If you find your accounting textbooks difficult to understand, you should buy this one. It explains very clearly how accounting captures information, then it shows you how to prepare financial statements, each of which tells a story about the business, but from different angles; the balance sheet is a photograph; the income statement is a history book, as is the cash flow statement too. It goes on to discuss fixed and variable costs, break-even analysis and ratio analysis.

Understand Accounting is easy to read as it is written as a novel about Andrew who is about to start his own taxi business. This is a relatively simple business but it is rich in concepts and most of us will have used such services from time to time. Joan, Andrew’s wife, has suggested that he should ask his friend, Richard, to help him prepare a business plan. Richard is a financial advisor who helps small and medium sized firms to understand the numbers in their businesses. You will find that Andrew will take nothing for granted, often holding different opinions and asking lots of questions which allows Richard to explain the basic concepts in an informal and conversational way.