internal controls (e.g. obtaining an annual SAS 70 Type II). Also, I felt I could have skipped the payroll tax portion and read IRS publication 15, 15a and 15b and my state's corresponding payroll tax publication. Finally, to help improve the books longevity, the author could have either left out the current year tax rates and limitations altogether or listed Internet references where the current and future rates and limitations could be referenced.

Nevertheless, overall I think this is a good book that I will use from time to time to brush up on my payroll process knowledge. Therefore, I think the book is worth buying, reading and referencing.

I would highly recommend this book for any students (Business or non businss)majors interested in learning more about Marketing. The text starts off with the four essentials functions of marketing which are product,place,price,and promotion. This builds a solid fountain for all higher level business classes! Also this text provides highly organized graphics and examples.