Payroll Accounting by Bernard Bieg and Judith Toland

Bernard Bieg and Judith Toland, Payroll Accounting (Cengage Learning; Independence, KY; 2014) 496 pages.

This is a college textbook for students of payroll accounting. It covers all of the topics related to the subject of payroll accounting, as it applies in the United States. The topics covered include:

• Social Security taxes
• Medicare taxes
• Federal and State unemployment taxes, and
• Federal individual income tax withholding.

Also included with this book is a CD-ROM with payroll templates, and the relevant templates students can use to complete a payroll project. Some editions of this book come with an electronic key for on-line assignments and graded quizzes. Be careful if you buy this book to ensure that the electron key is included, and if your particular course requires it. In short, this is a good example of a comprehensive textbook on United States payroll accounting..

A virtue of this book is that all chapters are of a similar length with each devoted to a specific topic. All topics are covered in sufficient detail for a college level payroll accounting class. He explanations of concepts are clear. Each chapter has a useful review section. The on-line grading and assessment consisted of weekly quizzes, plus med-term and end of term exams. The quizzes were straight forward application of material covered in the text. Quiz and exam format comprised true/false questions and multiple choice questions. Some of these questions used imprecise language that are likely to confuse students who struggle with English grammar, or have a first language other than English. The exams can be a source of frustration confuse due to their reliance on grammar, double-negatives and deliberately imprecise language.

Overall, this is an adequate entry-level payroll accounting textbook, even if it is somewhat expensive. But what textbook isn't expensive these days?